Alexander_Laing_(architect)

Alexander Laing (architect)

Alexander Laing (architect)

Scottish architect

Alexander Laing (13 June 1752 – 10 September 1823)[1] was a Scottish architect who was mainly involved in house and castle design.

Peterhead's Old Parish Church, one of Laing's designs

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Life

He appears to be the son of Thomas Laing (d.1774), a knife- and tool-maker who lived near the Theatre on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.[2]

Laing trained as a stonemason, and (as was typical in that age) was also styled "architect", and was based in Edinburgh;[3] He is first listed in Williamson's Edinburgh Directory of 1774 as a "Mason" living at Theatre Row (on the south side of the Royal Mile near the now Museum of Childhood).[4]

Laing married three times: first to Charlotte Polson in 1772, then to Margaret Turnbull in 1786, and finally to Beatrix Currie in 1789.[1]

He had a son, Francis (1 May 1773 – 24 November 1861),[5][6] with Charlotte. He also had a daughter, Jane, who married Captain Alexander Robertson in 1808.[7]

In 1795, Laing purchased the James Adam-designed 7 York Place, the manse for the adjacent St George's Chapel in Edinburgh, where he lived until 1818.[8]

He left York Place in 1818.[9] He moved to 6 Gayfield Place (a house of his own design) at the top of Leith Walk and was still living there in 1823.[10]

Laing died in Portobello in 1823, aged 71.[5][1]

Known works

Laing's works include:[11]

Langton Parish Church in Gavinton
Brechin Castle
Darnaway Castle

References

  1. [1]
    Alexander Laing at ScottishArchirects.org.uk
  2. [2]
    Williamson's Street Directory 1773
  3. [3]
    A Treatise on the Law of Scotland, respecting the Erection, Union, and Disjunction of Parishes; the Manses and Glebes of the Parochial Clergy, and the Patronage of Churches - Sir John Connell (1818)
  4. [4]
    Williamson's Street Directory 1774
  5. [5]
    The Snell Exhibitions: From the University of Glasgow to Balliol College, Oxford - J. MacLehose & Sons (1901)
  6. [6]
    Francis Laing - University of Glasgow
  7. [7]
    The Scots Magazine, Volume 71 (Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran; 1809)
  8. [8]
    Edinburgh, 7 York Place - Canmore.org.uk
  9. [9]
    "7 York Place". Canmore. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  10. [10]
    Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1820
  11. [11]
    Alexander Laing - Scottish Architects
  12. [12]
    HES listed buildings in Edinburgh
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Alexander_Laing_(architect), and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.