Basic Biographical Details Name: | William Nicholas Thomson | Designation: | | Born: | 1857 | Died: | 1951 | Bio Notes: | William Nicholas Thomson was born in 1857, known to his friends as 'Nick Thomson' and educated at George Watson's College. He was articled to Cousin & Ormiston c.1872-3: because of illness and absence abroad his acquaintance with David Cousin may have been brief. There is as yet no record of him having been in any other office and he probably remained with Ormiston as assistant until he set up his own practice as architect and surveyor at 87 Constitution Street, Leith in 1889, his clients being mainly distillers, brewers and publicans. He designed mainly in a partly neo-Jacobean freestyle in which slim pilastered angles and scalloped parapets were featured.
In 1893 Thomson was is one of the jurors in the trial at the High Court of A J Monson. The case was the Ardlamont case (Argyll), Monson being charged with the attempted murder, and murder of Dudley Hambrough, at Ardlamont in August 1893. The jury found the case not proven. Monson had insured Hambrough's life in early August, attempted to drown him and then arranged it to look as if Hambrough had accidentally shot himself.
In 1915 James Dorward, who had joined the practice as assistant in 1903, was taken into partnership, the practice name becoming W N Thomson & Co, and in 1935 Samuel Edwin Duncan was also taken into partnership, the practice moving to Hope Chambers, 52 Leith Walk in Leith. In 1938 Thomson retired at the age of seventy, his interest in the practice passing to his son William Innes Thomson, both 1910. When his father was fifty-three, the younger Thomson had studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and Heriot-Watt College under F C Mears, subsequently obtaining post-graduate qualifications in town planning. In the mid-1930s he worked as an assistant with W Scott Morton & Co probably for practical experience in bar fitting which was the staple business of the Thomson practice. The younger Thomson's return appears to have unsettled Duncan who withdrew from the partnership in the following year.
James Dorward retired c.1944 and in 1950 William Innes Thomson, then sole partner, moved the practice to Cambridge House, 13 Castle Terrace where he was joined in 1961 by his son Nicholas Innes Thomson who became a partner in 1968.
William Nicholas Thomson died in 1951; William Innes Thomson on 20 September 1990. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 91, Albany Street, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | c. 1889 | c. 1899 | | | 85, Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | c. 1899 | c. 1911 | | | 74, Inverleith Place, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | c. 1903 | c. 1909 | | | 60, Castle Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | c. 1911 | c. 1913 | | | 87, Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | c. 1912 | c. 1934 | | | Sunnycroft, Cramond Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | c. 1926 | | | | 52, Leith Walk, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1935 | c. 1940 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployersThe following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | Cousin & Ormiston | After 1878 | 1889 | Assistant | | | W N Thomson & Co | 1915 | 1938 | Partner | |
Employees or Pupils
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Bailey, Rebecca M | 1996 | Scottish architects' papers: a source book | | Edinburgh: The Rutland Press | | | More, John W (ed.) | 1908 | Trial of A J Monson, Glasgow | | William Hodge & Co. | p27 | | Post Office Directories | | | | | |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | W N Thomson & Co | William N Thomson practice archive | | |
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