Architects

Name:

William Flockhart

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

20/09/1852

Year of Birth :

Circa Year of Birth :

Date of Birth Before (Year):

Date of Birth After (Year):

DOB (1st 'Or' Year):

DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

04/10/1913

Year of Death:

Circa Year of Death:

Date of Death Before (Year):

Date of Death After (Year):

DOD (1st 'Or' Year):

DOD (2nd 'Or' Year):

Town of Birth :

Bio Notes :

William Flockhart was born in Kilmarnock on 20 September 1852, the son of William Flockhart, tailor and clothier, and Margaret Gibson. Their family's usual address was then 82 London Street, Lanark: William Flockhart senior was born in England and Margaret Gibson came from Kilmarnock. The 1851 census shows that Flockhart had an elder sister, Margaret, then aged five months. There was a family link of some kind to Sir William Flockhart of Duncan Flockhart & Co, Edinburgh, the chemists who developed chloroform. In 1870 he was articled to Adamson & McLeod and took classes at Glasgow School of Art where he was a prize-winner in 1871-72. He presumably remained with McLeod after the dissolution of his partnership with Adamson c.1871-72, moving to Campbell Douglas & Sellars as assistant in 1876-77.

In 1878 Flockhart entered a design in the Brompton Oratory competition in association with the unidentified Gordon as 'Gordon & Flockhart'. Gordon may have been George William Hamilton Gordon, born 1854, an assistant in the office of Alfred Waterhouse, who was the assessor and placed their design in the final four, describing it as 'the work of a Master... The interior seems to me to be very nearly perfect' In the event the final choice lay with the Fathers who chose Herbert Gribble who had made designs for them in 1874-76.

After a year of study in London and Paris in 1878-79, Flockhart entered the office of William Wallace at 27a Old Bond Street, London, first as an assistant and then in partnership as Wallace & Flockhart, his earliest commission being the addition of a tower and spire to Newhaven Free Church where Sir William Flockhart was a member of the congregation.

On 9 September 1880 he married Christine Lochhead at her home, 33 Granville Street Glasgow, the minister being A A Bonnar of Finnieston Free Church, on which he had worked when with Sellars, his own address being given as 15 Marlborough Place, St James Wood.

Stanley Adshead described Flockhart as having 'a highly strung and very artistic temperament ... he was very simple and understanding about ordinary things, and had a great sense of human nature as seen by those [with] whom he most frequently associated...he did everything himself, even his carvers had to work to his full-sized working drawings which he drew out on large sheets of paper pinned to the wall.' In consequence he required relatively few draughtsmen: Adshead reported only four in his Bond Street office when he was there in 1894-95.

Although he 'had few friends but among them was John Collier RA'. Flockhart had very distinguished clients. They tended to be either artists like Ricketts, Charles Shannon and John McWhirter and the photographers Elliot & Fry or extremely rich like his principal clients James Douglas Fletcher of Rosehaugh, Stuart Samuel, Samuel Montagu, Sir Edmund Davis, diamond merchant, the art dealer Joseph Duveen and Sir Frederick J Mirrielees of the Union Castle Mail Steamship Company. For the Union Castle Company he designed the interiors of S S Balmoral Castle in 1910. Adshead recalled that 'cost never seemed to enter into the problem',. Flockhart was also consultant to the Derwent Valley Water Board and designed the architectural elements of the Derwent and Howden dams. In 1910 Flockhart exhibited a number of designs at the Japan England Exhibition which was held at Shepherd's Bush that year. This doubtless relates to the fact that he and Ernest George, who served on both the executive committe of the exhibition as well as on the Architecture sub-committee, frequesntly lunched together at the Arts Club.

Flockhart was an extremely inventive and scholarly designer, something of a trial to the staff as designs were endlessly changed and perfected, sometimes after work was well under way. Goodhart Rendel described him as 'an extremely sensitive draughtsman', and 'potentially the best of the lot'. Of his country house commissions, the monumental Rosehaugh House in Ross & Cromarty was the largest but he also designed Pasturewood in Surrey, Parkwood in Berkshire, Chelwood Vachery in Sussex and Galewood in Cambridgeshire. He undertook much work in central London including town houses and Bond Street shops, all the designs having exclusivity and opulence which sets them apart from work by his contemporaries.

The partnership of Wallace & Flockhart was dissolved c.1883, Flockhart continuing to practise alone. He was admitted FRIBA on 18 February 1901, his proposers being John Belcher, John McKean Brydon and Ernest George.

Flockhart appears to have taken his former senior assistant Leonard Rome Guthrie into partnership as Flockhart & Guthrie by 1912. He died on 10 April 1913, leaving moveable estate of £29,631 6s 2d. He had one son who did not become an architect and two daughters, one of whom married Guthrie, who inherited the practice.

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
122 Gloucester Terrace Hyde Park London England	Private/business

row(s) 1 - 1 of 1

Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date From Type	Date To	Date To Type	Notes
27a Old Bond Street London England	Business
180 New Bond Street London England	Business
122 Gloucester Terrace Hyde Park London England	Private/business
10 Conduit Street London England	Business

row(s) 1 - 4 of 4

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
Flockhart & Guthrie	207410	Before 1912	In year 1913	Partner
Adamson & McLeod	100114	In year 1870	c. 1871	Apprentice
Campbell Douglas & Sellars	200194	In year 1876	In year 1877	Assistant
Stevenson & Robson	200831	In year 1876	In year 1877	Assistant
John McLeod	100008	c. 1871	In year 1875	Apprentice
William Wallace	200526	c. 1879	c. 1880	Assistant
Wallace & Flockhart	201193	c. 1880	c. 1883	Partner

row(s) 1 - 7 of 7

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
Stanley Davenport Adshead	100009	1894 or 1895	In year 1898	Clerk of Works
William Craig Boyd	200431	1901/01	1903/07	Assistant
Thomas McMillan	202507	1904/08/17	1907/09/21	Assistant
John McLean (or Maclean) Crawford	200275	After 1876	Before 1885	Assistant
Thomas Geoffry Lucas (or Geoffry Lucas)	202231	After 1891	Before 1899	Assistant
Henry Victor Ashley	204869	After 1892	Before 1896	Assistant
John Myrtle Smith	203567	After 1900	Before 1906	Assistant
William Harvey Ross	202948	In year 1892	In year 1894	Assistant
Stanley Davenport Adshead	100009	In year 1894	1894 or 1895	Assistant
Leonard Rome Guthrie	203712	In year 1901	In year 1907	Chief Draughtsman
Lionel Godfrey Pearson	204843	In year 1902	1902 or 1903	Assistant
James Mitchell White Halley	201447	In year 1906	In year 1906	Assistant
Oliver Falvey Hill	201675	In year 1907	In year 1910	Apprentice
William Hardy Wilson	407455	In year 1907	In year 1910	Assistant
Bernard Hugh Webb	408628	Late 1890s		Assistant

row(s) 1 - 15 of 18

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
John McKean Brydon	200523	1901/02/18	for Fellowship
Ernest George	201238	1901/02/18	for Fellowship
John Belcher	201657	1901/02/18	for Fellowship

row(s) 1 - 3 of 3

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

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Person	Date Proposed	Notes
William Gilmour Wilson	1905/03/06	for Fellowship
Hugh Alexander Dalrymple	1907/03/04	for Associateship
James Irving Tweedie	1907/03/04	for Associateship
William Hardy Wilson	1909/03/01	For Associateship
Leonard Rome Guthrie	1910/02/28	for Associateship
James Mitchell White Halley	1910/07/04	for Licentiateship
Thomas McMillan	1911/01/16	for Licentiateship
Walter Symington Athol Gordon	1911/02/27	for Licentiateship
Bernard Hugh Webb	1911/02/27	For Licentiateship
William Harvey Ross	1911/03/20	for Licentiateship

row(s) 1 - 10 of 10

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
Design for a villa	In year 1872			Scotland	Competition design
St Andrew's Parish Church	In year 1874		Glasgow	Scotland	As assistant to James Salmon & Son did the drawings for this
Crathes Castle	In year 1880	Crathes	Aberdeenshire/Kincardineshire	Scotland	As assistant to William Wallace - alterations including dining room and refitting hall (largely eradicated since) and the hall window which is still extant
âThe Lothians,â Hampstead	In year 1881	Hampstead	London	England
15 Fitzjohn's Avenue	In year 1881	Hampstead	London	England	Internal alteration to existing house.
Old Newhaven Free Church	In year 1882	Newhaven	Edinburgh	Scotland	Recasting of church and addition of tower and spire. New vestry added.
St Andrew's Vestry	In year 1883	Newhaven	Edinburgh	Scotland
Presbyterian Church	In year 1883	Richmond upon Thames	Surrey	England
The White Cottage	In year 1883	Brompton	London	England	Extension to existing house
129 Park Lane	In year 1883		London	England	Interior refitting
North House, Eton Avenue	In year 1884	Hampstead	London	England
House and studio for John McWhirter ARA	In year 1885	St Johns Wood	London	England
Elliott & Fry studios	In year 1885	South Kensington	London	England	Conversion of pair of late Georgian semi-detached houses into photographic galleries and studios.
3 Stanhope Place	In year 1886	Bayswater	London	England	Internal alterations
Town house, Hertford Street	In year 1887	Mayfair	London	England

row(s) 1 - 15 of 70

The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Calder, Alan	William Flockhart: Rosehaugh House	2009	James M MacLaren Society Journal, pp2-16	7, Autumn	pp2-16
Mills, John et al	Rosehaugh: a house of its time	1996
Powers, Alan (ed.)	Architects I have known: the architectural career of S D Adshead	1981	Architectural History 24, 1981, pp103-123, plates 38-40
Calder, Alan	William Flockhart: the Country Houses	2011	James M MacLaren Society Journal, William Flockhart: the Country Houses pp. 7-28	9
Crook, J M	The rise of the Nouveaux Riches
Service, Alastair	Edwardian Architecture and its Origins	1975			p478
Calder, Alan	William Flockhart: A Maverick Architect for the Nouveaux Riches	2014
Calder, Alan	William Flockhart 1852-1913: Architect to the Nouveau Riches	2010
Calder, Alan	William Flockhart: the early years	2008	James M MacLaren Society Journal, pp4-17	5

row(s) 1 - 9 of 9

The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
RIBA Journal	1913/04/26	*	pp449-450
Builder	1913/04/18	*
Builder	1913/06/13	*
Architect and Builder\'s Journal	1913/05/21	*	pp535-537. Obituary by S D Adshead

row(s) 1 - 4 of 4

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			Research on Flockhart family by Alan Calder and Kathleen MacLeman.A copy of Alan Calder's research is lodged in the RIBA.
Portrait of William Flockhart by Guy Lipscombe	In possession of Andrew Corbett	201001

row(s) 1 - 2 of 2

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

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

RIBA Proposals

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

Bibliographic References

Bib ref classic

Periodical References

Period ref classic

Archive References

Arc ref classic