Douglas

Life
John Douglas (11 April 1830 – 23 May 1911) was an English architect who designed about 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England. He was the son of John Douglas Snr. a Cheshire builder, joiner, some-time timber-merchant and surveyor, and was born at Park Cottage in Sandiway. His mother, Mary (Swindley) was the daughter of a blacksmith from Eccleston. Before setting up on his own in around 1860, he was trained in the mid/late 1840's under Edward G. Paley in Lancaster. He is believed to have never traveled in Northern Europe but incorporates elements of French, German and Dutch architecture in his style. Douglas had first-hand experience of the building crafts while he worked for his father: of particular importance to Douglas's style is use of joinery and highly detailed wood carving. Other Vernacular elements he uses often include tile-hanging, pargeting, the use of decorative brick in diapering and the design of tall, ornate chimney stacks.

When Douglas moved to Chester in the early 1860's the use of Vernacular Revival elements had already been started, particularly by Thomas Mainwaring Penson, but it was Douglas and Lockwood who developed it. Although he achieved national fame as an architect, practised throughout his career from offices in Chester and never, for example, became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Many of the architects training and working in Douglas's office were influenced by him. These included Edward Ould. Other architects who did not work in his office were also influenced by him: these include Lockwood, Strong and Beswick.

In the series The Buildings of England, Nikolaus Pevsner described him, without reservation, as "the best Cheshire architect". In the companion series The Buildings of Wales: Clwyd, Hubbard expressed the opinion that he was "the most important and active local architect of the period", and that his buildings are "anything but copyist" and they "bear a highly individual and nearly always recognisable stamp" and further states that the major characteristics of his buildings are "sure proportions, imaginative massing and grouping ... immaculate detailing and a superb sense of craftsmanship and feeling for materials .. architecture which can be enjoyed as well as admired".

Douglas did not have a happy family life. He married Elizabeth Edmunds in 1860, and they had five children of which only two sons survived to adulthood. Elizabeth died in 1878 of laryngitis, son Colin trained as a architect but died of tuberculosis in 1887 at the age of 23 and the surviving son, Sholto Theodore appears to have been an alcoholic. Initially he ran his Chester practice on his own, but from 1884 (when Colin first became ill) until two years before his death he worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants. The family first lived above his office at 6 Abbey square, moving later to number 4: all of their children being born in Abbey Square. In about 1876 the family moved to Dee Banks, where Elizabeth died. Douglas built and moved into (together with his surviving son Sholto) Walmoor Hill on the banks of the River Dee in c.1896 and lived there until his death in 1911 at the age of 81, by which time Douglas appears to have become deaf.

Works in Chester
While Douglas designed over 500 buildings, these are the listed buildings in Chester and its suburbs:

1860's

 * 1865 - Lodge in Grosvenor Park - his first use of part-timbered;
 * 1867 - Billy Hobby's well at Grosvenor Park, as well as various gates in the park;
 * 1869 - Temporary triumphal arch for the visit of the Prince of Wales to Chester;
 * 1869 - 31-33 Dee Banks (built as his own home)

1870's

 * 1873 - St Werburgh's Chambers;
 * 1874 - St Werburgh's Mount;
 * 1876 - St Paul's Church, Boughton;
 * 1877 - St Johns Chester;
 * 1877 - Nag's Head Cocoa House, Foregate Street (since demolished);
 * 1878 - Douglas' wife dies

1880's

 * 1880 - 6-11 Grosvenor Park Road and Grosvenor Park Road Baptist Chapel;
 * 1880 - St Oswald's Vicarage], Parkgate Road;
 * 1882 - St Johns Chester (porch);
 * 1883 - Grosvenor Club and Bank, Eastgate Street;
 * 1884 - Old Police Headquarters, Foregate Street;
 * 1886 - St Peter's (addition of short spire)
 * 1887 - St Johns Chester (north aisle, bell tower);
 * 1889 - Parker's Buildings, Foregate Street (a block of 30 flats)

1890's

 * 1890 - 117 Foregate Street;
 * 1896 - Walmoor Hill, Dee Banks (as his own home);
 * 1897 - 2-18 St Werburgh's Street;
 * 1897 - 38 Bridge Street;
 * 1898 - St Oswald's Chambers;
 * 1899 - Eastgate Clock;

1900's

 * 1900 - 11-13 Northgate Street (Shoemaker's Row);
 * 1900 - 30 Bridge Street (The "The Grotto" public house, now a shop);
 * 1900 - 19 Northgate Street;
 * 1901 - Union Street Public Baths;
 * 1902 - 27-31 Northgate Street;
 * 1902 - St Paul's Church, Boughton;
 * 1903 - 1-11 and 13 Bath Street;
 * 1903 - 122 Foregate Street;
 * 1903 - 25 Northgate Street;
 * 1904 - 78-94 Foregate Street;
 * 1904 - Public Toilets, Frodsham Street;
 * 1905 - St Paul's Church, Boughton;

1910's

 * 1910 - Egerton Street School (in collaboration with W. T. Lockwood);
 * 1911 - St Matthew's, Saltney (burnt down 2008);
 * 1912 - All Saints, Hoole (with F Walley, south aisle, completed after his death);

Links & Sources

 * John Douglas at Wikipedia;
 * New churches by Douglas;
 * Church restorations by Douglas;
 * Houses by Douglas;
 * Other works by Douglas