Basic Biographical Details Name: | John Young & Son | Designation: | | Born: | 1885 | Died: | 1895 | Bio Notes: | John Young was born on 27 March 1826 in Perth, the son of a civil engineer there. He appears to have been a pupil of George Penrose Kennedy as he named his architect son after him. He took over his father's practice and extended it to architecture some time before 1868.
Young married Catherine Mill Meldrum. In or about 1870 he took into partnership his cousin, Andrew Mackie Meldrum, from Dundee: he had probably been a pupil. A Dundee office was opened for Meldrum which was initially reasonably successful but the practice over-reached itself in promoting the Queen's Hotel in Nethergate, Dundee, a speculation based on information from the District Engineer's Office in Perth that the new Caledonian Station would be sited immediately to the south of it. Because of over-commitment on the Glasgow Central Station project and the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank, the Dundee station did not proceed at that time while the subsequent severe recession affected trading. The partnership was dissolved in 1882, Meldrum joining the family firm of waterproof, India rubber, umbrella and bag manufacturers at 13, 15 Reform Street. Meldrum never practised architecture again.
In 1885 Young took into partnership his son George Penrose Kennedy Young who became sole partner on his father's death in Perth on 2 December 1895. George was born in 1858 and was articled to his father in 1875. After a short period as his father's assistant he spent a year in London, studying architecture under Professor T Roger Smith at University College where he was prizeman in construction in 1881, and drawing under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School. He passed the qualifying exam in 1885 and was admitted ARIBA on 8 June of that year, his proposers being John Honeyman, Thomas Lennox Watson and John Burnet Senior. Shortly thereafter he married Charlotte Anne Conacher.
That Burnet Senior was among George Penrose Kennedy's proposers, and that other signatories - who probably signed at Burnet's request - were Glaswegians was a measure of the friendship between the Burnets and the Youngs at that time. It is not yet known how this came about but from the late 1890s the more important works of the practice were almost indistinguishable from the work of John James Burnet. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Perth, Perthshire, Scotland | Business | | | |
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesPeriodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers | 1896 | XXIV | | pp426-7 (John Young) | | RIAS Quarterly | 1933 | no 44 | Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) | Obituary of G P K Young | | RIBA Journal | 9 December 1933 | v41 | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | p153 - obituary of G P K Young |
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