Looking Back: Our greatest architects drawn to Falkirk - Ian Scott

At the end of the 19th century Falkirk was a very prosperous place.
Dundas Church.Dundas Church.
Dundas Church.

That’s not to say that the working folk crammed into overcrowded and often ramshackle buildings were living the high life.

Far from it – for too many of them life was still ‘nasty, brutish and short’ and work in foundry, mine or factory was dirty, dangerous and ill rewarded.

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The prosperity that the town and district enjoyed was limited to a small group of powerful families – the ironmasters, coal owners, bankers and men of business – who earned large fortunes and enjoyed the privileges that came with it.

Grangemouth War Memorial.Grangemouth War Memorial.
Grangemouth War Memorial.

One of the big differences between then and now is that these people lived in Falkirk district and a good deal of their disposable income was used to transform the appearance of the place and enhance the sense of municipal pride.

Some of Scotland’s greatest architects were drawn here by the prospect of high fees and in this article I want to look at one of them in particular, Sir John James Burnet of Glasgow.

Born in the city in 1857 Burnett first came to our area as a schoolboy at Blairlodge Academy in Brightons, which was one of the leading private boarding schools in Scotland. It is now Polmont Young Offender’s Institution.

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After school John, whose father was an architect, studied in Glasgow and Paris before beginning a lengthy career designing hundreds of buildings the length and breadth of the kingdom including the famous Charing Cross Mansions and the Alhambra in Glasgow.

In 1881 he worked with his father on the Broompark Church in Denny and a decade or so later designed Dundas Church in Grangemouth for the United Presbyterian congregation in the Romanesque style with a low square tower surmounted by a slated pyramid roof.In 1896 he was in Stenhousemuir working on a remodelling of Carronvale House for George Sherriff, a businessman with Glasgow connections. It is now home to the Boys Brigade in Scotland.

Sherriff was one of the main drivers in 1899 behind a plan to build a new church in the village gifting the site and a substantial sum of money as well as recommending his friend the architect.

The result was the amazing McLaren Memorial Church (now Stenhouse and Carron) built to commemorate the long service in Larbert of the Rev John McLaren.

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Similar in general design to Dundas it is beautified by a range of Arts and Crafts touches which make the inside especially a wonder to behold.

Sir John’s final local contribution was rededicated last week after refurbishment. Burnet was invited by the Grangemouth War Memorial Committee to design their permanent tribute to the local fallen.

The result was a tall narrow cenotaph surmounted by a very large sculpture of a British lion devouring a German eagle which Burnet commissioned from the Glasgow sculptor Alexander Proudfoot.

In the aftermath of years of conflict and loss of life many people thought that such triumphalism was out of place and the architect was asked to think again. He refused.

All four of these examples of Burnet’s design genius are still with us and we are very much the better for their survival.

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