Basic Biographical Details

Name:	Alister Gladstone MacDonald (or Alistair Gladstone MacDonald)
Designation:
Born:	18 May 1898
Died:	1993
Bio Notes:	Alister (or Alistair) Gladstone MacDonald, - sources differ as to the spelling of his first name - was born in London on 18 May 1898, the eldest of the six children of James Ramsey MacDonald, Britain’s first-ever Labour Prime Minister, and his wife Margaret Ethel Gladstone. Along with his brother Malcolm, he was educated at Bedales School in Hampshire following the death of their mother in 1911,when he was 13 years old. On leaving school in 1915 he declared his pacifist beliefs and in 1916 volunteered as an orderly with the Friends Ambulance Unit. For three years he worked on No 17 ambulance train in northern France transporting the wounded from the trenches back to the coast and thence to England. For much of his life he held an annual party for the “Seventeeners,” his comrades in the Friends Ambulance Unit. Following the war, he enrolled at London University, where he was a Donaldson medallist at the Bartlett School of Architecture. He married Edith Katherine Hart in 1922, presenting Ramsey MacDonald with his first grand-daughters. To provide an income he worked on building sites including Frank Verity’s Plaza Cinema in London where he acted as clerk of works. It was during this period that he took his only interest in politics, promoting the Ramsay MacDonald government's policies on town planning, traffic and housing in an article published in the Architects' Journal. Alister's decision not to follow his family into politics in order to become an architect was a move not entirely understood by his father. Years later, when he was a highly successful architect with offices in both London and Edinburgh, Manny Shinwell wrote to him “You could have done work for the party.” Alister MacDonald became a member of the RIBA in 1926 and was elected FRIBA in 1942. Shortly after commencing independent practice he opened an office at 14 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, possibly as a result of the commission for extensions to the McVitie and Price biscuit works in that city. In January 1930 Alister MacDonald landed in Manhattan to begin a five-week inspection of US architecture. His visit, reported in Time magazine, attracted considerable interest in America, thanks to his dashing good looks and the fact that he was the eldest son of Britain's first Labour prime minister. Visits were planned to New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and then to Hollywood to study lighting and sound insulation on film sets. In what the Daily Mail later described as his “adventures in Hollywood” he was to meet many of the film stars of the era including Charlie Chaplin, whom he invited to Chequers to meet his father. In the early 1930's he also travelled to Italy to study Mussolini's venture in draining the marshes around Rome for housing. There he met Mussolini and was invited to collaborate with Italian engineers in designing a skyscraper in the Piazza Diaz in Milan. Plans were prepared but the scheme never progressed as relations between Britain and Italy deteriorated. He specialised in news theatres during the boom years of cinema- building in the 1930s. Among his designs in England were those at Victoria and Waterloo stations which used back projection and insulation against the noise of the trains. Sadly his plans for a news cinema in Glasgow's Central Station were unrealised but he built a number of conventional cinemas in Scotland, most notably for the Caledonian Associated Cinemas group (CAC), including the Playhouses in Peebles, the Broadway in Prestwick, and cinemas at Montrose and Elgin. He was also responsible for the Empire Cinema and Peace Pavilion for the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park in 1938. His reputation and skills were clearly held in high regard – when the Architects Journal published a special number on Modern Cinemas in 1936, Macdonald was invited to contribute not only an example of his work on a conventional cinema (the Playhouse Montrose), but also an entire chapter on the complexities of designing newsreel cinemas. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was one of the band of architects who decided that St Paul's Cathedral must be saved. With the encouragement of the Dean, the group set up a firefighting vigil, known as the St Paul's Watch, armed only with hassocks and buckets of water. His interest in children led him to become honorary architect to among others the Nursery School Association, the Sunshine Homes for Blind Babies and Save the Children Fund and he was also involved in the post-war school building programme. Post war commissions included the Methodist churches at Amersham, Harlesden and High Wycombe, and the memorial wing of the Victory Ex-Services Club in Edgware Road. He also rebuilt the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts' Vanburgh Theatre and refurbished the Comedy Theatre (1955) in conjunction with Cecil Masey. About 1960 the firm became Alister G MacDonald & Partners and at this period he travelled widely, with commissions in Yemen, Mombasa, Cyprus, Malta and in Jordan for his friend King Hussein. Two of his last executed projects were the building of the Churchill Memorial complex for the Sultan of Brunei, and the town centre redevelopment at St Austell, Cornwall. Alister Gladstone MacDonald was married twice. In 1922 he married Edith Katherine Hart (two daughters); this marriage ended in divorce in 1936. In 1937 he married Doreen Banaz by whom he had two sons, Richard and Kelvin, and one daughter, Susan G R MacDonald, who was born in 1942. He was elected FRIAS in 1964. He died at Brighton on 22 March 1993.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	3, Lincolns Inn Fields, London, England	Private	1898	1916	Home of his father, Ramsey MacDonald
	9, Howitt Road, Hampstead, London, England	Private	1916	After 1931	A comfortable terraced house close to Belsize Park underground station purchased by Ramsey MacDonald.
	14, Frederick Street, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	c. 1930	c. 1936
	9, Queen Anne's Gate, London, England	Business	1932 *
	123, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	1939 *
	7, Manor Place, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business(?)	1939 or 1940 *
	14, John Street, Adelphi, London, England	Business	1939 or 1940 *
	Melina Place, St John's Wood, London, England	Private	1960 *
	Aldine House, 10-13, Bedford Street, London WC2, England	Business	1960		As Alister MacDonald and Partners
	Haveral Wood, Wadingburn, Midlothian, Scotland	Private	1964 *

* earliest date known from documented sources.

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	Alister G MacDonald & Partners	1960

Employees or Pupils

The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	Leonard George Pargiter	1932	1937	Assistant	In charge of Edinburgh office
	Alexander McDonald Heaton	1953	1954	Assistant Architect

RIBA

RIBA Proposals

This proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date proposed	Notes
	Alexander McDonald Heaton	4 December 1968	For Fellowship
	Leonard George Pargiter	19 June 1951	For Licentiateship

Buildings and Designs

This 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
	1924	Miss Ishbel MacDonald’s “Wendy House”	Lossiemouth		Morayshire	Scotland
	1931	St Andrews Works for McVities, Guest & Co			Edinburgh	Scotland	Extension to front block
	1932	Edinburgh factory, workpeople's dining room			Edinburgh	Scotland
	1932	Playhouse Cinema	Peebles		Peeblesshire	Scotland
	1932	Playhouse Cinema	Elgin		Morayshire	Scotland
	July 1932	Playhouse Cinema	Montrose		Angus	Scotland	Replaced Gordon& Scrymgeour as architect
	1933	Mayfair Cinema	Whitefield		Manchester	England	Cinema destroyed by fire 1941
	1933	News Reel Theatre, Central Station			Glasgow	Scotland	Proposed
	1933	News Reel Theatre, Waverley Station			Edinburgh	Scotland	Proposed new reel cinema - not executed
	1933	The Sphere New Theatre			London	England
	1933	Victoria Station Newsreel Theatre			London	England
	1934	Broadway Cinema	Prestwick		Ayrshire	Scotland
	1934	Manchester News Theatre			Manchester	England	MacDonald scheme not built
	1934	Waterloo Station Newsreel Cinema			London	England
	1935	Princes Cinema			Edinburgh	Scotland	Reconstruction as Monseigneur News Theatre
	1935	Toynbee Hall			London	England
	1935 or 1936(?)	Kincorth Competition				Scotland	Third prize in competition - with John Patterson
	1936	Barrage Balloon Factory	Godalming		Surrey	England
	1936	Business premises for J T Whitelaw's Trust			Glasgow	Scotland	Interior rebuilding
	1936	Cameo News Theatre			London	England
	1936	Lyceum cinema and theatre	Dumfries		Dumfriesshire	Scotland	Rebuilding
	1937	Cinema, St Clair Street and Park Road	Kirkcaldy		Fife	Scotland
	1937	Glasgow Empire Exhibition, Peace Pavilion	Bellahouston		Glasgow	Scotland
	1937	Palace Cinema	Buckie		Banffshire	Scotland	Reconstruction
	1938	Glasgow Empire Exhibition, Empire Cinema	Bellahouston		Glasgow	Scotland
	1939	Cinema	Grangemouth		Stirlingshire	Scotland
	1950	Victory Ex-Services Club			London	England	Extension
	1953	Royal Opera House	Valletta	Malta		Malta	Competition design
	1953	State Hospital	Doha		Dubai	United Arab Emirates	Competition design - placed second - with Eric Maidment
	1954	British Army Centre			Dhekelia	Cyprus	Nearly complete
	1954	Vanburgh Theatre, RADA			London	England
	1960	RAF Hospital	Cape Zevgari		Akrotiri	Cyprus
	1961(?)	“Westcott,” Martinsend Lane	Great Missenden		Buckinghamshire	England
	1962	Central Area Redevelopment	Bridgend		Glamorgan	Wales
	1964	Mixed Use Development, Putney High Street	Putney		London	England
	1966	Hospital for the Sultan of Brunei				Brunei

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
	Author(s)	Date	Title	Part	Publisher	Notes
	Gray, Richard	1993	The Cinemas of Alister MacDonald		in 'Picture House', no 19, Winter 1993/4, pp30-4
	Post Office Directories

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
	Periodical Name	Date	Edition	Publisher	Notes
	RIAS Newsletter	June 1993	v4, no5
	The Independent	27 March 1993			Obituary by Susan MacDonald
	The Times	11 April 1932
	The Times	19 January 1937
	The Times	3 March 1962
	The Times	18 May 1993			This date was in DSA as 18 May 1893 but this must surely be an error for 18 May 1993 which might well have been his obituary.