Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Thomas Oliver | | Designation: | | | Born: | 1791 | | Died: | 1857 | | Bio Notes: | Thomas Oliver was born in Crailing, Roxburghshire on 14 January 1791 and was the son of a weaver. He was educated at Jedburgh School. When he was young he spent some time in the office of John Dobson in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1821 he began independent practice in Newcastle as a ‘land surveyor and architect’. He is best known for his work as a land surveyor but in fact he shares with Dobson the credit for much of the early 19th century development of the city. His two houses for Dr John Baird in Northumberland Street in Newcastle, built in 1824, were the first stone-fronted houses to be built in the city for more than a century. Colvin gives a full list of the work carried out in Newcastle between the 1820s and the 1850s which included houses, commercial buildings and a chapel. He also laid out ‘Gibson Town’ between 1836 and 1848, a planned development of modest houses. He never returned to Scotland to design any buildings there.
He published a number of plans of Newcastle between 1830 and 1851 (and one in 1858 posthumously). He was also author of the ‘A New Picture of Newcastle upon Tyne’ in 1831 and ‘The Topographical Conductor, or Descriptive Guide to Newcastle and Gateshead’ in 1851.
Thomas Oliver married twice, first in 1814 to Margaret Lorimer, the daughter of a Kelso mason and second in about 1840 to Elizabeth Best who came from Yorkshire. His son from his first marriage was also Thomas. He practised in Sunderland and later Newcastle and was a founder of the firm Oliver Leeson & Wood.
| Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England | Private/business | 1820s | 1850s | |
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Colvin, Howard | 2008 | A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 | | London: YUP. 4th edition | | | Faulkner, Tom and Grey, Andrew | 1987 | John Dobson Newcastle Architects 1878-1865 | | Tyne and Wear Museums Service | pp125-6 | | Noddings, John | 1971 | Thomas Oliver 1791-1857 | | Dissertation, School of Architecture, University of Newcastle | | | Wilkes, L and Dodds, G | 1964 | Tyneside Classical | | | |
Periodical References| The following periodicals contain references to this : | | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Archaeologia Aeliana | 1951 | 4th ser., xxix | | M E Jones and H L Honeyman 'Thomas Oliver and his Plans for Central Newcastle'. |
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