Famous Scots - Charles Wilson

Charles Wilson was the younger son of a Glasgow-based master mason and builder. After working for his father, he was articled to the architect David Hamilton in 1827. In Hamilton's office, Wilson worked on jobs including Hamilton Palace, the Glasgow Royal Exchange, Castle Toward and Lennox Castle.

Wilson left Hamilton's practice in 1837 to take over his father's business, together with his his elder brother John. This partnership only lasted for two years, after which Charles Wilson established his own architecture practice. His early work was influenced by the architectural style of his former employer, including Italianate and Greek revival buildings. Due to financial problems at David Hamilton's firm, which was sequestrated in 1844, Wilson gained work that might have been expected to go to Hamilton, including the commission for the City Lunatic Asylum at Gartnavel in 1840. In preparation for this project, Wilson travelled to asylums in England and France.

Wilson made a significant contribution to the laying out of the city's West End, designing Gartnavel Royal Hospital, with its corbel heads of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (1841); Kirklee Terrace (1845-64), both in Great Western Road, and the plans for the laying out of the Botanic Gardens (1840); Kelvingrove Park and Woodlands Hill (1852-5). 

His Woodlands Hill development, comprising the Italianate Park Circus (1855-8) surrounded by the French Renaissance Park Terrace (1854-9), has been hailed as the finest example of Victorian town planning in Britain, and was made all the more spectacular with the addition of the soaring Lombardic towers of his Free Church College (1856-7) and the pinnacled Gothic tower of J T Rochead 's Park Church (1856-8, partially demolished 1967-8).

A number of interiors in Park Circus were designed by other architects, such as No. 22, which was fitted out by James Boucher in 1872-4, for Walter Macfarlane , and is the most splendid domestic interior in the city. Later additions to the house by James Salmon II in 1897-99, for Walter Macfarlane II, provided early opportunities for the Glasgow Style sculptors Johan Keller and A H Hodge .

Another magnificent interior was at 1 Park Terrace, for the cotton manufacturer John Houldsworth, who commissioned the London sculptor John Thomas to produce its decoration and furniture (1857). So impressed was Queen Victoria with their richness when she visited the sculptor's studio, she exclaimed that Houldsworth should be called 'Goldsworth'. The interiors were, however, never completed due to Houldsworth's death in 1859, although Thomas did complete the family's mausoleum in the Necropolis. 

Another magnificent interior was at 1 Park Terrace, for the cotton manufacturer John Houldsworth, who commissioned the London sculptor John Thomas to produce its decoration and furniture (1857). So impressed was Queen Victoria with their richness when she visited the sculptor's studio, she exclaimed that Houldsworth should be called 'Goldsworth'. The interiors were, however, never completed due to Houldsworth's death in 1859, although Thomas did complete the family's mausoleum in the Necropolis. 

Headstone Photograph

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Further Information

Firstname: Charles

LastName: Wilson

Date of Death: 6th Feb 1863

Cemetery: Sothern Necropolis

  Caledonia Road

Town: Glasgow

Region: Glasgow and Clyde Valley

Country: Scotland

Please Note, the marker on this map indicates the Cemetery location, not the location of a particular grave.

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