Architects

Name:

John Thomas Rochead

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

28/03/1814

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

04/07/1878

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Bio Notes :

John Thomas Rochead was born in Edinburgh on 28 March 1814, the son of John Rochead (or Rocheid) and his wife Catherine Gibb. He was educated at George Heriot's and apprenticed to David Bryce in or about 1831, probably initially at least at Bryce's own practice in Castle Street. In 1834 he sought admission to the Trustees' Academy with a testimonial from Bryce stating that he had been three years an apprentice and was admitted in June 1835. He is said to have been with Bryce seven years, and c.1837-38 he spent two years with William Hurst and William Lambie Moffatt in Doncaster - Moffatt having been a colleague of Bryce's in Burn's office - before moving to Glasgow where he was engaged as a draughtsman by David & James Hamilton. There he worked on the drawings for the Western Club, leaving in January or February 1839 to design saloons and cabins for steamships, work which was to bring major commissions from the shipbuilders in Dumbarton later. In 1840 he won the commission for the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Belfast. This was not built but it seems to have attracted the attention of potential clients as he was able to set up practice on his own account at 23 St Enoch Square, Glasgow in 1841, securing the commission for the reconstruction of the 1775 house at Minard, Argyll as a giant neo Tudor pile in the following year; this enabled him to marry Catherine Jane Calder at Gorbals on 23 May 1843.

Although Rochead also secured commissions for several disruption churches, he may have suffered some temporary setback in his practice as he applied for the senior clerkship in the Edinburgh Office of Works after Nixon died in 1848. In 1849 he collaborated with James Brown of Brown & Carrick on the Great Western Road terraces, which Rochead completed as Brown gradually withdrew from practice to focus on his civic duties. Two years later, in 1851, Rochead secured the commission for another major neo Tudor house, Knock Castle, for the Greenock industrialist James Steele, followed by several more from the Denny shipbuilders; and in 1855 the commission for the City of Glasgow Bank buildings in Trongate, which were not only the largest block of business chambers in Glasgow at that time, but, in parallel with Robert William Billings, introduced the Scots baronial idiom to commercial architecture.

Rochead was successful in a number of competitions. In 1849 he won that for The Royal Arch, Dundee; and in 1857 third premium of £300 for his Louvre-inspired design for the London War Office; in the following year that for St Mary's Free Church in Edinburgh; and in 1859 that for the Wallace Monument at Stirling. These were not without controversy: at St Mary's Rochead appears to have aggrandised his design with a manse, although it had not been specified in the brief; and at Stirling Rochead's design was coloured contrary to the conditions and exceeded the cost limit by £5,000. While Thomas Gildard put his involvement as tactfully as possible he suffered considerable embarrassment on 10 March 1860 when the Glasgow Architectural Society formally complained about the conduct of the Wallace Monument Competition. The contractor for the monument became insolvent during construction and Rochead never received his fees.

Rochead moved office to 201 West George Street in the early 1860s and to 150 Hope Street in 1866 or early 1867. In his later years much of his business came from the wool and livestock magnates around Hawick. His work there is predominantly baronial or Gothic, some of it with very unconventional detailing, but he was at his best as a High Renaissance architect of the Charles Barry school and his finest works were his last, the Bank of Scotland and North Park House, both in Glasgow. During the course of their building in 1869-71 he suffered a severe nervous disorder and he had to hand his practice over to John Honeyman; the completion of the Bank was undertaken by David Bryce, then building the Bank of Scotland's head office.

Rochead retired first to Innellan where he added a spire to the West Free Church as a thank-offering for what at the time seemed a fairly complete recovery. A year later the Rocheads moved to Edinburgh where he built a pair of semi detached houses in Morningside Place, one of which, Wellbridge at number 19, was for their own occupation. There is no record of him having any significant Edinburgh practice.

Rochead's circle of friends tended to be literary rather than architectural, but among them was his former colleague in Hamilton's office, Thomas Gildard, who described him as having 'indomitable energy: in the more picturesque styles he had a most fertile fancy, and if not much of a colourist he was a splendid draughtsman'.

Rochead died suddenly of angina at Morningside on 7 April 1878, leaving the then substantial sum of £7,897 17s 5d plus £326 1s 4d, and was buried at Grange Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and his son Stuart, who was living at 4 George Street, Manchester at the time of his father's death. Rochead's widow lived on until 18 October 1896, continuing to press the custodian for his fees for the Wallace Monument, but without success.

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

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

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Notes
201 West George Street Glasgow Scotland	Private/business	Listed as both office and residence in 1862 PO Directory
Innellan Argyll Scotland	Private
Wellbridge/19 Morningside Place Morningside Edinburgh Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To	Notes
23 St Enoch Square Glasgow Scotland	Business	1841	1845
3 Windsor Place Glasgow Scotland	Business	1851
3 Wellington Place Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1854	1856
150 Hope Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1865 or 1866	c. 1868
201 West George Street Glasgow Scotland	Private/business	Early 186	1862	Listed as both office and residence in 1862 PO Directory
61 West Regent Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1870	1871	i.e.John Honeyman\'s office as successor to his practice.

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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
D & J Hamilton	200186	Early 1838s	In year 1839	Draughtsman
Hurst & Moffatt	202135	In year 1838	Early 1838s	Assistant
David Bryce	100014	c. 1831	c. 1837	Apprentice
William Hurst	202134	c. 1837	In year 1838	Assistant

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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
Campbell Douglas	200794	In year 1843	In year 1847	Apprentice
John Hutchison	200059	c. 1856	c. 1861	Apprentice

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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
Western Club	In year 1839		Glasgow	Scotland	Assisted D & J Hamilton with original building
Roman Catholic Cathedral	In year 1840		Belfast	Northern Ireland	Competition design - placed first but not executed
Minard Castle	In year 1842	Minard	Argyll	Scotland	Rebuilding as neo Tudor mansion incorporating original house
Adelphi Theatre	In year 1842		Glasgow	Scotland
Free St George's Church	In year 1843		Glasgow	Scotland
Free High Church and Free Church College	In year 1844		Edinburgh	Scotland	Two competition designs: 'early decorative' and 'collegiate'
St Andrew's Free Church	In year 1844		Glasgow	Scotland
St John's Free Church	In year 1845		Glasgow	Scotland
Free Church	In year 1845	Renton	Dunbartonshire	Scotland	Attribution by 'Buildings of Scotland'
St Andrew's Free Church	In year 1845	Kilmun	Argyll	Scotland	New roof and alterations
Bazaar and market, Wemyss Place	In year 1847		Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterted as St Stephen's Free Church
Glasgow Necropolis, Reverend Thomas Brown Monument	In year 1847	Dennistoun	Glasgow	Scotland
Glasgow Necropolis, William Dunn of Duntochter Monument	In year 1848	Dennistoun	Glasgow	Scotland
Royal Arch, Dundee Docks	In year 1849		Dundee	Scotland	Won competition to secure job
Kew Terrace, Great Western Road	In year 1849		Glasgow	Scotland	In collaboration with James Brown, who was then giving up practice

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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
Gildard, Thomas	An Old Glasgow Architect on some Older Ones	1895	Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow	XXVI
DNB	Dictionary of National Biography
Walker, Frank Arneil	South Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide to Inverclyde and Renfrew	1986			p96, p145
RCAHMS	Dundee on Record	1992	RCAHMS		View of Victoria Royal Arch (1963), p45
Dodd, W	J T Rochead Architect, 1814-78		University of Strathclyde Dissertation (unpublished)

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
Scotsman	1878/04	*	Obituary
Aberdeen Daily Journal	1878	*	Obituary--date missing
Scottish Field	1964/09	*
Builder	1961/10/27		'Architectural Historians' Conference: Papers Submitted to the Edinburgh Meeting' p787 - David Walker delivered a paper entitled 'Towards a New Style' at the SAH (UK) Conference in Edinburgh on 15-17 Sept 1961 in which he mentioned the work of Rochead

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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			Additional information on death, collaboration with Brown and Virgin Martyrs Monument from research by Iain Paterson
Gildard's 'Some Old Glasgow Architects' supplementary manuscript	Mitchell Library	200053

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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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