Basic Biographical Details Name: | Crawford & Denny | Designation: | | Born: | June 1900 | Died: | June 1903 | Bio Notes: | John McLean Crawford, who signed his name thus but was generally referred to by others as John Maclean Crawford, was born in 1854 in Parliamentary Road, Glasgow, the son of John Crawford, sculptor (who died aged 30 on 11 February 1861). Educated at Hamilton Academy, he was apprenticed in 1872 to John Burnet senior who had commissioned his father to do the figures of Hope on the Seaman's Chapel and figures on the Bank of Scotland at Carlton Place and Bridge Street (he also did the sculpture on McIntyre's corner at The Cross). Thereafter the younger Crawford spent some time in London with Sir George Gilbert Scott, Sir Arthur Blomfield and William Flockhart followed by a period in the office of Charles Lynam in Stoke-on-Trent. He returned to Scotland c.1885 to work briefly in the office of John Burnet & Son under John James Burnet, before commencing practice on his own account in 1886 in Dumbarton. A second office was opened in Glasgow in 1896, and the practice specialised in the design of first-class passenger steamer interiors - of which Crawford had designed over thirty by 1906, at least some of these being for the prominent Dumbarton shipbuilding firm of William Denny & Bros - in addition to the usual repertoire of church, school, commercial and domestic buildings.
Crawford took his former apprentice Alexander Cochran Denny into partnership in the Dumbarton office in June 1900. Denny had been born c.1876, the son of Alexander Denny, writer of Dumbarton, who came of the prominent shipbuilding family of William Denny & Bros there, and his wife Marion Chalmers Mitchell. He had been articled to Crawford in April 1893. At the end of his apprenticeship in March 1899 he had sought experience in Glasgow with Peter Macgregor Chalmers and in November of the same year moved to the office of Hippolyte Jean Blanc in Edinburgh. At some point during these early years he studied at the Glasgow & West of Scotland Technical College, although he never sat the exams.
The Crawford & Denny partnership was dissolved in June 1903 when Crawford gave up the Dumbarton branch office, working thereafter in Glasgow whilst Denny continued the Dumbarton practice independently. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 37, Church Street, Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland | Business | 1900 | 1903 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils
Buildings and DesignsThis was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details): | | Date started | Building name | Town, district or village | Island | City or county | Country | Notes | | 1900 | 129 High Street | Dumbarton | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | Alterations? |
ReferencesArchive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | F v17 p61 no1127 (microfilm reel 12) (Crawford); A v17 p60 (microfilm reel 19) (Denny) |
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