Journal 21: July 2025

In this edition Paul Holden our Honorary President discusses MacLaren’s maritime architecture with the Union Castle Line, owned by his patron Sir Donald Currie.

Rachel Elliott writes about the Victorian architects who along with MacLaren, were so influential in the arts and crafts movement.

There is also a report on the devastating fire to the thatched Kirkton Cottages in Fortingall in March 2025, and the loss of such heritage properties to MacLaren’s legacy.

Rachel Elliott has written another fascinating article for this edition on Glenlyon Farmhouse in Fortingall, Perthshire. It also includes an article on the Scottish architect Andrew Prentice by Alan Calder and an article on MacLaren’s membership of the Art Workers’ Guild.

This edition includes an article by Rachel Elliott on MacLaren’s work on Avonmore Road in London for the sculptor Henry Richard Hope-Pinker and also on the competition to design Wembley Tower in 1894 by Paul Holden.

The 1990 RIBA exhibition guide written by Alan Calder reprinted by the James M MacLaren Society.

This volume of the Journal was being prepared during a virus pandemic raging 130 years after James MacLaren's death from tuberculosis in October 1890, reminding us perhaps of the terrible diseases rampant then which now thankfully have been practically wiped out.  Tuberculosis, generally known as consumption was endemic in the nineteenth century and in the MacLaren family. James' younger brother Thomas MacLaren, featured in volume 17, decided after his brother's death, to seek out the healthier climate of Colorado. 

Contents:

Volume 17 includes "Scottish Architects in Colorado" condensed from Barry Binder's "In my ain countrie", and extracts from "Gran Hotel Catalina" translated from the Spanish by Bettina Myers.