Basic Biographical Details Name: | George Beattie & Son | Designation: | | Born: | c. 1860 | Died: | 1926 | Bio Notes: | George Beattie was born in 1810, the son of William Beattie, Senior, wood merchant, sawmiller, and building contractor and his wife Helen Hamilton. Together with his brothers William and Adam, he was taken into partnership in the 1830s under the title of William Beattie & Sons, their yard and houses being on Bread Street, Edinburgh. Of the three brothers William was the timber merchant and sawmiller, Adam the builder, and George the architect.
On 11 August 1837 William Beattie Senior died aged fifty-four, William Junior then becoming senior partner. In 1843 a further house was acquired at 5 Lothian Road which became George's home and office from 1844. He was presumably in charge of the drawing office from that time although his first recorded works as an architect were workmen's houses in Leith walk and Pleasance in 1851. By the mid-1850s, the Beattie's were collaborating with the Peddie family in opening up Chalmers Street followed by the development of Lauriston Park and Glen street on their own account, William Beattie having moved to Lauriston Place by about 1850.
By 1862 there was a schism in the partnership which was probably related to the return of George's son, William Hamilton Beattie, on the completion of his articles with David Bryce. George Beattie then formed the separate partnership of George Beattie & Son, initially trading only as builders, with a house at 13 Grove Street and an office at number 17. In 1875 the partnership became architects and builders and in 1867 architect, ordained surveyors and valuators, George having obtained appointment as valuator to the City Improvement Trust. The building side of the partnership was then given up with probably healed any breach there may have been with his brothers.
With William's arrival the architecture became more up-market with the Greek revival 16 Princes Street (1864) and a Venetian Gothic warehouse in West Register Street, both for Cowans, the papermakers. The practice achieved national prominence by winning the competition for the huge City Parish poorhouse in 1867, their scheme being submitted under the pseudonym 'Comfort for the Poor and Care for the Ratepayer'. The assessor was David Bryce, which may have helped them win, but their five pavilion scheme with linking corridors was very up-to-date in terms of segregation and probably had strong appeal for the City's Medical Officer, Sir Henry Littlejohn. Within a few years the architectural practice had moved to the more up-market address of 10 George Street with a branch office at 94 Constitution Street in Leith.
In 1870 Beattie began his career as a hotel architect with the reconstruction of the Royal Hotel on Princes Street where he superseded David MacGibbon. Work went on until 1875: it ended in a lawsuit with the client Don R MacGregor but it made his name and resulted in the commission for the original Central Hotel (1873), the Clarendon (1875) and the giant Morningside Hydropathic (1879).
George Beattie died on 11 June 1872 and was buried in St Cuthbert's churchyard. He was survived by his wife Anne Leitch who lived until 10 February 1898. George's role as a valuator to the City Improvement Trust was taken on by his son William. In 1878 his much younger son George Lennox Beattie (born 1862) joined the firm as an apprentice and took classes at the University. Educated at the Edinburgh Collegiate School and the Government School of Design, he was an ordained surveyor and civil engineer as well as an architect. He became a partner in the family firm in 1890. His interests seem to have been mainly sporting in the earlier part of his career: he 'played football and was engaged in foot racing … was for ten years a rugby football referee and for some years a member of the executive committee of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association.'
Engineering was in fact an important element in the practice's business. In 1883 William Hamilton Beattie and ____ Mann SSC, with John Waddell as chairman and Beattie as engineer promoted a bill for a cable tramway from Hanover Street to Leith via Canonmills, Inverleith Row, Goldenacre, Trinity and Newhaven. The system had been developed by a Scot in San Francisco Andrew Smith Halidie (born Andrew Smith) and introduced to London by E S Eppelsheimer at the Highgate Hill line in London in May 1884. The firm behind the scheme was Dick Kerr who built colliery winding engines and was to provide the equipment. The bill failed but an amended bill with Trinity as its terminus and a separate route from Frederick Street to Comely Bank was duly passed on 7 August 1884. The Beatties supervised the laying of the track and designed the engine house and car shed at Henderson Row, the line eventually being opened for traffic on 28 January 1888.
Valuation and arbitration were also important elements of the Beattie practice. He was chief advisor to the North British Railway on valuations and his evidence at the parliamentary hearing into the Caledonian Underground Railway in Glasgow is said to have defeated the original proposals. He also figured importantly in the Edinburgh North Bridge arbitration and advised on the sites first proposed for the Usher Hall.
In 1893 Charles Jenner entrusted the Beatties with the rebuilding of the Princes Street department store in a mixed German and Bodleian early Renaissance. Jenner died later that year but it was reputedly through the influence of his partner and successor James Kennedy as a director of the North British Railway that Beattie won the limited competition for the North British Station Hotel in 1895, although Beattie was already well known to the Directors as their valuer; the result brought an angry protest from Rowand Anderson. Following the win Beattie made a study tour with the North British Railway's general manager John Connacher and several of the directors, taking in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Budapest; and engaged Andrew Robb Scott (1849|50-1914) as chief assistant to see the project through to completion.
William Hamilton Beattie died at his home, 13 Douglas Crescent, of a cerebral haemorrhage while the hotel was under construction on the evening of 29 November 1898 following a business trip to North Berwick. He was buried in Dean Cemetery. At that date he was a widower, his wife Iona Mary McCaskie (born 16 August 1847) having predeceased him on 30 December 1889. He was survived by an only son at Rugby. His estate was the largest of any Scottish architect at that date at £42,176 17s 3d, with an eke of £1,236 4s 7d in 1910. The completion of the North British and Carlton hotels fell to Scott who then went into partnership with George Lennox Beattie. Scott was Edinburgh-born, educated at the Royal High School and had been articled to David Bryce. In 1874 John Albert Rennison of Paisley took him into partnership. In the following year they won the competition for the George A Clark Town Hall in Paisley but the Clarks increased the budget and appointed William Henry Lyon of Belfast. Although this practice had some success in the later 1870s by 1884 it had run out of work and the partnership was dissolved, Scott becoming a leading draughtsman with Burnet Son and Campbell where he is said to have had a hand in Barony and Shawlands churches. Around 1890 he was based in Westminster. He was premiated in the Victoria (British Columbia) Cathedral Competition of 1892 but did not receive the commission and it was probably lack of business in London which induced him to join Beattie. With William and George, Scott designed most of the east side of North Bridge in a style markedly influenced by Burnet's competition design for the North British, the plans being approved just before William's death. By 1904 Scott's partnership with George had been broken. The Beattie practice does not seem to have undertaken any significant work thereafter, although George Lennox Beattie was elected FRIBA on 3 December 1906, his proposers including Hippolyte Jean Blanc and Alexander Hunter Crawford. By 1916 he withdrew from the practiceto his house at Lauriston. By 1923 he had closed the Edinburgh practice, latterly at 105 Hanover Street, and settled at 7 Edith Grove, Chelsea. Andrew Robb Scott died at Rothesay on 3 May 1914: John Robb Scott, the Southern Railway's in-house architect, was his son. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 13, Grove Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1862 | c. 1865 | | | 17, Grove Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1862 | 1872 | | | 94, Constitution Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1872 | 1875 | | | 10, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1873 | 1876 | | | 68, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1877 | 1894 | | | 136, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1895 | 1912 | | | 105, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1913 * | 1915 | | | Lauriston House/5A, Lauriston Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1916 | 1923 | Last entry |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils
Buildings and DesignsThis was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details): | | Date started | Building name | Town, district or village | Island | City or county | Country | Notes | | 1862 | Springwood House and lodge | Peebles | | Peeblesshire | Scotland | Attribution by HS/Neil Brown | | 1864 | 16 Princes Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | (Buildings of Scotland says this is by W Hamilton Beattie) | | 1864 | Warehouse for Cowan & Co, West Register Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Original building | | 1865 | City Poorhouse | Craiglockhart | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Won competition to secure job (£150 premium) - William Hamilton Beattie responsible | | 1867 | Houses, Greenbank Drive, The Steils and Mid Steils | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1868 | Villa at Dean | Dean | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1869 | Melrose District Asylum | Melrose | | Roxburghshire | Scotland | Competition designs | | 1870 | Buildings (new) for Kennington & Jenner | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1872 | Edinburgh City Club | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Reconstruction | | 1872 | Grove Street Mission Church | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1872 | Grove Street Mission Church, West Fountainbridge Hall | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1873 | 38-50 Shandwick Place | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1873 | Lanark Lodge | Duns | | Berwickshire | Scotland | | | 1873 | Tenement block with shops at ground floor | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1873 | Tenement block, Canongate, Jeffrey Street and Cranston Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1873 | Tenements and shops, 7, 9, 11 High Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | c. 1873 | Central Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1874 | Tenement, Grassmarket | Old Town | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | c. 1874 | Tenements, 1-5 Argyle Park Terrace | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1875 | Castle Brewery | Old Town | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1875 | Clarendon Hotel and Shopping Arcade | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1875 | Easter Duddingston House | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | March 1875 | Hydropathic Institution | North Berwick | | East Lothian | Scotland | Original building | | 1876 | Albert Buildings | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1876 | Royal Hotel and cinema | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Reconstruction | | 1876 | Young Men's Christian Association | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1877 | 51 George Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | New ground floor | | 1877 | Dalry Road School | Dalry | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1877 | Houses, West Mayfield Development | West Mayfield | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1877 | Warehouse for Cowan & Co, West Register Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Alterations | | 1878 | Canongate School | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1879 | Dowell's Rooms | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1879 | Goldenacre tenements | Goldenacre | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1879 | Morningside Hydropathic Hotel | Morningside | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1879 | Plewlands Feuing | Morningside | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1880s | Block of tenements, Chamberlain Road to Forbes Road | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1880 | 8-11 Hillside Crescent | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1882 | 40-44 Elm Row | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1885 | Edinburgh International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art, 1886 | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Competition design - premiated but did not win | | 1885 | Paton's Art Galleries and Central Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1885 | Tenement, Elm Row and Montgomery Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1885 | Turkish Baths | Leith | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1885 | Villa, 63 and 63A Colinton Road | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Doubled the villa in size | | 1886 | Braid Hills Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1886 | Northern Cable Tramway Engine House and Sheds | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | c. 1886 | Hydropathic Institution | North Berwick | | East Lothian | Scotland | Additions | | 1887 | 2-10 Braid Crescent | Greenbank | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1887 | Grand Hotel | Lerwick | Mainland | Shetland | Scotland | | | 1888 | Hall and Shops, Morningside Drive | Morningside | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1889 | Block of tenements, 176-196 Bruntsfield Place | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1889 | Houses on south side of Braid Crescent (numbers 36-40) | Greenbank | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Unexecuted proposals | | 1889 | J G Stewart House, Broomieknowe | Lasswade | | Midlothian | Scotland | | | c. 1890 | Milton Road East Lodge, gates and scaliger railing | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Probably - HS | | 1891 | Houses on south side of Braid Crescent (numbers 36-40) | Greenbank | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Second set of proposals - only numbers 36-40 executed | | 1892 | Tenement, Dalry Road | Dalry | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1893 | Jenners Buildings | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1894 | Nenthorn House | Kelso | | Berwickshire | Scotland | 'Buildings of Scotland' say Beatties responsible | | 1895 | North British Railway Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Won competition to secure job | | 1895 | Tenement, Howard Street | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1898 | 1-5 Glenisla Gardens | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1898 | Carlton Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1898 | Commercial Bank of Scotland, North Bridge Branch | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Northernmost section - see notes | | 1898 | New North Bridge Buildings | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Begun by W H Beattie and Scott, completed by G L Beattie and Scott | | 1898 | Royal Insurance Offices | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | After 1898 | Hotel | Gullane | | East Lothian | Scotland | | | Before 1898 | Bonded stores, Bonnington | Leith | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | Before 1898 | Waterloo Hotel | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Reconstruction as offices of railway company | | 1900 | J & G Cox's Glue Works | Gorgie | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1902 | Jenners Buildings | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Further work, northern section of St David Street frontage and corner with Rose Street | | 1903 | Messrs Widnell & Stewart offices and works | Bonnyrigg | | Midlothian | Scotland | | | 1904 | Garden Colony for the North British Railway | Bainsford, Falkirk | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1904 | House for Dr Jerdan | Colinton | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1905 | Block of shops and offices for John W Blackadder, Solicitor | Grahamston Station, Falkirk | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1905 | John Wight & Co premises | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1905 | Villa for Dr Jerdan | Colinton | | Edinburgh | Scotland | |
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Eddington, A | 1904 | Contemporary Biographies | Edinburgh and the Lothians | WT Pike and Co., Pike's New Century Series, no. 12 | p269 (George Lennox Beattie) and p284 (George James Beattie of William Beattie and Sons) | | Hunter, D L G | 1992 | Edinburgh's Transport: The Early Years | | | |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Scotsman | 1 December 1898 | | | |
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