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Practices

Basic Biographic Details

Anderson Simon & Crawford
Architectural practice
Year Only
1899
Year Only
1902
Frank Lewis Worthington Simon was born on 31 March 1862 at Darmstadt, Germany, the son of David Worthington Simon DD MA PhD. He was educated at Tettenhall College, Wolverhampton and the King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham, and was articled to John Cotton in Birmingham in 1879. At the end of his apprenticeship, c.1882, he became an assistant to Jethro Anstice Cossins in the same city before joining the atelier of Jean Louis Pascal and enrolling c.1883 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he spent only one year and was a contemporary of Alexander Nisbet Paterson, John Keppie and Stewart Henbest Capper, sharing rooms with the latter two. After completing the course he spent about a year in Glasgow with Burnet Son & Campbell in 1886 and then a similar period with Wardrop & Anderson: according to his RIBA nomination paper he joined that firm just prior to George Washington Browne's departure. Throughout that period, from sometime before March 1885, Simon had his own studio at 8 York Place from which he made a fine series of drawings of old Edinburgh which formed the basis of his 'Etchings of Old Edinburgh'. He won the Tite Prize in 1887 and commenced independent practice in the following year at 34 St Andrew Square, his first significant commission being a fine house, Outwood, at 8 Mortonhall Road for his father, who had now become Principal Simon. He then formed a partnership with his fellow student at Pascal's, Stewart Henbest Capper, winning the competition for Hope Chapel, Wigan, in 1888.

In 1890 Simon came into prominence as the architect of the Edinburgh International Exhibition of that year, working in collaboration with the artist-architect William Allan Carter who also had his own studio at 5 St Andrew Square; in that same year Rowand Anderson and David MacGibbon persuaded thirty well-off individuals to subscribe £1,200 for the formation of the Edinburgh School of Applied Art at the Royal Institution. When classes commenced on 17 October 1892 Simon was its first professor with George Mackie Watson as first assistant, quickly joined by his brother John who had run the Edinburgh Architectural Association classes and by Capper, the last giving the School as a whole a marked Ecole des Beaux-Arts bias in its teaching. All owed their appointments to Anderson's patronage, the Watson brothers also being ex-assistants of Anderson's while Capper was an ex-assistant of his former partner George Washington Browne.

Simon moved his private practice to 36 Hanover Street late in 1891 or early 1892. The School of Applied Art was hugely successful in attracting students and later that same year 1892, pressure of work at the School - where the classes were from 8 to 10am - induced Simon to end his partnership with Capper and enter a short-lived partnership with Charles Edward Tweedie. Tweedie's provenance is not yet known but he had a one-year-old son suggesting an age of about thirty. The Simon & Tweedie partnership won the competition for Llanelly Town Hall in 1892 but lost the commission to the local architect William Griffiths. It had more success in Manchester where Simon had won the competition for the Macfadyen Memorial Church, an office being opened in Manchester to build it. The Simon & Tweedie partnership seems to have closed late in 1895 or early in 1896 and in 1897 Simon resigned his chair to concentrate wholly on his practice.

About 1898 Simon merged his practice with that of Alexander Hunter Crawford Crawford had been born in 1865 of the biscuit-making family. He had been articled c.1880 to John Russell Walker and had remained there until 1885 or 1886 when he had moved to London. After a couple of short-term appointments he had secured a place in the office of Ralph Selden Wornum in 1887, from whom he had moved to the LCC Architects Department for six months early in 1891. He had returned to Edinburgh in August 1891 to commence independent practice at 39 York Place.

The new partnership of Simon & Crawford was based in Simon's office at 36 Hanover Street. In the following year, 1899, there was a further merger with Rowand Anderson's practice as Anderson, Simon & Crawford. While some clients saw Anderson's age and difficult temperament as a problem - he was then sixty-five - the catalyst may have been the competition for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901 for which they prepared an entry. This partnership also proved brief, being dissolved in 1902 as a result of a lawsuit. Simon and Craword then reverted to their previous partnership name, with an office at 10 Randolph Place, Simon's address then being 67 Great King Street.

Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this architectural practice:

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2

AddressTypeDate FromDate ToNotes
16 Rutland Square Edinburgh ScotlandPrivateIn year 1899In year 1902

Partners, Employees and Pupils

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

Employees or Pupils2

NamePositionDate FromDate ToNotes
Frank Lewis Worthington SimonPartnerIn year 1899In year 1902
Peter ReidApprenticeIn year 1899In year 1902
John Stuart SymeChief AssistantIn year 1899In year 1902
William Meek PageChief AssistantIn year 1899In year 1903
John McIntyreApprenticeIn year 18991900/01
James McLachlanAssistantIn year 1899In year 1902
Walter Symington Athol GordonApprenticeIn year 1899In year 1901
Alexander Hunter CrawfordPartnerIn year 18991902/07
(Sir) Robert Rowand AndersonPartnerIn year 1899In year 1902
John Alfred Taylor HoustonAssistant1899/051900/05
James Straton FerrierApprentice1899/10In year 1902
William Beattie-BrownDraughtsmanIn year 1900In year 1902
David Morton BrownAssistantIn year 1900In year 1902under Alexander Hunter Crawford
William DeanIn year 1901In year 1901
Walter FairbairnChief AssistantIn year 1901In year 1902

Buildings and Designs

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

Buildings and Designs

BuildingPartnership GPRoleDate FromDate ToTown DistrictIslandCity CountyCountryNotes
Freeland HouseDIn year 1899In year 1902PerthshireScotlandAdditions - partial remodelling of entrance front
University of St Andrews, St Mary's CollegeDIn year 1899In year 1901St AndrewsFifeScotlandRemodelling of senate room in library
Feuing, Braid EstateAIn year 1899In year 1902EdinburghScotland
Feuing, Fettes EstateAIn year 1899In year 1902EdinburghScotland
District Asylum for Midlothian and PeeblesBIn year 1899In year 1902Roslin/RosslynMidlothianScotlandTwo new wings added
Perth Evangelical Union ChurchAIn year 1899PerthPerthshireScotlandBegun by Simon alone; completed in partnership
Keir HouseAIn year 1899In year 1901DunblanePerthshireScotlandNew dining room and smoking room and gates of old Lecropt churchyard
Inchinnan Parish ChurchAIn year 1899In year 1902InchinnanRenfrewshireScotland
Colinton Bank HouseAIn year 1899ColintonEdinburghScotlandAdditions and alterations
Falkirk Old Parish ChurchAIn year 1899FalkirkStirlingshireScotlandAdditions and alterations
Pollok House, including lodgesCArchitectural practiceIn year 1899In year 1902GlasgowScotlandAdditions and alterations - porch, kitchen wing and terrace. Glasgow Storey gives details of alterations: The changes included installing electric lighting, a modern kitchen and additional bathrooms with hot and cold running water. Also two new wings constructed. This billiard room is on the principal floor in one of the new wings.
Dunfermline AbbeyGIn year 1900In year 1901DunfermlineFifeScotlandWest window of south transept?
University of St Andrews, Chapel of St SalvatorHIn year 1900St AndrewsFifeScotlandPulpit
Dalmeny Street Drill HallAIn year 1900LeithEdinburghScotland
Ecton LodgeAIn year 1900InverleithEdinburghScotlandAlexander Hunter Crawford mainly responsible

References