John Armstrong (architect)
John Armstrong (20 January 1857 – 27 April 1941) was a Scottish architect and civil engineer operating in Scotland in the late 19th century. He was a Quaker, and appears to have done much work for the Society of Friends.
Life
He was born in Newport Street in Edinburgh in 1857, the son of James Armstrong an engine driver and Agnes Irvine. The family moved to Carlisle when John was only four years old.[1]
In 1881 he appears in the census as an architect operating from 51 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh. His home address is then given as 2 South Clerk Street. In 1882 he took up very prestigious offices at 2 Queen Street in the New Town. In 1885 he moved to the then newly completed corner flat at 17 Hillside Crescent, designed by his peer, John Chesser.[2]
He appears to have been affiliated with various Quaker groups and was linked to the Quaker Meeting House in both Westminster and Longford. This probably led to his commission by the American evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, to design Carrubbers Close Christian Mission on the Royal Mile.
After briefly living with his brother in Birmingham in England for part of 1886 he moved to London. He is noted as applying for membership of the Quaker Meeting House in Middlesex in April 1888. Here he met Marie Marthe Bobenrieth (1863-1955) from Lyon in France who married him shortly thereafter.
After living in Acton, London in his self-designed house, Eden Hall, the couple retired to Hyères (a popular British hub) in France in 1933 where they lived in the Villa l’Ensoleillado (which he had purchased in 1926). He died there in 1941.
Works
- Old Waverley Hotel, Princes Street, Edinburgh (1883)
- Carrubbers Close Mission, Royal Mile, Edinburgh (1883)
- Eden Hall, Montpelier Road, Acton
References
- Dictionary of Scottish Architects