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Renfrewshire Community Plan 2008 - 2017 W D McLennan
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William Daniel McLennan, one of Paisley's outstanding architects of the late 19th and early 20th Century. was born in Glen Street in Paisley.
His family were shawl manufacturers and ran a successful family business.
The prosperity of the business could be seen with the family's successive house moves, from Glen Street via Love Street and Stow Place, to eventually having a detached villa built for them in Carriagehill.
His family were shawl manufacturers and ran a successful family business.
The prosperity of the business could be seen with the family's successive house moves, from Glen Street via Love Street and Stow Place, to eventually having a detached villa built for them in Carriagehill.
William attended the John Neilston Institution for his secondary education. He excelled at school receiving Peter Brough bursary awards in the three academic years between 1886 and 1889. In 1889 McLennan left school and enrolled in the Government School of Design in Gilmour Street.
It was unlikely that William received any formal architectural training, and this is thought to have contributed to his unconventional designs. He probably began his architectural training with his apprenticeship, which appears to have been in the practice of local architect Peter Caldwell.
McLennan set up his own architectural practice in Paisley's High Street in the late 1890s. He produced a small number of designs, all local. Some of his prominent buildings include -
- 4 Glen Street, Paisley, 1899
- Bull Inn, 7 New Street, Paisley, 1900 - 1901
- St Matthews Church, Gordon Street, Paisley, 1905
- 4 villas in Thornly Park, Paisley, of which Ardyne is generally held to be the finest
His last architectural work was the design for Thorscrag, also in Thornly Park, in 1925. Interestingly the house appears to be a red sandstone villa but is actually a concrete house disguised as red sandstone.
McLennan died in 1940, a bachelor, leaving no will and little record of his life.
For more information on Renfrewshire's famous people, contact the Local Studies Library by:
- email: locstuds.els@renfrewshire.gov.uk
- phone: 0141 887 2360
- fax: 0141 887 6468
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- Reference and Local Studies Library
Central Library
68 High Street
Paisley
PA1 2BB
