James Miller (1860–1947) was a Scottish architect, recognised for his commercial architecture in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and for his Scottish railway stations. Notable among these are the American-influenced Union Bank building at 110–20 St Vincent Street; his 1901–1905 extensions to

Glasgow Central railway station Glasgow Central (), usually referred to in Scotland as just Central or Central Station, is one of two principal mainline rail terminals in Glasgow, Scotland. The railway station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 1 August 1879 and is one ...

;Paton (2006) "Design worthy of the city". Chapter 4 In: Cameron (2006). and Wemyss Bay railway station on the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...

.Walker (1986), p 146. His lengthy career resulted in a wide range of building types, and, with the assistance of skilled draughtsmen such as Richard M Gunn, he adapted his designs to changing tastes and new architectural materials and technologies.

Early life

Miller was the son of a farmer, and was born in Auchtergaven,

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

, in 1860.Sloan & Murray (1993), ''Introduction''. He spent most of his childhood in Little Cairnie, Forteviot, and was educated at Perth Academy.Dictionary of Scottish Architects – James Miller
/ref> In 1877, he was articled to the Perth architect Andrew Heiton, and on completion of his apprenticeship, he worked in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

at the office of Hippolyte Blanc before joining the engineering department of the Caledonian Railway, initially in Perth.

Career

In 1888, Miller was transferred to the Caledonian Railway's drawing office in Glasgow, and designed a number of railway stations in the West of Scotland under the supervision of the engineer-in-chief, George Graham, and Donald Alexander Matheson, who was to become his successor. Notable designs from this period include the English-domestic style stations at Fort Matilda (1889), Troon (1892) and

West Kilbride West Kilbride () is a village and historic parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the west coast by the Firth of Clyde, looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goat Fell and the Isle of Arran. West Kilbride and adjoining districts of Seamill and P ...

(1900), and the interchanges between rail and steamer at Gourock Pier (1889) and Greenock Princes Pier (1893). In 1892, having won the competition to design Belmont Church in

Hillhead Hillhead (, ) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated north of Kelvingrove Park and to the south of the River Kelvin, Hillhead is at the heart of Glasgow's fashionable West End, with Byres Road forming the western border of the area, the ...

, he set up in full-time practice on his own account and rented an office at 223 West George Street, Glasgow. His experience of railway work brought commissions in 1894 from his prior employer Caledonian Railway for 'chalet-style' stations on the West Highland Line. In 1901, his designs were followed during construction of the Mallaig Extension Railway by Sir Robert McAlpine using mass concrete. He also designed the Scottish Jacobean-style St Enoch subway station for the Glasgow District Subway Company and two major railway hotels, Turnberry Hotel and Gleneagles Hotel. During the following 40 years, he won competitions and commissions for a wide variety of buildings including for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, of which his Sunlight Cottages are the sole remains; in 1901 for the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which resulted in a bulky and unpopular baronial-style design; and in 1904 for the Glasgow & South Western Railway's Turnberry Hotel. He undertook significant work for the Caledonian Railway at this time, including extensions to Glasgow Central Station and its

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

(1900–1905), Wemyss Bay railway station (1903), with its circular booking office and curving timber walkway to the steamer pier, and Stirling railway station (1915), also with circular elements. He designed the Govan memorial church to Margaret Macgregor. In 1910, he won the competition to design the headquarters of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

One Great George Street One Great George Street (OGGS) is a four-domed grade II listed Edwardian building used as a Conference venue, conference and wedding venue just off Parliament Square in Westminster, London, England. The building is the global headquarters of th ...

in London's

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, together with the adjacent matching extension to the

Institution of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 110,000 member ...

, which were built of Portland stone in a neo-Baroque style. An American influence began to appear in Miller's work following a 1902 fact-finding visit to the USA by Matheson. An early example was Olympic House (1903), a plain rectangular speculative office development in Glasgow's Queen Street, followed by the Anchor Line Building (1905–07) on St Vincent Place. The façade of this building is of white

faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white Ceramic glaze, pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide, oxide of tin to the Slip (c ...

tiles, the first time that a Scottish architect had used this material. It developed further following the appointment in 1918 of Richard M Gunn as chief draughtsman and designer, which resulted in designs such as the McLaren warehouse (1922) in George Square, and the massive classical Head Office for the Union Bank of Scotland (1924) in St Vincent Street. Miller's later commercial architecture during the 1930s featured hints of Egyptian revival decoration and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

, as seen in the

Commercial Bank of Scotland The Commercial Bank of Scotland Ltd. was a Scotland, Scottish commercial bank. It was founded in Edinburgh in 1810, and obtained a royal charter in 1831. It grew substantially through the 19th and early 20th centuries, until 1958, when it merge ...

(1930–1) at the corner of Glasgow's West Nile and West George streets; and the last of his bank buildings, also for the Commercial Bank of Scotland, at 30 Bothwell Street (1934–35). Both these buildings used white Portland Stone to combat the effects of Glasgow's polluted atmosphere at the time. Major commissions beyond Scotland included Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys (1927) in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, and the neo-Georgian style Dining Hall and 'Cocoa Block' (1929) for

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

at Bournville. His final designs were for long, low buildings such as the Glasgow & West of Scotland College of Commerce (1933) in Pitt Street, Glasgow. Miller's domestic work spanned his architectural career. Much of his early work, such as "Dunloskin", Dumbreck (1890), and Craighuchty Terrace, Aberfoyle (c. 1890) is in an English Arts & Crafts style and influenced by his railway architecture. Further commissions for houses in Glasgow followed as a result of Miller's involvement in the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, including 8 and 10 Lowther Terrace, Great Western Road (1904 and 1910 respectively). Between 1915 and 1923, he designed "Kildonan", near Barrhill, Ayrshire, for Captain David Euan Wallace MP, a very large property similar in size to Turnberry Hotel, and in a

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

style. In 1937 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were Magnus Mowat, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, Sir

Thomas Henry Holland Sir Thomas Henry Holland (22 November 1868 – 15 May 1947) was a British geologist who worked in India with the Geological Survey of India, serving as its director from 1903 to 1910. He later worked as an educational administrator at Ed ...

, John Barber Todd and Sir Alexander Gibb. Miller died on 28 November 1947 at Randolphfield,

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

, which had been his home since 1911.

Family

He was married to Emilina Henrietta Crichton. They had three children. Muriel (1901-1999) George (1903-1940) and Mabel (1904-2001) His son George James Miller joined the architectural practice in the mid-1930s but died in 1940, at which point James retired.

Gallery

File:Fort Matilda railway station - geograph.org.uk - 1702472.jpg, Fort Matilda railway station (1889) File:Departing Rannoch Station - geograph.org.uk - 730642.jpg, Rannoch railway station (1894) File:Wfm st enoch square.jpg, St. Enoch subway station (1896) File:Glasgow Central Station - geograph.org.uk - 1108852.jpg, Glasgow Central station (1899-1906) File:Sunlight Cottages - geograph.org.uk - 1544480.jpg, Sunlight Cottages (1901) File:Clydebank Town Hall - geograph.org.uk - 429807.jpg, Clydebank Town Hall and Public Library (1902) File:Wemyss Bay railway station.jpg, Wemyss Bay railway station (1903) File:13-14 George Square and 134-148 Queen Street, Glasgow, Olympic House.jpg, Olympic House on the corner between

George Square George Square () is the principal Town square, civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, Glasgow, Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, St Andrew's ...

and Queen Street, Glasgow (1903) File:Turnberry Hotel - geograph.org.uk - 231305.jpg, Turnberry Hotel (1904) File:Anchor Line building.jpg, Anchor Line building, Glasgow (1905–07) File:North Glasgow College - geograph.org.uk - 559277.jpg, Headquarters of the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park W ...

in Springburn (1909) File:Instituion of Civil Engineers.jpg,

, London (1910) File:Kildonan House. - geograph.org.uk - 554260.jpg, "Kildonan", Barrhill, Ayrshire (1915-1923) File:Commercial Bank of Scotland, Glasgow.jpg, Commercial Bank of Scotland, Glasgow (1930-1) File:9 George Square, Glasgow, Lomond House (Mclaren Warehouse).jpg, McLaren warehouse,

, Glasgow (1923) File:Union Bank, Glasgow.jpg, Union Bank of Scotland, Glasgow (1924) File:Commercial Bank, Glasgow.jpg, Commercial Bank of Scotland, Glasgow (1934–35) File:BBC Northern Ireland Belfast.jpg, BBC Broadcasting House, Belfast (1936)

References

Notes

Sources

* * Frew, Brian J (1988). ''The commercial architecture of James Miller: influences from Glasgow and abroad''. (Unpublished BA dissertation, Mackintosh School of Architecture). * Gomme, Andor and Walker, David (1987). ''Architecture of Glasgow'' (2nd ed.). London: Lund Humphries. . * * McKean, Charles; Walker, David and Walker, Frank A. (1989). ''Central Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide''. Edinburgh: The Rutland Press. . * Sloan, Audrey; with Murray, Gordon (1993). ''James Miller: 1860–1947''. Edinburgh:

Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) is the professional body for architects in Scotland. History Previously the (lapsed) Architectural Institute of Scotland, it was re-founded in 1916 as the Incorporation of Architects in ...

. . * Walker, Frank Arneil (1986). ''The South Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide to Inverclyde and Renfrew''. Edinburgh:

. . * Williamson, Elizabeth (1990). ''Glasgow''. London: Penguin Books. .

External links

The Glasgow Story – James Miller

Glasgow Sculpture biography

Dictionary of Scottish Architects – James Miller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, James 1860 births 1947 deaths Scottish architects Arts and Crafts movement artists People from Perth and Kinross People associated with Glasgow James Miller buildings People educated at Perth Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Royal Scottish Academicians British railway architects Fellows of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects