Archibald Simpson

Archibald Simpson

Portrait of Archibald Simpson by James Giles
Born (1790-05-04)4 May 1790
15 Guestrow, Aberdeen, Scotland
Died 23 March 1847(1847-03-23) (aged 56)
1 East Craibstone Street, Aberdeen, Scotland
Nationality Scottish
Occupation Architect
Buildings Marischal College
Three Free Churches (The Triple Kirk)
Projects Bon Accord Terrace, Square and Crescent

Archibald Simpson (4 May 1790 – 23 March 1847) was a Scottish architect, who along with his rival John Smith, is regarded as having fashioned the character of Aberdeen as "The Granite City".[1]


Life and work

Memorial portrait of Archibald Simpson by James Giles (1848)
Archibald Simpson Memorial (1975), Bon Accord Square, Aberdeen

Early Life

Archibald Simpson was born at 15 Guestrow, Aberdeen on 4 May 1790, the ninth and last child of William Simpson (1740 - 1804), a clothier at Broadgate, and his wife Barbara Dauney (c.1750 - 1801), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. The family house at Guestrow is thought to have been built by his uncle William Dauney, who was a master mason. The house was later demolished in 1930.

Simpson attended Aberdeen Grammar School as a contemporary of Byron, who lived nearby in Broadgate. At 13 he entered Marischal College but left after a year, on the death of his father, to work in the office of James Massie, a builder at Castlehill, having been influenced so by his uncle William Dauney.

Due to being born lame in his left arm, his father left him a legacy of £200 with which at the age of 20 he went to London to be apprenticed to architect Robert Lugar and later David Laing. After two years Simpson left to embark on a study tour of Italy, returning to Aberdeen in 1813 to start an architectural practice in his old house at 15 Guestrow.[2]

Architectural Practice

Simpson first established his practice in 1813 at his old childhood home at 15 Guestrow. He later moved to premises at 130 Union Street, where in 1826 he lost his entire archive of drawings in a fire which destroyed the building, forcing him to move his office to 8 Belmont Street and later to 22 Crown Street - where the former Post Office building now stands - before later moving to live at 15 Bon Accord Street and practicing from his office at 1 Bon Accord Street.

St. Andrew’s Chapel, now St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen (1817)
Bon Accord Crescent, Aberdeen (1823) for the Tailor Incorporation
The Athenaeum, Aberdeen (1823)
North of Scotland Bank, Aberdeen (1844) with figure of Ceres by James Giles, now a pub called The Archibald Simpson
Figure of Ceres by James Giles, North of Scotland Bank, Aberdeen (1844)
Three Free Churches (1844), built as result of the Disruption of 1843, with evidence of German stylistic influence
Elisabethkirche, Marburg, Germany (1340)[1]

Simpson began his work at a time when wealthy country landowners were very influential in the social and cultural development of the City of Aberdeen, church and institutional expansion was rife and the enterprising Incorporated Trades were looking to invest heavily and speculatively in the new civic development - made possible by the bold construction of Union Street westwards across the Denburn towards the rich hinterland in 1801.[1][2]


Simpson, along with his brother Alexander, was responsible for reviving the Aberdeen Musical Society, founded in 1747, in a move to make influential social contacts which were vital to the success of his architectural practice. Archibald played the violin and his brother Alexander played the flute. He later also founded the Aberdeen Artists Society with his friend and collaborator, the artist James Giles, who also undertook several portraits of Simpson for the University Court.

Architectural Style

The boldest and most refined architecture of Simpson is in the Grecian style, in its classic purity of detail and proportion, although he was equally at ease in adopting Gothic, Italian Renaissance, Tudor and Hanseatic architectural styles to meet the preference of his clients or the nature of the site. Clients frequently placed him in open competition with John Smith, though they greatly respected one another's work and ambition to achieve civic unity in the new streets that were then under construction. The result was a fine granite street architecture that was to influence the quality of development for a further century.[1][2]

Death and Legacy

Simpson died, aged 56, at his house at 1 East Craibstone Street, Aberdeen on 23 March 1847, having returned ill from a business trip to Derby.[2] He is buried in the graveyard of the Kirk of St Nicholas on Union Street. The Aberdeen Civic Society erected a granite memorial to him in the gardens of Bon Accord Square, as part of the European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975.[3]

Works[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Simpson, William Douglas, (1947) The Archibald Simpson centenary celebrations : 9th May 1947, a report of the proceedings reprinted with amplifications from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland of August 1947, Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable
  2. 1 2 3 4 Miller, David G., Dip. Arch. (2006) Archibald Simpson Architect: His Life and Times, 1790-1847, Librario
  3. ↑ Aberdeen Civic Society, (1978) Archibald Simpson : architect of Aberdeen 1790-1847 , Aberdeen : Aberdeen Civic Society
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