Architects

Name:

James Boucher

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

24/08/1826

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

07/09/1906

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Bio Notes :

James Boucher was born on 24 August 1826, the son of John Boucher, solicitor, London. He was very probably born in Cumbernauld where his grandfather, the Rev James Boucher, was minister. He was articled to Charles Wilson c.1842 and was an assistant there when he became acquainted with James Cousland (born 1853), who joined Wilson's office as an articled apprentice c.1848.

On 20 April 1853 Boucher commenced a grand tour, travelling through Belgium and sailing up the Rhine through Germany. He then made his way to Switzerland, Italy and France which he reached by sailing from Naples to Marseilles. He returned on 16 December, sailing from Boulogne to Folkestone.

On his return Boucher commenced independent practice in partnership with Cousland. As early as 1855 or 1856 they built for themselves a pair of semidetached houses, Swiss Cottage at 35-37 St Andrew's Drive, Pollokshields, and in the same years Boucher and two friends undertook a walking tour through the High Alps to the Tyrol, an account of which was published in the Glasgow Herald. In September 1857 Boucher repeated the route of his 1853 tour in less than three weeks between the 4th and the 23rd. What he saw on those tours strongly influenced the practice's architecture for the next twenty years. Two years after his return he married 20-year-old Rebecca Laurie at Govan on 7 October 1859, and built for her a fine Italianate house, Swiss Villa, at Coulport adjacent to his client John Kibble's Coulport House. They had two daughters, Ella, born 8 December 1867, and Jane Laurie, born 26 April 1869. Later the Bouchers moved their Glasgow residence to Brandon Place, now 217 West George Street, where the Italian painter Enrico Patalano was a member of the household from c.1878 until 1881. There is no record of Cousland having travelled, although he probably did, but Boucher seems to have been the most travelled Scottish architect of his generation, in sheer extent approached only by John Dick Peddie and David MacGibbon.

The Boucher & Cousland practice was successful at once, designing the ambitious Gothic Renfield Free Church on Bath Street, a large block of warehouses and shops for Black at the corner of Gordon Street and Renfield Street in 1857-8, and a considerable number of very ambitious villas exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1860 and the Glasgow Institute in 1861. Within a year or two Walter Macfarlane of Saracen Iron Works became a client and in addition to the Macfarlane warehouse in Washington Street (1862) and the Saracen Ironworks at Possilpark (begun 1869), the practice made many designs for architectural castings. The Couslands had some sort of business connection with John Kibble whose father had a wire and metal warehouse at Turner's Court in Argyle Street. In the early 1860s Kibble built the large Italian Romanesque villa Coulport House adjacent to Boucher's Swiss Villa at Loch Long for which they designed the conservatory which in enlarged form became the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens at Kelvinside: Cousland is said to have made a model in wire, to show Kibble what it would look like. In 1862-64 the partnership reached its zenith with the towered Romanesque Free Church at Kinning Park and their cruciform Renaissance Free St George's Church, but Cousland's career was to be brief: his health was upset by a fatal accident at the building of Free St George's and he died at Swiss Cottage on 12 June 1866, survived by his wife Jessie Knox Anderson.

Boucher was thereafter sole practitioner until 1875 when he took into partnership his pupil Henry Higgins (born 1848) who had been his assistant for two years, the style of the firm now becoming Boucher & Higgins. Higgins's son G H Higgins thereafter joined the practice, but seems to have died sometime after 1892 when he designed Temple Church at Anniesland.

Boucher died at Swiss Villa, Coulport on 7 September 1906 leaving the substantial movable estate of £8,916 5s 0d. He was survived by his widow. He was buried at Barbour Cemetery, Cove. Despite his large practice Boucher never sought election to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Photographs of him with mutton chop whiskers, and another of him bearded on a tricycle towing Mrs Boucher in a bath chair are in the possession of the Colvil family.

Higgins died on 9 June 1922, the practice being continued by Henry Edward Higgins (born 1878) who was articled to his father from 1901 to 1906, studied at Glasgow School of Art and remained with his father as assistant.

'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	Notes
Swiss Cottage/ 35-37 St Andrews Drive Pollokshields Glasgow Scotland	Private	Also given as Cousland\'s private address
Pollokshields Glasgow Scotland	Private
Swiss Villa Coulport, Loch Long Argyll Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To
43 Bath Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1860	1862
217 West George Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1876
247 St Vincent Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1888

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

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Boucher & Higgins	100171	In year 1875	In year 1892	Partner
Charles Wilson	100172	c. 1842	c. 1846	Apprentice
Charles Wilson	100172	c. 1846	1853/04	Assistant
Boucher & Cousland	100128	c. 1853	In year 1875	Partner

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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
William Holmes Howie	200406	In year 1876	In year 1881	Apprentice
John Andrew Reid	201496	In year 1887	In year 1888	Apprentice
Henry Higgins	100170	c. 1873	In year 1875	Assistant

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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
Kemp's, 37 Buchanan Street	In year 1853		Glasgow	Scotland
Eaton Bank	After 1854	Dowanhill	Glasgow	Scotland
Villa for James McBride	After 1854	Greenock	Renfrewshire	Scotland
Speculative building, Sauchiehall Street (south side)	In year 1855		Glasgow	Scotland
Renfield Free Church	In year 1857		Glasgow	Scotland
Swiss Cottage (Double Villa)	In year 1857	Pollokshields	Glasgow	Scotland
Thornton Lodge	In year 1857	Helensburgh	Dunbartonshire	Scotland
Offices and Shops	In year 1858		Glasgow	Scotland
Villa for Alexander McGaw	In year 1858	Port Glasgow	Renfrewshire	Scotland
Hopeville	In year 1858		Glasgow	Scotland
Black's warehouse	In year 1858		Glasgow	Scotland	Alterations
Villa for Robert Cuthbert	c. 1858	Greenock	Renfrewshire	Scotland
Castlebank	c. 1858	Bothwell	Lanarkshire	Scotland
Mansefield Church	In year 1859	Kilwinning	Ayrshire	Scotland
Villa	In year 1860	Dowanhill	Glasgow	Scotland

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
APSD	The Dictionary of Architecture		The Architectural Publication Society (8v 1852-1892)	ed Wyatt Papworth
Johnston, W T	Artists of Scotland	2003	Officina Publications CDROM

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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
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			Letter from D M Colvil, grandson, to Iain Paterson, 12 December 1895. Personal information from the Cousland family to A G Lochhead.
Information sent via \'Contact Us\' on website	Courtesy of Robert Colvil	201122			Sent December 2010

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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Archive References

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