Thomas Gildard (nicknamed Gildey, d. 5 December, 1895.) was a 19th-century Scottish architect and author. In a short career as a private architect alongside Robert Macfarlane, before entering public service as deputy to Glasgow`s Master of Works, buildings designed by him and his professional partner are : the Clyde Thread Works, also known as Clyde Thread Mills; Belgrave Terrace on the southside of Great Western Road, Glasgow; Ardenvhor fronting the Gareloch; and in 1857/58 an Italianate warehouse in the Trongate, Glasgow for Archibald Blair, two floors of which opened on 25 December 1859 as the Britannia Music Hall (which continues today).
His family were from Luss near Loch Lomond but he was born in a cottage hospital at Bonhill to the south. His father John Gildard owned a local hotel. [1]
In December 1838 he was apprenticed to David Hamilton in Glasgow to train as an architect. [2]
He entered a partnership Robert Macfarlane, son of cotton merchants, in 1852, who later married his sister Eliza. Sadly both Eliza and Robert died of consumption in 1862. Gildard then went to work with John Carrick, who had recently become Glasgow's Master of Works. [3]
His work began to concentrate on his writings rather than his buildings. He is noted for a strong condemnation of Presbyterian Gothic in his paper "Church Architecture" of June 1856, and for strong condemnation of the National Monument Committee in their treatment of his lifelong friend, John Thomas Rochead, in relation to the committee's failure to pay Rochead for his work on the Wallace Monument. [1]
He was a friend of Alexander "Greek" Thomson and the Mossman family. [4]
He died of bronchitis at home, 133 Berkeley Street, Glasgow, on 5 December 1895.
He is buried in Glasgow Necropolis, his monument being designed by the Mossmans with a low-relief portrait head by William Shirreffs. [5]
Writings by Gildard include: [4]
George Square is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, St Enoch Square, Royal Exchange Square, and Blythswood Square on Blythswood Hill.
Alexander "Greek" Thomson 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.
James Pittendrigh MacGillivray was a Scottish sculptor. He was also a keen artist, musician and poet. He was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the son of a sculptor, and studied under William Brodie and John Mossman. His works include public statues of Robert Burns in Irvine, Lord Byron in Aberdeen, the 3rd Marquess of Bute in Cardiff, John Knox in Edinburgh's St Giles Cathedral, and William Ewart Gladstone in Coates Crescent Gardens, Edinburgh.
David Hamilton was a Scottish architect based in Glasgow. He has been called the "father of the profession" in Glasgow.
James Salmon (1805-1888) was a Scottish architect, active chiefly in Glasgow and the west of Scotland.
John G. Mossman was one of a number of English sculptors who dominated the production and teaching of sculpture in Glasgow for 50 years after his arrival with his father and brothers from his native London in 1828. His father William Mossman (1793–1851) was also a sculptor, and a pupil of Sir Francis Chantrey. He was trained both by his father and under Carlo Marochetti in London.
Cove is a village on the south-west coast of the Rosneath Peninsula, on Loch Long, in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland.
John Thomas Rochead was a Scottish architect. He is most noteworthy on a national scale for having been the designer of the Wallace Monument.
Cathedral Square is a public square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Cathedral Square and precinct is situated adjacent to Glasgow Cathedral on High Street/Castle Street at John Knox Street. Nearby are many famous Glasgow landmarks such as Provand's Lordship, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, the Necropolis, the ceremonial Barony Hall of Strathclyde University, and the Glasgow Evangelical Church at the Square. It is one of six public squares and precincts in the city centre.
James Hoey Craigie TD FRIBA was a Scottish architect. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1894 he won the Alexander Thomson travelling scholarship which he spent in France and Italy. In 1905 he was made a partner in the firm Clarke & Bell, its name changing to Clarke & Bell & J H Craigie.
TheBritannia Music Hall in Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland is one of the oldest remaining music halls in Britain. It is located above an amusement arcade, at 113-117 Trongate.
William Leiper FRIBA RSA (1839–1916) was a Scottish architect known particularly for his domestic architecture in and around the town of Helensburgh. In addition, he produced a small amount of fine ecclesiastical and commercial architecture in Glasgow and the Scottish Lowlands. He was also an accomplished watercolour artist, and from the late 1870s spent much spare time painting in oils and watercolours.
Archibald Campbell Douglas was a Scottish architect based primarily in Glasgow. He designed many churches in Glasgow and Edinburgh, especially those for the Free Church of Scotland.
Alexander Beith McDonald was a Scottish architect, who served as City Engineer and Surveyor in Glasgow Corporation's Office of Public Works between 1890 and 1914.
William Mossman was a Scottish sculptor operational in the early 19th century, and father to three sculptor sons.
Robert Cleghorn MD FRSE FFPSG PRMS was a Scottish physician and pharmacologist.
John Baird (1799–1859) was a Glasgow architect of the 19th century, also called John Baird Primus by Thomas Gildard in order for people to be able distinguish him from a second John Baird (1816-93). He was an influential figure in the development of Glasgow’s late Georgian and early Victorian Architecture. He was responsible for around 40 projects and worked in the "background" compared to other Glasgow architects.
Alexander Hunter Crawford (1865–1945) was a Scottish architect and businessman. Closely associated with his father's firm of Crawford's Biscuits he designed many biscuit factories, and became owner of the company in 1931. Many of his villas are now listed buildings. His masterpiece is probably the huge Masonic Lodge on George Street in Edinburgh.
David Robertson (1795–1854) was a Scottish bookseller, now known for his publication of the early Whistle Binkie anthologies.