Alexander Thomson, Born 1817
’GREEK’ THOMSON, ARCHITECT
Alexander "Greek" Thomson (1817 – 1875) was an eminent Scottish architect and architectural theorist who was a pioneer in sustainable building. Although his work was published in the architectural press of his day, it was little appreciated outside Glasgow during his lifetime. It has only been since the 1950s and 1960s that his critical reputation has revived—not least in connection with his probable influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Thomson was born in the village of Balfron in Stirlingshire. The son of a bookkeeper, he was the ninth of twelve children. His father, who already had eight grown children from his previous marriage, died when Alexander was seven. Further tragedy struck when the eldest daughter, Jane, and three of her brothers died between 1828 and 1830, the year that Alexander's mother died. The remaining children moved with one of the older brothers, William, a teacher, and his wife and child to Hangingshaw, just south of Glasgow. The critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote that Glasgow in the last 150 years has had two of the greatest architects of the western world - Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander “Greek”Thomson.