| Architect Details |
George Clerihew builder 1828/9; George Marr 1876 and 1884; William Davidson 1884; Kelly & Nicol 1907; D Kinghorn, H G West & Associates 1967-8.
William Davidson was a native of Ellon in Aberdeenshire. He formed a loose partnership with George Marr in the earlier 1880s which lasted until at least the late 1890s.
George Marr began practice as an architect and civil engineer at Campbell of Udny from 1855, concentrating almost exclusively on school and farm work. The practice moved to Ellon in the mid-1860s and became G & G Marr in 1872. In the summer of 1878, Marr was taken into partnership by the Aberdeen architect and civil engineer George Gordon Jenkins. Throughout their early careers, the work of Jenkins & Marr was of a simple and strictly practical nature, but with Mannofield Church (1882), for which an experienced assistant was probably brought into the practice, it moved to a rather higher plane. In the earlier 1880s Jenkins & Marr formed a loose partnership with William Davidson of Ellon, which lasted at least until the late 1890s. Marr died intestate on 3 October 1899. He does not appear to have been married. In Marr's obituary it is reported that he had a 'special acquaintance with designing papermills'. James Brown Nicol was born in Dumbarton on 27 February 1867. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School from 1882 to 1887 and was articled to Alexander Marshall Mackenzie from 1883 to 1888, where he worked under the supervision of the ablest of Makenzie's assistants, Alexander Mackintosh. There he met William Kelly, Henry Hardy Wigglesworth and James Carmichael ('a promising architect who died young'). In 1889 after a further year in Mackenzie's office he moved to Edinburgh to gain wider experience first with James Bow Dunn in 1889-90 and then with Sydney Mitchell & Wilson as chief assistant from 1890 until 1891 when he returned to Aberdeen as Kelly's assistant. Kelly took him into partnership eleven years later. Nicol published 'Domestic Architecture in Scotland', a survey of contemporary work, in 1908, and at some point he made a study tour to Italy. He was an early contributor to the transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society, having been enthused by the Rev Dr Cooper, proponent of that society and furthered the interests of his fellow-architects as President of the Aberdeen Society of Architects from 1925 to 1926 and as a member of the RIAS Council. For many years as Governor of Gordon's College he was Chairman of the Arts & Crafts Committee which controlled the School of Architecture and was largely responsible for building its reputation. He was also an elder of the South Church in Aberdeen. Kelly retired from the partnership in 1928, Nicol continuing to practise, possibly in some kind of informal partnership with Robert Leslie Rollo with whom he shared offices in about 1939, until his own retirement in May 1952. The major work of this later stage in his career was the new Royal Infirmary at Forresterhill, a rugged granite-built complex on rising ground overlooking the sea. Nicol was killed in an accident on the Aberdeen-Ellon road on 25 January the following year. He was married three times; first to William Kelly's sister Margaret and after her premature death in 1913, he re-married twice. He was survived by his third wife, three sons and two daughters. William Kelly was born in Aberdeen on 22 December 1861, the son of Francis Bonnyman Kelly, a tailor and outfitter, and his wife Jane Tough, daughter of James Tough, tenant farmer at Mains of Drum. He never sought membership of the RIBA and as a result our knowledge of his early career is somewhat sketchy. He was educated at William Rattray's School in North Silver Street and attended King's College 1876-78, principally to study mathematics and natural philosophy. In May 1878 he was articled to William and John Smith and on the completion of his articles in May 1883 he sought wider experience in London, William Smith's open reference describing him as having 'gentlemanly manners' and being 'steady diligent and obliging'; he was also an 'exceptionally good draughtsman'. Of the several offices Kelly worked in while in London, only John James Stevenson's has been identified. In 1885 he made a study tour of the French chateaux and visited Spain and Holland. Kelly returned to commence independent practice in Belmont Street in 1886 and, following John Smith's death on 11 April 1887, declining health induced William Smith to invite William Kelly to become his partner. The partnership was dissolved late in 1890 or early 1891, probably because of Smith's failing health, as the firm name was retained. In 1893 Kelly married Mary, eldest daughter of George Carmichael, bank agent in Aberdeen, thus becoming the brother-in-law of the architects Charles and Duncan Carmichael. In 1896 Kelly had an important competition win when John James Burnet selected him as architect of Aberdeen Savings Bank, the business of which he retained thereafter; and in 1902 he took into partnership his chief assistant James Brown Nicol, born c.1867. Nicoll was articled to Alexander Marshall Mackenzie in 1883-88, where he worked under the supervision of the ablest of Mackenzie's assistants, Alexander Mackintosh. In 1889 after a further year in Mackenzie's office he moved to Edinburgh to gain wider experience first with James Bow Dunn in 1889-90 and then with Sydney Mitchell & Wilson as chief assistant from 1890 until 1891 when he returned to Aberdeen as Kelly's assistant. Nicoll published 'Domestic Architecture in Scotland', a survey of contemporary work, in 1908. Kelly was elected ARSA in 1911 and had the degree of LLD conferred upon him by the University of Aberdeen in 1919, mainly in recognition of his work at King's College Chapel. He held the post of newly created Aberdeen Corporation Director of Housing from 1918-23, the first to do so. He retired from the practice in 1928, but remained consultant architect to Viscount and Lady Cowdray, doing much work on the Dunecht estate and consolidating and partly restoring Dunottar Castle in association with his lifelong friend the historian and antiquary Dr W Douglas Simpson. Simpson described him as 'endowed with commanding height, a fine leonic head and a rich resonant voice… His tall figure and rapid walk made him noticeable among Aberdonians of his time. Men with shorter legs found it trying to come down Albyn Place with him in the morning'. He was active in 'choral singing' and 'a good player of both piano and organ, always reading from the old-fashioned tonic sol-fa system and scarcely ever from the conventional staff notation' but his main interests were antiquarian. On 28 June 1941, at the age of seventy-nine, Kelly had a bad fall at home and broke his thigh. Thereafter he was confined to bed: Simpson recalled that 'those who visited [him] will never forget his bed-ridden figure with full and silken white beard…his eyes sparkling with fun or wistful reminiscence'. He continued his sketches in bed from books and photographs, assisting Simpson with his book on Glenbuchat and the Rhind lectures on the Province of Mar, published in 1942. He died on 10 March 1944 and was buried in Springbank Cemetery. He left the then very substantial moveable estate of £22,458 8s 4d, and was survived by his wife, three sons none of whom pursued architecture as a career, and a daughter. Some of his relatively few papers were published by Simpson as a tribute to him from the University of Aberdeen after his death. His name is atill familiar to Aberdonians through the 'Kelly's cats' on the parapets of Union Bridge. There has been a debate as to whether Kelly actually designed the leopards, or whether it was Sidney Boyes, the sculptor who designed the bronze panels on either side of the bridge but Kelly used a similar leopard on the savings bank in Union Terrace and sketches of the actual finials are in the Kelly Archive in Aberdeen University. Kelly's great-niece, writing in 'The Leopard' relates how during rag week, the students decided to tie ribbons around the leopards' necks. Drwrath knew no bounds and the ribbons were ordered to be removed, but in doing so, the nickname 'Kelly's cats' were born.
|
Historic Environment Records (HER)