Who Built Stirling?

Architects and craftsmen constructed Stirling over many centuries. Although we do not always know who designed or constructed early buildings, from the later 19th century’ the architectural profession expanded and became very influential in the styles adopted. The distinctive buildings of the Victorian and Edwardian eras were designed by several notable architects such as John Allan and McLuckie & Walker.

More on Scottish architects working in Stirling can be found on the Dictionary of Scottish Architects website.

John Allan, architect (1846-1922)

Architect, John Allan designed many distinctive domestic and commercial buildings in Stirling. Born in Carnock, Fife in 1846, he moved to Stirling around 1875. He designed many villas and tenements throughout Stirling in a very distinctive and idiosyncratic style. Some feature quirky elements within the design, particularly symbols and incised inscriptions.

Notable buildings include:

Wolf’s Craig Building, Port Street/ Dumbarton Road (1897-98)
Batterflats, Batterflats Gardens (1893-85)
29-31 Friars Street (1902)
55 Baker Street (1880)

DSA Architect Biography Report

Incised inscription on Wolf Craig Building:

Here in auld days
The wolf roam’d
In a hole of the rock
In ambush lay

As part of the Festival of Architecture 2016 and Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Culture and Design, there are plans to celebrate the work of John Allan and the important contribution he made to the townscape of Stirling. Information will be posted on the ‘What’s Happening’ page as it becomes available.

McLuckie and Walker

Andrew McLuckie and Ronald Walker were two of the most active architects in Stirling during the later 19^th Century and early 20^th Century designing over 200 buildings in the town and altered or added to a further 100 setting the style, the tone and the standard for the new modern Stirling.

Andrew McLuckie was born in 1843 in Lennoxtown but moved to Stirling in 1864 and qualified as a Chartered Engineer. For the next twenty years he worked for one of the leading Stirling architects of the time, Francis Mackison, creator of Viewfield Church. When Mackison died in 1884, McLuckie went into partnership with Ronald Walker. Ronald Walker was born in 1859 in Tarbert, Argyll and served his apprenticeship as an architect in Glasgow before moving to Stirling, initially working with William Simpson.

They were the primary developers of the buildings that now make up Randolph Terrace, The Glebe, Bellfield Road and Manse Crescent. The first plot was used to build the fine double villa which is now 13-15 Randolph Terrace with Walker as the first resident in number 13.

Walker died in June 1911 and McLuckie just a few months later in December 1911. During their working lives Stirling had been transformed. They left the town with over 200 new buildings as well as many more that they had altered. They had either built or altered every school under control of the council school board and built a number of churches including the beautiful Logie Parish and Bruce Memorial.

McLuckie and Walker liked to mix new styles with traditional. They kept Neo-classical and Gothic elements to a minimum favouring Arts and Crafts influences. Mock turrets and towers were a feature of their work and they enjoyed producing optical jokes including false towers, turrets and balconies. They favoured arched doorways but where that was not possible they often added decorative features to give the illusion of a rounded arch.

In King Street, the former Stirling Co-operative Society building at 14-18 King Street (1897-99) includes some of these elements including a pair of conical turrets and a decorative arch at first floor level.

Visit our online exhibition on McLuckie and Walker.

More information about their work is available at http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=201473