Basic Biographical Details

Name: William ('Bill') Gillespie
Designation:  
Born: 7 December 1926
Died: 3 May 2011
Bio Notes: William Gillespie, known as Bill, was born on 7 December 1926 at Moorlands, Grasscroft, near Oldham, Yorkshire. His father was a wealthy cotton-mill owner but the business was to collapse due to cheap imports just before the Second World War. His interest in architecture began at an early age; he recalls drawing churches from the age of ten. He attended Colwyn Bay Secondary School, and was apprenticed to J M Porter & Co – architects, valuers and estate agents of Colwyn Bay – from July 1943. He voluntarily interrupted his training just over a year later to serve in the Royal Navy, joining the corvette HMS 'Kingcup' which escorted North Atlantic convoys. After leaving the Navy in 1946, he tried to obtain a place at Liverpool University to study architecture, but his application was rejected and, with his father’s encouragement, he turned instead to his second love: horticulture.

His first move was to work at a plant nursery (Parley But?) in Woking, Surrey, but he soon tired of struggling to make ends meet in the south-east of England. Asked for advice, his father – then living in Abersoch, North Wales – went to discuss the matter with his bank manager, who suggested he contact a Mr J St Bodfan Gruffydd, a market gardener just over the Welsh border near Coventry. Gruffydd turned out to have experience of landscape architecture and, upon discovering Gillespie’s interest in architecture, put him in touch with Frank Clark, who had very recently set up the first British school of landscape architecture, at Reading. In September 1948 Gillespie was one of just five students to joined Clark’s three-year diploma course in its second year of functioning, the others being Britta Graunosk (Finnish), Geoffrey Smith, Ian Laurie (of Dundee) and Johnny Williams (of Liverpool). Gillespie recalls that Clark ‘used to read to us a lot rather than give lectures. He introduced us to people who had been involved in landscape around the world through his reading. ... When we left Reading, Frank said to all of us, “now you might think I’m a bit of a bumble and when you leave here, you will probably forget most of what you’ve learnt. But in five years’ time, and subsequently, you’ll remember everything.” And he was right.’ Besides Clark, Gillespie studied under Doris Knoll, Laura Baitman and Professor Betts, and he spent the summer vacation of 1949 examining the new town of Stevenage.

On graduating in 1951, he secured a post in the new landscape department set up by planning officer Dick Atkinson within Durham County Council – which he remembers as ‘the only place that was employing landscape architects outside of the new towns and the London County Council’. He was principally occupied with projects involving coal tips, which needed to be adjusted to suit the surrounding topography and to allow a return of the land to agriculture. He was headhunted by Lancashire County Council for similar work, and joined them in July 1953.

Becoming ever more conscious of the fact that landscape work is more closely linked to engineering than to architecture, he decided to seek opportunities that were more related to buildings. He obtained a post in Solihull designing school playgrounds, playing fields and parks, and then, in 1956, was appointed chief landscape architect for the New Town of Cumbernauld. His core team had three or four members of staff, and the then chief architect, Hugh Wilson, entrusted him with not only design and planning tasks but also with setting up an out-of-town nursery and running the direct labour force, who were engaged on landscape and forestry work. When Gillespie and Peter Youngman, the consultant landscape architect, were faced with a difference of opinion, it was agreed that Youngman would landscape the south side of the town and Gillespie the north. Their approaches are visibly different, with the north side conceived to take maximum advantage of the views of the Campsie Fells, and with a specially planted forest to enhance the landscape. Gillespie made use of his experience with pit heaps: he remembered finding heather and birch trees growing at some of the bings he had worked on, and return visits to them enabled his team to obtain substantial quantities of vegetation for re-use at Cumbernauld. Unfortunately his plans for step ramps were abandoned; he cites Dunbartonshire County Council’s replacement of them by footpaths on a one-eighth gradient, which are perilously slippery in winter, as one of the reasons why the town later acquired such a negative reputation. Another blow was the decision by the Scottish Office not to construct the huge crescents of earth, one at each end of the town centre, that he and Geoffrey Copcutt intended to act as shields against the wind and rain to which the hilltop site was always bound to be subjected. Despite these changes, the overall achievements at Cumbernauld were to win the 1967 R S Reynolds Memorial Award for Community Architecture, beating the celebrated Finnish suburb of Tapiola.

One night in 1959, over dinner in Cumbernauld, Gillespie found himself in conversation with a man who had recently inherited a Motherwell crane construction firm from his father, but had sold the business since he had no interest in it; his great passion was for the land. He had bought two farms near Stirling, and asked Gillespie to ‘do his garden for him’ – a project that ended up costing some £31,000, as the ‘garden’ was spread over nine acres. This gave Gillespie the confidence, in 1962, to leave the Cumbernauld New Town Development Corporation and set up a private practice in Glasgow, although he was called back to Cumbernauld as a consultant on later phases of work, including Ravenswood 4.

His practice, initially William Gillespie Landscape Architect and later simply Gillespies, was a great success; by the time he retired in 1989, it had a staff of 124 spread across some eight offices in the UK as well as others in Cairns (Australia) and Singapore. The firm worked in Egypt on the Suez Canal project under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as in Japan, and it shared premises in Holland for the small amount of European work it carried out. Its projects encompassed new towns and town centres, motorways, and considerable amounts of work for electricity boards and water authorities. Appointed to masterplan the UK's first International Garden Festival, in Liverpool in 1984, and the Glasgow Garden Festival four years later, Gillespies was also engaged on feasibility studies for the Countryside Commission of Scotland; conservation studies for historic sectors including Regent’s Park in London; planning studies for open-space systems for Glasgow, Coatbridge, Motherwell, Bishopbriggs and Milngavie; and masterplanning for the Royal Docks in London's East End, in collaboration with Richard Rogers.

Gillespie did much to forward his profession and to encourage its younger members to make the best of their talents. Instrumental in the establishment of the Landscape Institute, he acted as examiner for the Design Set Piece, where students from around the country focused on the same site. He was chairman of the Institute's Scottish Chapter, honorary secretary of the national institute, and finally its president. He was also an external examiner for Sheffield University.

He died in Elgin on 3 May 2011, survived by his wife Linda, five children and six grandchildren.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
 AddressTypeDate fromDate toNotes
Item 1 of 7Saddleworth, near Oldham, Yorkshire, EnglandPrivate1926 Place of birth
Item 2 of 7Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire, WalesPrivateBefore 19431944 
Item 3 of 7Woking, Surrey, EnglandBusiness19461947Working for Parley But (sp?) nurseries
Item 4 of 7near Coventry, Warwickshire, EnglandBusiness19471948Working for Mr Bodfangruffydd
Item 5 of 7Reading, Berkshire, EnglandPrivate19481951Studying at University
Item 6 of 7Solihull, Warwickshire, EnglandBusiness19551956 
Item 7 of 7Glasgow, ScotlandBusiness19621989In independent practice

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate fromDate toPositionNotes
Item 1 of 5J M Porter & CoJuly 1943August 1944Apprentice 
Item 2 of 5Durham County Council Landscape Architecture DepartmentAugust 1951June 1953Landscape architect 
Item 3 of 5Lancashire County Architect's DepartmentJuly 1953May 1955Landscape architect 
Item 4 of 5Cumbernauld New Town Development Corporation19561962  
Item 5 of 5William Gillespie & Partners (or Gillespies)19621989Senior Partner 

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 51958Cumbernauld Civic CentreCumbernauld LanarkshireScotlandWorked in collaboration with Geoffrey Copcutt
Item 2 of 51958Cumbernauld New Town, preliminary planning proposals (Glasgow Overspill)Cumbernauld LanarkshireScotland 
Item 3 of 51959Cumbernauld Town Centre, Phase ICumbernauld LanarkshireScotlandLandscaping, particularly of north side
Item 4 of 5After 1962Ravenswood 4Cumbernauld New Town LanarkshireScotlandAs consultant, after leaving Cumbernauld New Town Development Corporation
Item 5 of 51981West of Scotland Science Park, Todd CampusGarscube Estate GlasgowScotland 

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 4Glendinning, Miles1997Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75  Tuckwell Press Ltdp30-1
p49 Photograph of Town Centre
p84-5 Aerial of model of Town Centre
p86-92
p172
Item 2 of 4Glendinning, Miles and Muthesius, Stefan1994Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland Yale University Press: New Haven and Londonp239 Cumbernauld Town Centre Phase 1
Item 3 of 4Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters, David Whitham Docomomo Scotland Leaflet  p230 Cumbernauld Town Centre
Item 4 of 4Williamson, Riches, Higgs1990Glasgow (The Buildings of Scotland)  p408

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
 Periodical NameDateEditionPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 1Scotsman30 July 2011  p.46: obituary by Ian White

Archive References

The following archives hold material relating to this :
 SourceArchive NameSource Catalogue No.Notes
Item 1 of 1Courtesy of William GillespieInterview of William Gillespie by Jessica Taylor, 2 February 2009 at ECA