Basic Biographical Details Name: | H & D Barclay | Designation: | | Born: | 1871 | Died: | After 1932 | Bio Notes: | Hugh Barclay was born in 1828, the son of David Barclay, sculptor and was articled to William Spence. Around 1854 he and another apprentice at Spence's, Alexander Watt, formed the partnership of Barclay & Watt. They established a reputation very early, first with the remarkable triple-arched cast-iron façade at 60-66 Jamaica Street in 1856-57 which took Baird and Spence's early experiments with cast-iron facades into a more three-dimensional form, and then with the refined and original classicism of the Ewing Place Church in Waterloo Street and the Corinthian Corn Exchange reconstruction on Hope Street, both in 1858. In or about 1857 James Sellars joined the practice as an apprentice, followed on 1 January 1861 by Hugh's much younger brother David, born 1846; all three became members of Alexander Thomson's circle, David Barclay writing a memoir of him in 1904. The connection with Thomson was clearly a close one: David Barclay was married to Jane Ewing Walker, daughter of John E Walker, stabler and cab-hirer and Alexander Thomson's most important client. During his apprenticeship David started drawing under the painter A D Robertson and at the end of it undertook the continental study tour which was the foundation of his French and German influenced neo classicism.
The early success of the Barclay & Watt practice was not sustained. In the mid-1860s it appears to have been seriously short of commissions. James Sellars left for James Hamilton's, although at least for a time some sort of working relationship remained, Dr Colin Sinclair (who joined the firm some years after Sellars's death) being uncertain as to its extent; and at or about the same date Alexander Watt left to commence practice independently from 67 Renfield Street. But by January 1871 Hugh's business had picked up sufficiently for David to become a partner, their first joint work being the very sophisticated Italian Romanesque Duke Street United Presbyterian Church. The Convalescent Home at Kilmun followed in 1873 and in 1875 the firm made its name for a second time with the Albany Academy in Ashley Street which established their reputation for educational buildings. It set a pattern for a long series of rather Germanic Italianate-profiled board schools in which sophisticated neo-Schinkelesque banded rustication, pilastrades, architrave frames spanning several bays, unfluted Ionic columns and herms were their favourite motifs. Considerable numbers of their schools were built for the Glasgow area school boards throughout the later 1870s and earlier 1880s: Melville Street (1878), Pollokshields (two blocks, 1879 and 1882), Abbotsford Place, (two blocks again, 1879 and 1893), Springfield (1881), Harmony Row and Rutland Crecent (1883) and Hillhead High (1884), all in Glasgow, and Jean Street (1883) and Clune Park (1886) in Port Glasgow, the grandest of them being the privately funded new building for Glasgow Academy at Kelvinbridge (1878). Of these Rutland Crescent was virtually indistinguishable from the work of James Sellars.
In 1879 Charles Barry, Junior, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, awarded the Barclays the commission for the new Municipal Buildings at Greenock. It was then by far the most ambitious project of the kind undertaken in Scotland, with a central public hall and an internal carriage drive closely modelled on English precedents, and one which escalated during construction when the Municipal Buildings in Glasgow threatened to put it in the shade. In deference perhaps to the assessor's known preferences, its facades were more Renaissance than Greek with domed corner towers, pedimented attic pavilions, and a 250-foot tower crowned by a Corinthian peristyle, all liberally enriched with granite-shafted columns and caryatid figures. It took the firm into the premier league and enabled it to ride out not only the severe recession of the 1880s but the professional disaster of David's arrest on a charge of culpable homicide (of which he was acquitted) following the collapse of a playshed at Pollokshields in 1882. The brothers won the competition for the unbuilt municipal buildings opposite the Clark Town Hall in Paisley in 1883 and secured the commission for the giant Sellarsesque Greek Ionic temple of St George-in-the -Fields in 1885, clearly designed as a challenge to Thomas Lennox Watson's Roman Corinthian Wellington UP Church of 1882.
In the later 1880s the Barclays abandoned pure neo-Greek detail in favour of straightforward Italian palazzo treatments first seen at Annette Street School in Govanhill in 1886, but best exemplified at Lorne Street, Govan (1892) which has Ionic aedicules, fluted dwarf attic pilasters and diamond panels. These buildings were still very chaste in design but after Hugh's death in November 1892, uninhibited competition with the Northern European early Renaissance forms of architects such as James Thomson and his sons became the norm: indeed David set the pace for it in his competition win for J & P Coats Central Thread Agency Buildings on Bothwell Street in 1891, a long façade of thickly crowded aedicules, gables, turrets and chimneys which completely outdid the pioneer Glasgow examples of the genre, Thomas Lennox Watson's Citizen Building of 1889 on St Vincent Street Place and Alfred Waterhouse's Prudential Building on West Regent Street of 1890. Much more impressive as architecture than the Central Thread Agency was the giant Cumming and Smith warehouse of 1892 on Sauchiehall Street with its towering façade of deep giant arched recesses, extruded bay windows and dwarf-colonnaded eaves gallery, the arched recesses being enlarged and enriched red sandstone variants of those of his brother's cast-iron façade in Jamaica Street of thirty-five years earlier.
Hugh Barclay died on 25 November 1892. Like his contemporary Campbell Douglas, he was a man of impressive appearance with a full beard. He never sought election to the RIBA, but David was nominated as part of Charles Barry junior and John Honeyman's recruiting campaign, his proposers being Honeyman, John Baird, and George Bell, and was admitted FRIBA on 3 January 1881. Like Rowand Anderson he subsequently allowed his fellowship to lapse, probably as a result of the disagreements within the Institute on registration, but in 1899 he was re-nominated as President of an Allied Society, the Glasgow Institute of Architects.
In deference to his brother's memory, David retained the practice title of H & D Barclay but throughout the 1890s his architecture became bigger-scaled, a trend first seen at Cumming and Smith's warehouse on Sauchiehall Street in 1891 which reached gargantuan proportions in the reticulated façade of Hunter Blair's warehouse on Queen Street in 1899. In 1901 he won the limited competition for the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Science and Technology, then the largest single educational building constructed in the UK. The final design has details in common with his building of the 1890s but the inspiration for its giant buttressed facades came from Julien Guadet's Hotel des Postes in Paris.
By 1909 David Barclay was reported as having designed no fewer than 40 schools but his late work is variable in quality. His last work, the twin-spired Jordanhill Training College (1913-1915), was again won in competition, but was curiously idiosyncratic in design.
David Barclay was smaller in stature than his brother with a big moustache, approachable but 'very downright and decided', qualities still evident in his correspondence on the building of the Royal College at the University of Strathclyde. In later years at least he was the driving force behind the practice. He was also more active in public life, serving on the RIBA Council and becoming Deacon of the Mason Incorporation, Master of the Lodge of Glasgow St John no 3, and Provincial Grand Architect of the Province of Glasgow. He died on 13 July 1917, leaving moveable estate of £3,480 13s 10d. He was survived by a son, also an architect, who emigrated to Canada, and three daughters.
The practice was continued under the same name until 1942 by Dr Colin Sinclair (1879-1957) who had joined the firm as an apprentice shortly before Hugh Barclay's death. He remained as assistant until 1907 when he joined Professor Gourlay's staff at the Royal College, returning to take over the practice in the year of Barclay's death. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 112, West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1876 * | | | | 136, Wellington Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1881 * | 1890(?) | | | 245, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1892 | 1917 | | | 121, West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | Before 1929 | After 1932 | |
* 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 | | | Academy building | Greenock | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | Additions - date unknown | | | Dunvegan Castle | Dunvegan | Skye | Inverness-shire | Scotland | Restoration and additions | | 1872 | City of Glasgow Bank | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Refronting | | 1872 | Convalescent Home | Kilmun | | Argyll | Scotland | | | 1872 | Duke Street UP Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1872 | Houses for North British Railway Company | Cowlairs | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1873 | Mission Sanatorium | Saltcoats | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1874 | 13, 15 Turnberry Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1874 | 5-11 Turnberry Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1874 | Corner tenement, Turnberry Road and Hyndland Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Joint architect with H & D Barclay, but not in partnership | | 1874 | Mansion House for Charles Connell | Whiteinch | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1874 | Village of Dwellings for Steel Company of Scotland, Hillside | Cambuslang | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | | | 1875 | Albany Academy | | | Glasgow | Scotland | David Barclay mainly responsible | | 1875 | Bank at East Kilbride | East Kilbride | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | | | 1875 | Church at Ballantrae | Ballantrae | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1875 | Tenement of mansion flats, Hamilton Crescent | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1876 | Bank at Kilsyth | Kilsyth | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1876 | Wellington Place Baptist Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Competition design | | 1877 | City of Glasgow Bank, New Street | Dalry | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1877 | Established Church | Cleland | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | | | 1877 | Glasgow Academy | Kelvin Bridge | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1877 | Partick Academy | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | David Barclay mainly responsible | | 1877 | Regent Place UP Church | Dennistoun | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1878 | Abbotsford School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | David Barclay mainly responsible | | 1878 | Pollokshields School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Albert Drive building - David Barclay responsible | | 1879 | Greenock Municipal Buildings | Greenock | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | Won competition and secured job | | 1879 | St Andrew's Free Church | Greenock | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1880 | Polmadie Public School | Polmadie | | Glasgow | Scotland | David Barclay mainly responsible | | c. 1880 | Grove Street School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1881 | 1-7 Hughenden Terrace, Hughenden Road and 6 Montague Lane | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1882 | Albert Road Academy | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1882 | Pollokshields School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Melville Street building | | 1882 | Springfield School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1883 | 10-20 Hyndland Road and 1 Montague Lane | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1883 | 17-45 Cleveden Road and 1-98 Beaconsfield Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1883 | Govan High School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1883 | Harmony Row School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1883 | Paisley Municipal Buildings | Paisley | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | Scheme only | | 1883 | Rutland Crescent School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1884 | Hillhead High School | Hillhead | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1884 | Jean Street School | Port Glasgow | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1885 | Hartwood Asylum | Shotts | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | Competition design, selected but not successful | | 1886 | Clune Park School | Port Glasgow | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1886 | Govanhill School Annette Street | Govanhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1886 | Lamlash and Kilbride Parish Church | Lamlash | Arran | Bute | Scotland | | | 1886 | St Georges in the Fields Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1888 | Clydesdale Paint, Colour and Oil Works | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1889 | Bryden Memorial Mission Hall and Home | Saltcoats | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1889 | City of Glasgow District Asylum for Pauper Lunatics | Gartcosh | | Glasgow | Scotland | Second premiated competition design (£100 premium) | | 1889 | Hillhead Congregational Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1890 | Queen Anne Board School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | | | 1890 | Stewartville School | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1891 | Cumming & Smith's warehouse | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1891 | Fairfield Public School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1891 | Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum | Kelvingrove | | Glasgow | Scotland | Competition entry - unplaced | | 1891 | J & P Coats Offices | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Won competition and secured job; built in three phases - 1891, 1898 and 1901 | | 1891 | Renton Parish Church | Renton | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | | | 1892 | Commercial School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | Reconstruction after fire | | 1892 | Lorne Street School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1893 | Abbotsford School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions | | 1893 | Balinakill House | Clachan, North Kintyre | | Argyll | Scotland | Addition | | 1894 | Broomloan Road Public School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Second red sandstone building - separate from the Watt building | | 1894 | Lennoxtown School | Lennoxtown | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1895 | Burgh Chambers | Millport | Great Cumbrae | Bute | Scotland | | | 1895 | Design for a building (probably St Vincent Street or West George Street) | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1895 | Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, Buchanan Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Design only - Browne secured commission | | 1895 | Mount Florida School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1895 | Proposed building in Buchanan Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1896 | Glasgow School of Art | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Unsuccessful competition design | | 1896 | Halifax Public Hall | Halifax | | Yorkshire | England | Competition design - placed second | | 1896 | Stanley Printing Works | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | After 1896 | Police Station for the Burgh of Partick | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | Before 1896 | Whitehouse | Lamlash | Arran | Bute | Scotland | | | 1897 | Chalmers Free Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1897 | Cunninghame Free Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Won competition and secured job | | 1897 | Finnieston School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1897 | Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, Argyle Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1897 | Warehouse and offices for St George's Co-operative Society Ltd | | | Glasgow? | Scotland | | | 1898 | 91-111, 117-127 and 118-134 Dowanhill Street and 58-60 Dowanside Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1898 | Lyceum Cinema (II) | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1898 | Lyceum Theatre | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1898 | Sailors' Orphan Homes | Kilmacolm/Kilmalcolm | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1898 | The Garrochty | Kingarth | Bute | Bute | Scotland | | | After 1898 | Crieff Public School | Crieff | | Perthshire | Scotland | | | After 1898 | Stafford Library | Stafford | | Staffordshire | England | Plans | | 1899 | 2, 2A and 4 Lorraine Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1899 | Glass works | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1899 | Govan Combination Poorhouse and Asylum | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions - including extension to hospital block of McLachan and Children's Blocks | | 1899 | Technical Higher Grade and Primary School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | | | 1899 | Warehouse of Hunter Barr and Co, Queen Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1900 | 2-8 Kensington Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1900 | Empress Theatre | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1900 | Queen's Park Higher Grade School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1900 | St Leonard's Primary School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | | | 1900 | St Margaret's Works | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | Large additions | | c. 1900 | 3-9 Lorraine Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | c. 1900 | 45-67 Dowanside Road and 106 and 115 Dowanhill Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | Late 1900 or early 1901 | Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Won competition to secure job, after being invited to submit design | | 1901 | 78-104 Dowanhill Street and 38-40 Highburgh Road | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1901 | Albert Road Academy | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions | | 1901 | Gartmore House | | | Perthshire | Scotland | Reconstruction | | 1901 | Govan High School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Extension | | 1901 | Pittencrieff School and schoolmaster's house | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | New building to west | | 1901 | St Columba's Church (Gaelic) | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Unsuccessful competition design | | 1902 | 1-9 Beaumont Gate | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1902 | 11-24 Kensington Gate | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1902 | 14-18 Beaumont Gate | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1902 | 28-30 and 32-34 Highburgh Road and 10 and 13 Beaumont Gate | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1902 | 33 Victoria Crescent Road (Kings Gate) | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1902 | 35-37 Victoria Crescent Road (Kings Gate) | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1902 | 43 Victoria Crescent Road and walls | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1902 | 48 and 48A Dowanside Road (Kings Gate) | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designed in collaboration with George S Kenneth | | 1902 | Albany Academy | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Addition to S | | 1902 | Gartmore House, Gartartan Lodge | | | Perthshire | Scotland | | | 1902 | P & R Fleming's | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1903 | Bellahouston Academy | Bellahouston | | Glasgow | Scotland | Addition of swimming pool and gymnasium block - with Samuel Preston as clerk of works | | 1903 | Govan District Asylum | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions - infirm ward pavilions and homes | | 1903 | Hamilton Municipal Buildings and Public Library | Hamilton | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | Competition design - not successful | | 1903 | Kilbarchan Baptist Church | Kilbarchan | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | After 1903 | Stranraer High School and Academy Buildings | Stranraer | | Wigtownshire | Scotland | | | 1904 | Clairinch | Helensburgh | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | | | 1904 | Gaelic UF Church | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1904 | Gartmore Parish Church | Gartmore | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1904 | Hillhead High School | Hillhead | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions | | 1905 | 1A and 2-18A Westbourne Gardens | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Alterations and billiard room in no 2A | | 1905 | Howie and McGregor's | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1905 | Partick, Hillhead and Maryhill Joint Hospital for Infectious Diseases | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Reception | | 1906 | Grange School | Bo'ness / Borrowstouness | | West Lothian | Scotland | | | 1907 | Govan High School | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Extension | | 1907 | Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1907 | Technical Higher Grade and Primary School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | Extension in New Row | | 1907 | Technical School Primary Department | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | | | 1907 | Wilton Parish Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1907 or 1908 | Carnegie District Library, Baldridgeburn | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | Awarded commission after competition | | 1908 | 5-9 Crown Road South | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1908 | Bridge Street UF Church | Alexandria | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | | | 1908 | Old Monkland School Board Higher Grade School | Coatbridge | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | | | 1908 | Watt Memorial School | Greenock | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1909 | College of Hygiene and Physical Training and school | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | | | 1909 | German Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1909 | High School | Dunfermline | | Fife | Scotland | Primary department added | | 1909 | Highholm School | Port Glasgow | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1909 | Premises | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1909 | Woodlands Methodist Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1911 | Usher Hall | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Competition design - not successful | | 1912 | Garage | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1912 | Gateside Public School | Cambuslang | | Lanarkshire | Scotland | Unsuccessful competition entry but awarded premium (2nd place?) | | 1913 | Jordanhill College, David Stow Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1913 | Jordanhill Teacher Training College | Jordanhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | Barclay won competition to secure job; Sinclair worked with him and completed construction after his death | | 1926 | Govan Combination Poorhouse and Asylum | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | Nurses' home extended, original asylum extended and Female Defectives Home built | | 1932 | Chemical Works | St Rollox | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1934 | Croftpark Public School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1938 | Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions |
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Walker, Frank Arneil | 1986 | South Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide to Inverclyde and Renfrew | | | p88, p108, p112, p117, p118 | | Williamson, Riches, Higgs | 1990 | Glasgow (The Buildings of Scotland) | | | p393 |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Building News | 4 July 1892 | | | pp10, 30 |
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