Architects

Name:

George Walton

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

06/03/1867

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

12/10/1933

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Bio Notes :

George Henry Walton was born in Glasgow on 3 June 1867, the youngest of the twelve children of Jackson Walton, a Manchester commission agent, by his second wife, the Aberdeen-born Quaker Eliza Ann Nicholson: the painter Edward Arthur Walton, born near Barrhead on 15 April 1860 was his elder brother and the flower painter Constance Walton his sister. The Waltons had settled in Glasgow in 1862, Jackson becoming first a manufacturer of steam boiler coverings and later a manufacturing chemist, neither successfully. He was, however, a good amateur painter and photographer: one of his elder daughters, the decorative artist, Helen, born 1850, also had marked ability, studying at Glasgow School of Design from 1865 and becoming artistic mentor to the younger members of the family. Jackson died in 1873 leaving his family in reduced circumstances. George had to leave Partick Academy in 1881 at the age of thirteen to become a clerk with the British Linen Bank, but while in its employ he studied at Glasgow School of Art (as the School of Design had become in 1869) and took classes with P McGregor Wilson at the short-lived Glasgow Atelier Fine Arts.

In 1888 Miss Catherine Cranston commissioned Walton to re-design the interiors of the tea rooms at 114 Argyle Street, Glasgow (originally opened in 1878). Walton gave up banking and opened showrooms entitled George Walton & Co, Ecclesiastical and House Decorators, at 152 Wellington Street. In 1890 he took on Robert Graham who was to become manager of the company in 1903-05, and in the same year (1890) he became acquainted with the Quaker architect Fred Rowntree through an amateur dramatic performance. In 3 June of the following year Walton married Kate Gall, a London girl whose parents were well-off with good connections, and set up house in Burnet's newly-built Charing Cross Mansions. A daughter was born in 1892.

The Walton firm quickly expanded into woodwork, furniture making and stained glass and from 1896 Walton collaborated with Rowntree on Rowntree family projects in Scarborough and on a large house at Dunblane. Later in the same year Walton was commissioned to decorate and furnish Miss Cranston's Buchanan Street tea room which had been designed by George Washington Browne. In 1897 Walton followed his brother Edward to London where he set up house and studio at 16 Westbourne Park Road, Bayswater. The catalyst appears to have been the commission to design the Photographic Salon in the Dudley Gallery which came to him through his friendship with the Glasgow photographer James Craig Annan. It led to a further commission from George Davison for the Eastman Exhibition in the New Gallery in Regent Street in the same year, and in turn to a series of Eastman Kodak showrooms in London, Glasgow, Brussels, Milan, Vienna and Moscow which brought him international fame. (Walton joined the Art Workers guild in 1901 and served on the Committee from 1913-15).

A George Walton & Co showroom was opened in York's Stonegate in 1898 and in Glasgow a four-storey block of workshops was built in Buccleuch Street in 1899-1900. But from 1901 Walton began to undertake complete buildings having learned enough of building construction from his showroom alterations and his work with Fred Rowntree, his first being The Leys for the photographic magnate J B B Wellington of Wellington & Ward and previously of the Eastman company. Walton moved from Wesbourne Park Road to a more fashionable address at 44 Holland Park Road, and on 17 January 1903 he resigned from George Walton & Co as the time he could give to it had become limited. The York showroom closed in the same year and on 30 June 1905 the other partners wound up the company, their designer Robert Paterson setting up his own business entitled 'The Crafts'. Thereafter Walton practised exclusively as an architect and designer in private practice and was admitted LRIBA in the mass intake of 20 July 1911, his proposer being his long-standing friend Charles Edward Mallows. Since 1905 he had operated from a still grander house, 26 Emperor's Gate, Kensington, but with the outbreak of war,work tailed off. Kate died and the financial support of the Gall family died with her. Their daughter Marguerite married a doctor in the RAMC and the Emperor's Gate house was given up. In 1916 Walton moved to Carlisle as assistant architect and designer to the Central Control Board (liquor traffic) working under the supervision of Harry Redfern on a series of hurried public house refurbishments.

On 20 November 1918 Walton married a colleague at the Central Control Board, Dorothy (Daphne) Jeram, the daughter of a Hampshire doctor: a son was born in 1920. Walton resigned from the Central Control Board in 1919 to resume private practice, but this proved difficult to re-establish despite the continuing support of Davison, Wellington and the Scottish portrait-painter W O Hutchinson who had married his niece. His practice was now mainly as a textile designer for Morton Sundour Fabrics of Carlisle, but in August 1930 Sir James Morton had to cease commissioning designs partly because of the severity of the recession and partly because the prevailing fashion for Art Deco resulted in too few of his designs being put into production. Davison died in December of the same year and in March 1931 the Waltons had to give up their London house and studio and move to 70 Seabrook Road, Hythe, where living costs were cheaper.

Walton died depressed and frustrated by lack of work of any kind on 10 December 1933. John Betjeman obtained a civil list pension for his widow. The drawings and photographs relating to his later practice are in the British Archtectural Library Collection.

'Biography authored by the Dictionary of Scottish Architects Compilation Team.'

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
Charing Cross Mansions Glasgow Scotland	Private
16 Westbourne Park Road Bayswater London England	Private/business
44 Holland Park Road London England	Private
26 Emperor's Gate South Kensington London England	Private/business
70 Seabrook Road Hythe Kent England	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To
George Walton & Co/152 Wellington Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1888
Workshops Buccleuch Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1889	1900
16 Westbourne Park Road Bayswater London England	Private/business	1897
George Walton & Co Stonegate York Yorkshire England	Business	1898	1903
26 Emperor's Gate South Kensington London England	Private/business	1905	Before 1916

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The following individuals were employed or trained by this person (click on an item to view details):

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position	Notes
Alexander Ross Lindsay	201965	In year 1898	In year 1900	Assistant

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The following individuals proposed this person for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Proposer	Proposer Link	Date Proposed	Notes
Charles Edward Mallows	204148	1911/07/20	for Licentiateship

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, Argyle Street	In year 1888		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors of tea room
St Peter's Episcopal Church	In year 1890		Glasgow	Scotland	Interior decoration
Premises for T & R Annan, Sauchiehall Street	In year 1890		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors
7 Woodside Place	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors
Fancy fair stage set for Glasgow Society of Lady Artists	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland	In conjunction with Fred Rowntree
Shop for Neilson Shaw & MacGregor, silk merchants	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland
The Glen	In year 1891	Paisley	Renfrewshire	Scotland	Interiors
Thornton Lodge	In year 1891	Helensburgh	Dunbartonshire	Scotland	Interiors
203 Bath Street	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors
5 Dundonald Road	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors
15 Grosvenor Crescent	In year 1891		Glasgow	Scotland	Interiors
8 Great Western Terrace	In year 1892		Glasgow	Scotland	Stair window
Shop and photographic studios	c. 1892		Glasgow	Scotland
Drumalis	In year 1893	Larne	County Antrim	Northern Ireland	Interiors
East Park	In year 1893	Barrhead	Renfrewshire	Scotland	Interiors

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
British Architectural Library, RIBA	Directory of British Architects 1834-1914	2001
Allan, I	George Walton at Harlech	1985	Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Record Society, v10, p77-84
Moon, Karen	George Walton, Designer and Architect	1993
Jones, David	George Walton's revival of Scottish furniture types	1991	Scotland and Europe architecture and design 1850-1940, ed J Frew and D Jones, p59-66
Pevsner, N	Studies in architecture and design				v2, p176-188
Moon, Karen	George Walton & Co: work for commercial organisations: The Rowntree firms	1980	The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society	no 5
Carruthers, Annette	The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland: a history	2013			pp76-89
Beauty's Awakening	Beauty's Awakening: The Centenary Exhibition of the Art Workers' Guild		Brighton Museum September -November 1984, Royal Pavilion Brighton

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
RIBA Journal	1939/04/03	*	Article by N. Pevsner pp537-548
Builder	1933/12/15	*
The Studio	1906	*	p33

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
RIBA Nomination Papers	RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum	100005			L v21 no1652

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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Periodical References

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Archive References

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