Nationality Scottish Name John Cunningham Children John Usher Cunningham | Spouse(s) Agnes Usher Occupation Architect | |
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Born 1799 Leitholm, Berwickshire, Scotland Died 2 October 1873 (aged 73–74)
Trinity, Edinburgh, Scotland Buildings Crewe railway station, Liverpool Lime Street railway station, Liverpool Sailors' Home, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool | ||
John Cunningham (1799 – 2 October 1873) was a Scottish architect perhaps best known for designing Lime Street railway station and the original Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.
Contents
Life
Born in 1799 in the Scottish village of Leitholm, Berwickshire, he was the son of a builder to whom he was initially apprenticed. His talent came to the attention of Sir William Purves-Hume-Campbell, the Sixth Baronet and Third Earl of Marchmont. He designed his first building at seventeen, a lodge for the Marchmont Estate.
In 1819, Cunningham was apprenticed to Thomas Brown, Edinburgh's Superintendent of Works, and remained in that city for ten years. In 1829, he designed Greenlaw's Greek Revival County Hall and Courts building, which was constructed with money supplied by Purves-Hume Campbell. In 1832/3 he is noted as living at 15 Buccleuch Place, a flat in the south side of Edinburgh.
In 1833, he married Agnes Usher. That same year, his patron Purves-Hume-Campbell died, and Cunningham and his wife moved to New York, possibly to find work. However, the climate there had a detrimental effect on his health, and he returned to Edinburgh in 1834. Upon his return he was commissioned to design the Castle Inn Hotel in Greenlaw, which was situated directly across from the County Hall.
Later that year, he was invited to Liverpool by Samuel Holme, a politician and builder. In Liverpool, Cunningham formed an informal partnership with Holme's brother Arthur Hill Holme, which lasted until 1840. During that time, the two men collaborated to design the Crown Street railway station.
Cunningham was elected as a fellow of the Geological Society of London on 6 February 1839. He had a lifelong interest in geology and fossils, traveling to see the fossil tracks at Storeton as well as being a regular contributor to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.
Cunningham's son, John Usher Cunningham, was born on 16 February 1839.
In 1842, Cunningham took a trip through Belgium and France with Samuel Holme. During the trip he contracted cholera, but managed to recuperate.
A building of his design, the Jacobethan Sailors' Home, opened in Liverpool in 1850.
In 1860 he formed a partnership with the brothers George Ashdown Audsley and William Audsley of W. & G. Audsley. The partnership was terminated when the brothers opted to become independent in 1863.
Cunningham retired and left Liverpool in the summer of 1873, returning to Edinburgh and settling in the Trinity district, in order to live closer to his family and friends. There, he began a design for the St Andrews Public Halls, assisted by Campbell Douglas and James Sellars. However, before the building could be completed, he died at Laverockbank Terrace in Trinity on 2 October 1873 at the age of 73. His obituary ran in The Builder on 18 October.
His last project was finished posthumously by Douglas and Sellars in 1875.
Works
A number of the buildings he designed in Liverpool have since been demolished, but many in Scotland still stand. Some of his works include: