Basic Biographical Details Name: | James Salmon (senior) | Designation: | | Born: | 11 October 1805 | Died: | 5 June 1888 | Bio Notes: | James Salmon was born on 11 October 1805 in Glasgow, the son of John Salmon, a weaver and merchant at Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, and his wife Margaret Jackson. Weavers tended to be well-read and politically radical and the Salmons' involvement in liberal politics over three generations probably stemmed from that time. James was the second child of that name, an earlier one born at Christmas 1795 having died. John Salmon died early leaving his son 'only his constitution'. Early in life he moved to Glasgow where he became a pupil in the office of John Brash, and established himself in independent practice c. 1825, reputedly in a Trongate basement. Although no buildings are known from these very early years, by 19 March 1837 he was sufficiently prosperous to marry Helen Russell (1817-81) in Edinburgh. They had five children: Williamina (or Wilhelmina, born c.1841); William Forrest (born 1843); Margaret (born c.1846); James (born 19 June 1853); and Helen (born 1856), who became an artist.
In 1843 he was taken into partnership by Robert Black, architect to the Union Bank, the practice name becoming Black & Salmon. While there is no record of his having travelled, by the middle 1840s Salmon was buying German folios, and first came to real prominence in 1849 with the building of the neo-perpendicular St Matthew's Church in Bath Street and the very sophisticated Renaissance warehouse at 49 Miller Street for the art collector Archibald McLellan.
In c. 1854 the partnership of Black & Salmon was dissolved, Black entering into a brief partnership with the civil engineer Alexander George Thomson. The reasons are not known, but Black had lost the Union Bank connection to William Railton in Kilmarnock and Salmon had been commissioned by the banker and merchant Alexander Dennistoun to design the new east-end suburb of Dennistoun in that year. From that time onwards Salmon began to be prominent in professional, public and Free Church institutions. He was one of the promoters of the Glasgow Architectural Exhibition building in 1853 and was instrumental in founding the Glasgow Architectural Society in 1858 as proposer and first Vice-President. In 1860 he was elected to the 11th Ward of Glasgow Town Council and he served as a representative until 1878, becoming in time a Baillie (1864-72), convener of the Parks and Galleries Committee, and a member of the Prison Board through which he obtained the commission - ostensibly in competition - to reconstruct Duke Street bridewell and build a new governor's house in 1871. This resulted in his au clef appearance as second subject in the Bailie's 'Men-you-know' series in which he was described as 'a moral man, a grave man, a man of noble sentiments and speech … perhaps there never was a more moral man… He was just the person who would have improved the city, and his circumstances, by contriving to enrich it with a suburb and to draw the plans himself in order to prevent important work from falling into improper hands… Aware of the uprightness and integrity of his motives, he would, if he were a commissioner or a member of a prison board, employ himself as architect without any of the hesitation which less eminently respectable persons might feel out of deference to the proprietors… This is not the character of an ancient Roman, but it is such as we poor moderns are bound to admire.'
Of James Salmon's sons the younger, James, trained as an accountant and settled in Australia in 1882, returning only briefly to visit the family in 1887. The elder, William Forrest Salmon, was sent to the office of James Smith in or about 1857 to train as an architect. There he became acquainted with William Leiper, William Scott Morton and the decorative artist James Moyr Smith, then engaged on the lavish interior work of Overtoun, Dumbarton. On completing his articles Forrest followed Scott Morton to London, securing a place in the office of George Gilbert Scott. From there he was probably responsible for the design of the polychrome Italian Gothic Anderston Established Church in 1864. He returned to Glasgow in or about 1866 and became a partner in the firm in 1867 or 1868 along with James Ritchie who had been a senior assistant in the office since at least 1862, the practice name becoming Salmon Son & Ritchie.
In 1868 James Salmon (Senior) became first President of the newly founded Glasgow Institute of Architects, Alexander Thomson being his Vice-President, and together with his son Forrest was admitted FRIBA on 4 December 1876. They were amongst the first recruits in Charles Barry Junior and John Honeyman's campaign to extend the Scottish membership, their third proposer being Thomas Leverton Donaldson who had Ayrshire connections. In the meantime the partnership with Ritchie had been dissolved in 1872, the practice name now becoming James Salmon & Son.
In his youth Forrest Salmon appears to have had promise as a Gothic designer, notably at Gallowhill House, Paisley (1867), but it was not sustained. Nevertheless the Salmons did succeed in attracting notable pupils in James Marjoribanks MacLaren and George Washington Browne. Like Leiper, Forrest retained his links with London which were greatly strengthened by the Scott Mortons who expanded their business first to the capital and then in 1889 to New York. These links brought the Salmons into an even wider artistic circle, Forrest's sister Helen Russell Salmon marrying the Yorkshire-born animal painter Tom Hunt, and among their many friends was the London Swedish architectural draughtsman Axel Haig who had accompanied Forrest on his first visit to Italy.
James Salmon (Senior) died on 5 June 1888 when walking home after giving one of his celebrated after-dinner speeches: he also had some reputation as a poet, having written a long pastoral comedy, 'Gowandean' (or 'Gowodean'), which was illustrated by his friend Sir Daniel Macnee. He left moveable estate of £2,559 19s 11d. In his will he is described as'architect, estate agent and valuator'. The firm was continued under the same name by William Forrest Salmon (see separate entries). | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland(?) | Business | c. 1825 | | | | 15, Grafton Square, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | 1851 | | | | 145, Hope Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1854 | 1856 | | | 141, West George Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1860 | 1872 | | | 97, Hill Street, Garnethill, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | 1861 | | | | Broomknowe, Broompark Circus, Dennistoun, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | Before 1871 | 1888 | | | 197, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1875 | 1880(?) | James Salmon & Son continued from this address after 1888 |
Employment and TrainingEmployersEmployees or Pupils
RIBARIBA ProposersRIBA Proposals
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | O'Donnell, Raymond | 2003 | The life and work of James Salmon architect, 1873-1924 | | Edinburgh: The Rutland Press | | | Post Office Directories | | | | | | | Scotland Census 1851 | 1851 | | | | | | Scotland Census 1861 | 1861 | | | | | | Scotlands People Website | | Wills & Testaments | | | Glasgow Sheriff Court Inventories SC70/48/123 | | Walker, David M | 1966 | Salmon, Son, Grandson and Gillespie | | Scottish Art Review, vol. X, no. 3, pp. 17-29 | | | Walker, David W | 1995 | The Salmon Collection | | Unpublished: copy in NMRS | DSA text is adapted from this source | | Walker, Frank Arneil | 1986 | South Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide to Inverclyde and Renfrew | | | p7, p13, p127 |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | British Architect | 15 June 1888 | | | Obituary | | Builder | 24 November 1888 | | | Obituary | | Glasgow Herald | 6 June 1888 | | | Obituary | | The Bailie | 30 October 1872 | | | |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | Professor David M Walker personal archive | Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material | | Research on family history and addresses by Iain Paterson | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | F v5 p54, microfiche 88/G5 |
|