This evening, I am returning to the theme of Alexander Greek Thomson architecture as manifested in 1-10 Moray Place, Strathbungo, Glasgow.

Just by way of a brief recap, Greek Thomson lived 1817-1875 and is a candidate for the greatest mind in Scottish architecture. Thomson believed that the architecture of ancient Greece could be the basis of truly modern architecture.

Moray Place is a terrace of ten small houses, yet the composition has an astoshing monumentality. Repetition is a key feature. The ground floor windows and doors are evenly spaced and exactly the same size while an unbroken run of 52 square columns on the first floor links the two projecting end houses. The American historian, Henry-Russell Hitchcock opined that Moray Place was "the finest of all Grecian terraces".

Greek Thomson lived and died at No 1 Moray Place.

The Moray Place terrace may have been the inspiration behind Thomson's comment "....all who have studied works of art must have been struck by the mysterious power of the horizontal element in carrying the mind away into space, and into speculations upon infinity."

Video clip to follow.

Labels: greek thomson

posted by Nigel Cole @ 12:31 PM