James Gillespie Graham

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For other people named James Graham, see James Graham (disambiguation) .

Graham's Blythswood House , Glasgow. Home of the Lords Blythswood ; it was demolished in 1935.
James Gillespie Graham's Edinburgh townhouse, at 34 Albany Street

James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 ? 21 March 1855) was a Scottish architect , prominent in the early 19th century.

Life [ edit ]

Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as James Gillespie. [1]

In 1810, under the name James Gillespie, he was living in a flat at 10 Union Street at the head of Leith Walk in Edinburgh. By 1820 he had moved to a far more luxurious house at 34 Albany Street, not far from his earlier flat. [2]

He is most notable for his work in the Scottish baronial style, as at Ayton Castle , and he also worked in the Gothic Revival style, in which he was heavily influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin . However, he also worked successfully in the neoclassical style as exemplified in his design of Blythswood House at Renfrew seven miles down the River Clyde from Glasgow .

Graham designed principally country houses and churches . He is also well known for his interior design , his most noted work in this respect being that at Taymouth Castle and Hopetoun House .

Some of his principal churches include St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow, and St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Highland Tolbooth Church (now The Hub ) in Edinburgh. His houses include Cambusnethan House in Lanarkshire.

He was responsible for laying out the Moray Estate of Edinburgh's New Town , and for the design of Hamilton Square and adjoining streets in the New Town of Birkenhead , England, for William Laird, brother-in-law of William Harley , major developer of the New Town upon Blythswood Hill in Glasgow. According to the writer Frank Arneil Walker he may have been responsible for the remodelling of Johnstone Castle , Renfrewshire. [3]

He designed and built a house at 34 Albany Street in Edinburgh's New Town for himself and his wife and lived there from 1817 to 1833. [4]

He died in Edinburgh on 21 March 1855 after a four-year illness.

He is buried in the sealed south-west section of Greyfriars Kirkyard generally called the Covenanter's Prison together with his wife and other family members.

Family [ edit ]

In 1815 he married Margaret Ann Graham, daughter of a wealthy landowner, William Graham of Orchill (d.1825) in Perthshire . [1] Together they had two daughters. In 1825, on the death of his wife's father, the couple inherited his large country estate, and James thereafter became known as James Gillespie Graham. [1]

His wife died in 1826, and he married again, to Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Major John Campbell of the 76th Regiment of Foot.

Principal works [ edit ]

see [1]

Tolbooth Kirk Edinburgh
The west front of Crawford Priory as it is today
Torrisdale Castle
Cambusnethan Priory
Duns Castle
19?34 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead
Ayton Castle
High Kirk , Dunoon

See also [ edit ]

Media related to James Gillespie Graham at Wikimedia Commons

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ a b c d Goold, David. "James Gillespie Graham" . www.scottisharchitects.org.uk . Retrieved 19 January 2018 .
  2. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1810/1820
  3. ^ Walker, Frank Arneil (1986) The South Clyde Estuary , RIAS
  4. ^ "Number 34 - Information on residents" . Albany Street Edinburgh in the 19th century . Retrieved 5 September 2018 .
  5. ^ Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Graphic and Accurate Description of Every Place in Scotland , Francis Hindes Groome (1901)

External sources [ edit ]

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