This evening, I am posting an image of a couple of elaborate memorials located at Glasgow's famous Necropolis (City of the Dead).

In the foreground is the John Houldsworth of Cranston Hill Mausoleum, designed by John Thomas in 1845.

This is a Graeco-Egyptian style monument made in marble with two statues at the entrance. On the left stands Hope and the right stands Charity.

John Houldsworth (1807-59) was a prominent local politician and founder of the Anderston Foundry and Machine Works. He was the son of a Nottingham cotton-spinner and educated at Glasgow, Geneva and Heidelberg. He was keen on art and sailing.

To the right of the picture is a memorial to Charles Clark Mackirdy, the owner of a large cotton spinning company who lived 1811-1891. The monument was designed by James Thomson of Baird & Thomson with David Buchanan being responsible for the finely detailed choragic Corinthian rotunda.

The Necropolis contains a vast array of elaborate monuments dedicated to the wealthy Glasgow business community of Victorian times and is well worth a visit as such offers a combination of social history and design work.

Labels: Glasgow

posted by Nigel Cole @ 2:27 PM