View source for Alexander Thomson

{{Short description|Scottish architect}}
{{Other uses|Alexander Thomson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Scottish English|date=May 2013}}
{{Infobox architect
|name                  = Alexander "Greek" Thomson
|image                 = Thomson-med.jpg
|caption               = {{circa}} 1850
|parents               = Elizabeth Cooper<br />John Thomson
|nationality           = Scottish
|citizenship           = [[Scotland|Scottish]]
|birth_date            = {{birth date|df=yes|1817|4|9}}
|birth_place           = [[Balfron]], [[Scotland]]
|death_date            = {{death date and age|df=yes|1875|3|22|1817|4|9}}
|death_place           = [[Glasgow]], [[Scotland]]
|significant_buildings = [[Caledonia Road Church]], Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church, [[St. Vincent Street Church, Glasgow|St. Vincent Street Church]], [[Holmwood House]], Craigrownie Castle & others at [[Cove, Argyll]]
|significant_projects  =
|awards                =
}}
[[File:Grecian Chambers On Sauchiehall Street (34306687993).jpg|thumb|260px|"Greek" Thomson's later work such as the Grecian Chambers on [[Sauchiehall Street]] used [[Greek Revival architecture|Greek]] and [[Ancient Egyptian architecture|Egyptian]] forms.<ref name="Cosgrove Daniels 245, 247">{{cite book | last1=Cosgrove | first1=D. | last2=Daniels | first2=S. | title=The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use of Past Environments | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Camb. Studs.in Historical Geog | year=1988 | isbn=978-0-521-38915-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUKrP2dXqDoC&pg=PA247 | access-date=12 April 2022 | pages=245, 247}}</ref><ref name="Curl Wilson 2015 p. 765">{{cite book | last1=Curl | first1=J.S. | last2=Wilson | first2=S. | title=The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture | publisher=OUP Oxford | series=Oxford Quick Reference | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-19-105385-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-KrCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA765 | access-date=12 April 2022 | page=765}}</ref>]]

'''Alexander "Greek" Thomson''' (9 April 1817 – 22 March 1875) was an eminent Scottish architect and [[architectural theorist]] who was a pioneer in [[sustainable building]]. Although his work was published in the architectural press of his day, it was little appreciated outside [[Glasgow]] during his lifetime. It has only been since the 1950s and 1960s that his critical reputation has revived—not least of all in connection with his probable influence on [[Frank Lloyd Wright]].<ref>Andrew MacMillan in ''"Greek" Thomson'', Stamp et al., p.207</ref>

[[Henry-Russell Hitchcock]] wrote of Thomson in 1966: "Glasgow in the last 150 years has had two of the greatest architects of the Western world. [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh|C. R. Mackintosh]] was not highly productive but his influence in central Europe was comparable to such American architects as [[Louis Sullivan]] and Frank Lloyd Wright. An even greater and happily more productive architect, though one whose influence can only occasionally be traced in America in [[Milwaukee]] and in [[New York City]] and not at all as far as I know in [[Europe]], was Alexander Thomson".<ref>Letter by Hitchcock published in the ''[[Glasgow Herald]]'', 4 March 1966, on the occasion of the proposed demolition by the City council of the Caledonia Road Church</ref>

==Early life==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2024}}
Thomson was born in the village of [[Balfron]] in [[Stirlingshire]].<ref>{{Cite web | title=Alexander 'Greek' Thomson | url=https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/holmwood/alexander-greek-thomson#:~:text=Early%20life,his%20mother%20was%20Elisabeth%20Cooper. | access-date=2025-08-18 | website=National Trust for Scotland}}</ref>{{Better reference needed| reason = Editorial policy not clear, scholarly book would be better.|date=July 2025}} The son of John Thomson, a [[bookkeeper]], and Elizabeth Cooper Thomson, he was the ninth of twelve children. His father, who already had eight grown children from his previous marriage, died when Alexander was seven.

The family consequently moved to the outskirts of Glasgow, but tragedy struck when the eldest daughter, Jane, and three of her brothers died between 1828 and 1830, the year that Alexander's mother died. The remaining children moved with one of the older brothers, William, a teacher, and his wife and child to Hangingshaw, just south of Glasgow.

The Thomson boys all worked from a young age, but the children were also home schooled. Alexander's older brother, Ebenezer, was employed as a bookkeeper in a lawyer's office, possibly Wilson, James, and Kays, and later became a partner in the business.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

==Career==
Alexander Thomson began work in 1834, as a clerk in a lawyers office in Glasgow. One of their clients was an architect, Robert Foote, who was impressed by seeing Thomson's drawings and took him on as an [[Articled clerk|articled apprentice]]. He learnt a great deal from getting access to Foote's extensive library and collection of [[Plaster cast|classical casts]], but in 1836 Foote had to retire due to illness. To complete his articles, Thomson became apprenticed to the architect [[John Baird I (1798-1859)|John Baird]], initially as an assistant, and later became chief [[technical drawing|draughtsman]]. Thomson's younger brother George got apprenticed to Baird in the early 1840s.<ref name="DSA Thomson bio">{{cite web | last=Goold | first=David | title=DSA Architect Biography Report; Alexander Thomson | website=Dictionary of Scottish Architects | year=2016 | url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100095 | access-date=12 April 2022 | archive-date=22 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922023904/http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100095 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100093|website=www.scottisharchitects.org.uk|access-date=9 December 2015|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121060451/http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100093|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In September 1847 Thomson married Jane Nicholson, and on the same day her sister married another architect, John Baird (unrelated to Thomson's employer, and referred to by biographers as John Baird II), who fell out with his previous partner. In 1848 Thomson joined him in a new partnership, the practice of Baird & Thomson.<ref name="DSA Thomson bio" />

In 1857, as "the rising architectural star of Glasgow,"<ref>Stamp, Gavin. "At Once Classic and Picturesque...": Alexander Thomson's Holmwood. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57.1 (1998):46-58.</ref> he entered into practice with his brother [[George Thomson (botanist)|George]] where he was to enjoy the most productive years of his life. He served as president of both the Glasgow Architectural Society and the Glasgow Institute of Architects. Thomson was an elder of the [[United Presbyterian Church of Scotland]], and his deep religious convictions informed his work. There is a strong suggestion that he closely identified [[Solomon's Temple]] with the raised [[basilica]] of the same form of his three major churches.<ref>J. Stevens Curl, "St Vincent Street Church as a mnemonic of the Temple of Solomon", p.6 ff, The Alexander Thomson Society Newsletter, No. 12 January 1995.</ref>
[[File:Caledonia Road Church.jpg|thumb|left|230px|[[Caledonia Road Church]], Glasgow]]
He produced a diverse range of structures including villas, a castle, urbane terraces, commercial warehouses, [[tenements]], and three extraordinary churches. Of these, [[Caledonia Road Church]] (1856–57) is now a ruin,
Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church (1869) was destroyed in WWII, and [[St Vincent Street Church]] (1859) is the only intact survivor. Hitchcock once stated, ''"[Thomson has built] three of the finest Romantic Classical churches in the world''”.<ref>H. R. Hitchcock, ''Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'', 1963, p.63</ref> Thomson developed his own highly idiosyncratic style from [[Greece|Greek]], [[Egypt]]ian and [[Levant]]ine sources and freely adapted them to the needs of the modern city.
[[File:Greek Thomson Egyptian Halls.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Thomson's ''[[Egyptian Halls]]'' on Union Street]]
[[File:StVincentStreetFreeChurch.jpg|thumb|left|300px|St. Vincent Street Free Church]]
At the age of 34, Thomson designed his first and only castle, Craigrownie Castle, which stands at the tip of the Rosneath Peninsula in [[Cove, Dunbartonshire|Cove]], overlooking [[Loch Long]]. The six-storey structure is Scots [[Baronial]] in style, featuring a central tower with [[battlements]], steep [[gable]]s and [[oriel window]]s, in addition to a [[chapel]] and a [[mews]] cottage.

Thomson's villa designs were realized at [[Langside]], [[Pollokshields]], [[Helensburgh]], Cove, the [[River Clyde|Clyde]] Estuary, and on the [[Isle of Bute]]. His "mature villas are Grecian in style while resembling no other [[Greek Revival]] houses,...[and they] are dominated by horizontal lines and rest on a strong podium."<ref name=autogenerated2>Stamp, Gavin. "At Once Classic and Picturesque...": Alexander Thomson's Holmwood. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57.1 (1998): 46.</ref> According to [[Gavin Stamp]], "Thomson carefully designed his villas with symmetries within an overall asymmetry in a personal language in which the horizontal discipline of a continuous governing order—whether expressed or implied—was never abandoned.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> Regarding similarities to Frank Lloyd Wright, Stamp states, "It has often been remarked that there are clear resemblances between the early houses of the [[Prairie School]] and Thomson's horizontally massed design, with its low-pitched gables and spreading eaves -- together with a connecting garden." As [[John Summerson|Sir John Summerson]] noted, "There is something wildly 'American' about Thomson -- a 'New World' attitude. You can see it in the villas...a sort of primitivism, ultra-[[Tuscany|Tuscan]]."<ref name=autogenerated2 />
[[File:CaledoniaRoadChurch.jpg|thumb|left|300px|[[Caledonia Road Church]], Glasgow]]
Later in his career he would abandon his eclecticism and adopt the purely [[Ionic order|Ionic]] Greek style for which he is best known, as such he is perhaps the last in a continuous tradition of British [[Greek Revival]] architects. In attacking the [[Gothic Revival|Gothic]], he "insisted that '[[Stonehenge]] is really more scientifically constructed than [[York Minster]]'...[alluding to] [[Pugin]]'s comment that in their temples 'the Greeks erected their columns like the uprights of Stonehenge'."<ref>Stamp, Gavin. "At Once Classic and Picturesque...": Alexander Thomson's Holmwood. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57.1 (1998): 50.</ref> Other important works still standing include Moray Place, Great Western Terrace, [[Egyptian Halls]] in Union Street, Grosvenor Building, Buck's Head Building in Argyle Street, Grecian Buildings in [[Sauchiehall Street]], [[Walmer Crescent|Walmer]] and [[Millbrae Crescent]]s, and his villa, [[Holmwood House]], at [[Cathcart]]. [[File:MillbraeCrescent.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Terraced houses on [[Millbrae Crescent]] in [[Langside]], c. 1870]]Grave monuments designed by Thomson that are worthy of study include those to the Revd. A.O. Beattie and the Revd. G.M. Middleton, as well as that for John McIntyre in [[Cathcart Cemetery|Cathcart Old Parish Cemetery]].

Thomson was a [[visionary]] who introduced into our vocabulary some of the essential elements of [[sustainable housing]]. This argument hinges on an unrealized design Thomson prepared in 1868 for the Glasgow City Improvement Trust, an agency of the Town Council given the task of redeveloping a large area of slum housing centred on the medieval Old Town. The Trust invited Thomson and five other prominent architects to propose designs for the reconstruction of various parcels of land along the spine of Glasgow's [[High Street (Glasgow)|High Street]]. Thomson suggested that closely spaced parallel tenements be built within the central courtyard, the ends of which will be open to facilitate [[ventilation (architecture)|ventilation]]. He also proposed that alternate streets be glazed for better warmth and safety for the residents. Although Thomson's ideas failed to catch on at the time, new research and [[Computer-aided design|CAD]] techniques have helped show how revolutionary was his proposal for improved workers' housing.

==Writings==
Thomson's published writings include the Haldane lectures on the history of architecture (1874) and the ''Inquiry as to the Appropriateness of the Gothic Style for the Proposed building for the University of Glasgow'' (1866) which attempted to refute [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]] and Pugin’s claims for the superiority of Gothic.

==Family==
On 21 September 1847, Thomson married Jane Nicholson, granddaughter of the architect [[Peter Nicholson (architect)|Peter Nicholson]], in a [[double wedding]] ceremony with her sister, Jessie, who married John Baird II. They had twelve children in total and would later lose five of them in an [[epidemic]].

One brother, [[George Thomson (botanist)|George Thomson]] (1819–1878), became a [[baptist]] [[missionary]] in [[Limbe, Cameroon]] (then known as ''"Victoria"''),<ref name = "Desmond">{{cite book | author= Ray Desmond & Christine Ellwood| title= Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists| publisher=[[CRC Press]] | year=1994|pages=681 | isbn=0-85066-843-3}}</ref> where he combined his religious activities with a passion for [[botany]]. An [[epiphytic]] [[orchid]] of the genus ''[[Pachystoma]]'' was named ''Pachystoma thomsonianum'' in his honour.<ref name = "HV70">{{cite book | author=James Herbert Veitch | author-link=James Herbert Veitch | title=[[Hortus Veitchii]]| publisher=[[Caradoc Doy]] | year=2006|edition=reprint|pages=70| isbn=0-9553515-0-2}}</ref> It is now known as ''[[Ancistrochilus thomsonianus]]''.

His nephew,<ref name = "Desmond"/> Rev. [[William Cooper Thomson]] (1829-1878) was a missionary in [[Nigeria]], after whose first wife the [[bleeding-heart vine]] ''[[Clerodendrum thomsoniae]]'' was named.<ref>Balfour, J.H. Description of a new species of Clerodendron... Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal n.s., 15(2): 233–235, t. 2. 1862.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author= Umberto Quattrocchi| title= CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names| publisher=[[CRC Press]] | year=2000|pages=560 | isbn=0-8493-2675-3}}</ref>

==Death==
Thomson died on 22 March 1875 at his home in Moray Place in [[Strathbungo]], Glasgow, fittingly in one of his own creations. The architect was buried in the lair adjacent to that in which his five deceased children were laid to rest, in [[Gorbals Southern Necropolis]], on 26 March 1875, and he was joined there by his widow, Jane, in 1889.

His [[obituary]] appeared in ''Building News'' on 26 March 1875, written by his friend, [[Thomas Gildard]], who also wrote his [[biography]].<ref>Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Gildard</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Alexander Greek Thomson by John Mossman 1877.jpg|thumb|left|Alexander "Greek" Thomson by [[John Mossman]], 1877]]
The Glasgow Institute of Architects set up The Alexander Thomson Memorial immediately following his death. A marble bust of the architect by [[John Mossman]] was presented to the Corporation Galleries, [[Sauchiehall Street]], and is now displayed in the [[Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum]]. The Alexander Thomson Travelling Studentship, of which the second winner was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was established in his honor, "for the purpose of providing a travelling studentship for the furtherance of the study of ancient classic architecture, with special reference to the principles illustrated in Mr. Thomson’s works".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greekthomson.com/Alexander%20Thomson%20Memorial.htm|title=The Alexander Thomson Memorial|website=www.greekthomson.com|access-date=8 September 2020|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202050319/http://www.greekthomson.com/Alexander%20Thomson%20Memorial.htm|archive-date=2 February 2009}}</ref>

Thomson was the pre-eminent architect of his era in Glasgow, yet until recently, his buildings and his reputation have been largely neglected in the city graced by his works.

[[Holmwood House]] is generally considered to be Thomson's finest and most original residential subject. Under the ownership of the [[National Trust for Scotland]], Holmwood has been restored to its original condition and opened to the general public. During the renovation, nineteen panels of a classical [[frieze]] depicting scenes from Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' were discovered under layers of paint and wallpaper, rendering Thomson's nickname all the more apt.

In 1999, a [[retrospective]] entitled ''Alexander Thomson: The Unknown Genius'' was held at [[The Lighthouse (Glasgow)|The Lighthouse]], reminding Glaswegians of the need to preserve the remaining examples of this unique architect's contribution to their city.

The British emigre architect [[George Ashdown Audsley]] closely followed Thomson's ornamentation for several of his secular buildings. The most notable surviving example is his [[Bowling Green Offices Building|Bowling Green Offices]] (completed 1896) in New York City. The highly carved granite base of this tall office building is in the Thomson manner with brick [[Chicago school (architecture)|Chicago School]] style floors above.

Thomson was featured on the obverse of a 1999 commemorative [[Pound sign|£]]20 bank note from Clydesdale Bank of Scotland dated with his birthday 9 April, marking Glasgow's award that year as UK City of Architecture and Design.  An interior view of the dome of Holmwood House, designed by Thomson, is the main motif on the reverse side.   Five million notes were issued.

==Bibliography==
{{Commonscat|Alexander Thomson}}
*"Alexander Thomson: architectonics and ideals of the classic Glaswegian", John McKean, AA Files (Architectural Association, London), No 9, Summer 1985
*''Dignity and Decadence'', Richard Jenkyns, [[Harvard University Press]], 1991.
*''"Greek" Thomson'', Ed. [[Gavin Stamp]] and Sam McKinstry, Edinburgh UP,1994
*'Thomson's City: 19th Century Glasgow', John McKean, in "Places : A Forum of Environmental Design", University of California (Cambridge Mass), Volume 9, Number 1, Winter 1994, pp.&nbsp;22–33. It is accessible at: {{cite web|url=http://places.designobserver.com/media/pdf/Glasgow,_Scotl_752.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709014750/http://places.designobserver.com/media/pdf/Glasgow,_Scotl_752.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-07-09 |title=? }}
*''Architecture of Glasgow'', Andor Gomme and David Walker, Lund, 1987, 2nd. ed.
*''Early Victorian Architecture in Britain'' Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Yale, 1954
*''The Life and Work of Alexander Thomson'', Ronald MacFadzean, London, 1979
*''Alexander "Greek" Thomson'', [[Gavin Stamp]], 1999
*''The Greek Revival'', J Mourdant Crook, 1972.
*"Glasgow: from 'Universal' to 'Regionalist' City and beyond - from Thomson to Mackintosh", John McKean, in Sources of Regionalism in 19th Century Architecture, Art and Literature, ed. van Santvoort, Verschaffel and De Meyer, Leuven, 2008

==See also==
* [[James Sellars]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Thomson, Alexander (1817-1875)}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090428105820/http://www.greekthomson.org.uk/ The Alexander Thomson Society]}}
*[http://www.gerryblaikie.com/thomson/index.htm Alexander Greek Thomson - Architect]
*[http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/images_Focus_on_Alexander_Greek_Thomson.html Photo Guide to some of Thomson's best known buildings] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130114002737/http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/images_Focus_on_Alexander_Greek_Thomson.html |date=14 January 2013 }}
*[http://www.e-architect.co.uk/architects/greek_thomson.htm List of Thomson's buildings]
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050419165542/http://www.ntseducation.org.uk/students/case-holmwood.html Webpage on Holmwood House]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20180307045646/http://greekthomsonchurch.com/ St Vincent Street Free Church of Scotland, Glasgow]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060502002104/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ken.owen/main.htm Craig Ailey Villa, Cove, Firth of Clyde]}}
*{{Historic Environment Scotland|cat=PLA |num=44352 |num2=NS56SE 86 |desc=Glasgow, 1 Caledonia Road, Caledonia Road United Presbyterian Church}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Alexander}}
[[Category:1817 births]]
[[Category:1875 deaths]]
[[Category:Greek Revival architects]]
[[Category:People from Stirling (council area)]]
[[Category:People associated with Glasgow]]
[[Category:Elders of the Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:Burials at the Southern Necropolis]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish architects]]