Charles Wilson (19 June 1810 – 5 February 1863) was a Scottish architect from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Biography

Charles Wilson was the younger son of a Glasgow-based master mason and builder. After working for his father, he was

articled Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to the architect David Hamilton in 1827. In Hamilton's office, Wilson worked on jobs including Hamilton Palace, the Glasgow Royal Exchange,

Castle Toward Castle Toward ( gd, Caisteal an Toll Àird) is a nineteenth-century country house on the southern tip of the Cowal peninsula, overlooking Rothesay Bay in Argyll and Bute on the west-coast of Scotland. Built in 1820 by Glasgow merchant Kirkma ...

and

Lennox Castle Lennox Castle is an abdandoned castle in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, approximately north of Glasgow. It is infamous for previously hosting Lennox Castle Hospital, Scotland's "largest institution for people with learning disabilit ...

. Wilson left Hamilton's practice in 1837 to take over his father's business, together with his elder brother John. This partnership only lasted for two years, after which Charles Wilson established his own architecture practice. His early work was influenced by the architectural style of his former employer, including

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

and

Greek revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

buildings. Due to financial problems at David Hamilton's firm, which was sequestrated in 1844, Wilson gained work that might have been expected to go to Hamilton, including the commission for the City Lunatic Asylum at Gartnavel in 1840. In preparation for this project, Wilson travelled to asylums in England and France. LewsCastle

Continental

neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism ...

increasingly influenced his work during the 1840s and 1850s, although he also produced work in the Scots Baronial style. During this period he worked on numerous residential villas, and several public buildings including the Queens Rooms (1856) and the Free Church College (1856–1857), both in Glasgow. In 1850, he designed Woodside House in Paisley for the thread baron, Sir Peter Coats. He was responsible for the Duke Street Cotton Mill and the Neilson Institute in Paisley (both 1849). In 1851 Wilson prepared a master plan for the Park district of Glasgow, the core of which was taken forward as Park Circus, although other parts of his scheme were not adopted. He also assisted

Sir Joseph Paxton ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

with the layout for the adjacent Kelvingrove Park. Wilson's design for 22 Park Circus was executed after his death. His important mansions include the castellated

Lews Castle Lews Castle ( Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Leòdhais'') is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the w ...

Stornoway Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well ...

(1847–1857), for

Sir James Matheson Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 179631 December 1878), was a Scottish Tai-Pan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh's Royal High Sc ...

. Wilson was a founder-member of the Architectural Institute of Scotland in 1850, and of the Glasgow Architectural Society in 1858, of which he became president in 1860, although due to failing health he was succeeded as president by Alexander Thomson the following year. Wilson's former assistant, David Thomson, returned to his firm as a partner shortly after, taking on the running of the practice. In February 1863 Charles Wilson died of

dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

, and was buried in Glasgow's Southern Necropolis, close to the gateway he had designed in 1848. Besides David Thomson, architects trained in Wilson's practice include Thomas Ross, James Boucher and James Cousland.

Mentions in literature and pop culture

A House designed by Charles Wilson plays an important part in the "Empathy is the Enemy" storyline of the comic-book series

Hellblazer ''John Constantine, Hellblazer'' is an American contemporary horror comic-book series published by DC Comics since January 1988, and subsequently by its Vertigo imprint since March 1993, when the imprint was introduced. Its central character is ...

.Hellblazer, Vertigo Comics, Issues 216-222

References

External links

Charles Wilson (1810–63)
Glasgow – City of Sculpture

Gazetteer for Scotland

City of the Dead: Glasgow Southern Necropolis Guide {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Charles 19th-century Scottish architects Architects from Glasgow 1810 births 1863 deaths Burials at the Southern Necropolis Deaths from edema