Basic Biographical Details Name: | Coad & MacLaren | Designation: | | Born: | 1884 | Died: | 1887 | Bio Notes: | Richard Coad was born in Liskeard, Cornwall on 13 February 1825. He was articled to Henry Rice of Liskeard and subsequently worked as assistant to Sir George Gilbert Scott from 1847 to 1864. He returned to Liskeard in the latter year to commence independent practice, and opened a London office in 1868.
In 1884 Coad took James Marjoribanks MacLaren into partnership. MacLaren had been born on 12 January 1853, the sixth of the eleven children of John MacLaren, famer at Middleton of Boquhapple, Thornhill, Callander and his first wife Janet Downie; the family was both Free Church and Liberal. About 1868 he had been articled to Salmon Son & Ritchie in Glasgow, in whose office he worked alongside George Washington Browne and William Flockhart. In 1873 Browne left for Campbell Douglas & Sellars's office as an assistant, MacLaren joining him either then or shortly thereafter. While still an articled pupil in Salmon's office, in 1872 MacLaren had obtained honourable mention in the competition organised by 'The Building News' with a house design which drew a complaint of plagiarism from Richard Norman Shaw. In 1875 MacLaren and Browne moved to the office of John James Stevenson in London and joined the Architectural Association. He must have assisted Coad from early on in his time in London, as on 7 January 1876 MacLaren entered the Royal Academy Schools on Coad's recommendation. Although still not in independent practice MacLaren built two large houses at Grangemouth in 1877, that for his cousin Daniel Alexander MacLaren so close in style to William Leiper's Balgray as to suggest that he must have spent some time in Leiper's office, or at least have had an entrée to it, and in 1878 an artist's house at Fulham which does not appear to have been built. In May of the same year he went to Paris to design some furniture, and while there used his Architectural Association tickets to attend lectures at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The influence of these lectures, and of what he saw there, was to be in evidence for a year or two, most notably in his design for the Liverpool School of Art competition of 1881. In the course of his travels in France he visited Rouen and Fontainebleau. Later in the same year (1878) MacLaren visited Spain and Switzerland. MacLaren's movements between offices at that time cannot be securely dated but at some point he was in the office of the Surveyor of Public Buildings for the County of Surrey, Charles Henry Howell, and then in the office of Howell's former assistant William Young, probably just after Young won the Glasgow Municipal buildings competition. While in London MacLaren and his brother Thomas, with whom he shared lodgings, attended St John's Presbyterian Church in Allen Street, Kensington where the minister was the Rev Dugald MacColl from Glasgow. There they became friends of MacColl's son, the future art critic Dugald Sutherland MacColl and on 20 February 1883 James MacLaren married Dugald's sister Margaret Mathieson MacColl. The marriage was made possible by James MacLaren's senior position at Coad's Duke Street office.
The Coad & MacLaren partnership seems to have been a somewhat loose one, MacLaren assisting with work for Coad's clients with freedom to enter competitions in his own name and build up a practice of his own. That arrangement lasted until late in 1887 when James MacLaren moved out to start a completely independent practice nearby at 21 King William Street. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 3, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, England | Business | 1884 | 1887 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployees or PupilsThe following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | James Marjoribanks MacLaren | 1883 | 1887 | Partner | | | Richard Coad | 1883 | 1887 | Partner | |
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesCurrently, there are no references for this . The information has been derived from: the British Architectural Library / RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914; Post Office Directories; and/or any sources listed under this individual's works. |