Four Paisley Architects walking trail

Explore the town center with our Four Paisley Architects Walking Trail and discover the history of some of our beautiful built heritage. 

Iconic buildings adorn the town’s skyline. You just have to look up to see the enduring legacy of the town’s time at the centre of the global textile trade. And the civic altruism of the local textile magnates.

A number of Paisley-based architects were engaged in its redevelopment and expansion, and gave Paisley its enduring, self-confident and prosperous character.

However, there are four architects who stand out for the number and quality of buildings they designed for the town between 1880 and 1940. They are James Donald (1852-1917), Thomas Graham Abercrombie (1862-1926), William Daniel McLennan (1872-1940) and James Steel Maitland (1887-1982).

Our architectural trail map is your guide to these four men and the remarkable buildings they created.

Download a copy of our Four Paisley Architects trail map from the link below:

Four Paisley Architects (pdf)

Plus, see each of the architect’s buildings marked on the Google Map below – then read on to find out more about each one.

James Donald (1852-1917)

The son of a Paisley farmer, James Donald worked at an early age for the great Glasgow architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson (1817-1875) before setting up his own practice in Paisley in 1881.

Donald’s first major commission was the Liberal Club in 1886. As an active member of the Liberal Party, he was well placed to get the commission for Dunn Square from the town’s Liberal MP, Sir William Dunn. He also designed as many as 87 tenements across the town. The best of these have memorable corner towers, with wide arched ground floor windows. He also designed a number of public houses, often with shallow bay windows, divided by heavy stone mullions, and transoms.

He also designed numerous villas in Paisley’s suburbs.

• Liberal Club, High Street/Churchhill, 1886

(altered 1901 by Peter Caldwell) Greek-Thompson-like superimposition of arcaded ballroom over heavier first floor façade.

• Sherwood Church, Glasgow Road/Greenlaw Drive, 1891

Free perpendicular Gothic (copper rocket roof to truncated spire by Page and 1993).

• Dunn Square, High Street/St Mirren Street, 1894

A formal park in an Itailian style. With settings for statues, and complementing the town hall opposite as well as the connecting bridge over the White Cart River. The wrought iron railings along the river, also enclosed the south and west side until WW1.

• 20 Smithhills Street (Old Swan Inn), 1897
• 19-21 Moss Street/Meeting House Lane, 1897-99
• 67 Causeyside Street & 4 Gordon Street, 1901-02
• 70-76 Causeyside Street (The Afton PH), 1902
• 33-35 Gauze Street (Gabriel’s PH), 1904-05
• 9 Orchard Street (Turf Tavern), 1904-05

Thomas Graham Abercrombie (1862-1926)

TG, as he was known locally, was responsible for some Paisley’s most iconic buildings. After leaving school at 14, he undertook a four year apprenticeship with master-architect John Hutchison in Glasgow. Following this, he spent a few years working in America and returned to the town in May 1886 at the age of 24. It was at this young age he opened his own architectural practice on the corner of County Square.

His first notable building was the Gothic Greenlaw Church, which he won the commision for in 1888. Working with William Kerr of Houston between 1890 and 1903, designs flowed from the practice for buildings in a variety of styles, usually carried out with great confidence and panache. They designed in the styles of Scots Baronial, Arts and Crafts, and Renaissance. Later, Art Nouveau influences developed into a Free Style, taking inspriation from various historical styles.

The practice’s most substantial commission was the Royal Alexandra Infirmary (1894-1901), on Neilston Road. Some later suburban house commissions were in an English Arts and Crafts idiom.

Outside of architecture, TG was a sociable man. He was a keen supporter of rugby and golf. He founded the Paisley Boys Brigade, and served in the territorial army.

At the age of 60, he made James Steel Maitland a partner, changing the practice name to Abercrombie & Maitland. Maitland continued the practice after TG’s unexpected death only four years later. TG died peacefully in the house he had designed for himself in Paisley, Redholme.

• Paisley Grammar School, Glasgow Road, 1895

Scots Renaissance style, grand but welcoming (side extensions 1961)

• Territorial Army, 76 High Street, 1896

Swaggering Scots Renaissance in polychrome sandstone with Art Nouveau bellcote.

• Parish Offices, 20-22 Back Sneddon Street/Maxwell Street, 1898

Asymmetrical Scots Renaissance full of inventive formal combinations.

• University of the West of Scotland, 42 George Street, 1898

(Former Technical College) Competition-winning Free Renaissance palazzo, with swept eaves and finials giving lighter touch.

• YMCA, High Street/New Street, 1908

Beaux Arts with corner dome and giant pilasters.

• Wallneuk Church, North Croft Street/Abercorn Street, 1913

Perpendicular Gothic, calm and powerful, one of TG’s best works.

• Upper Rotunda (and Art Galleries II-V) in Paisley Museum, High Street, 1913

Beaux Arts with sweeping steps inserted between Honeyman’s sculpture and picture galleries, gracefully resolving the awkward change of direction.

• Brough Nurses Home, 56 Oakshaw Street, 1897
• Abbey Mission Halls, Lawn Street, 1892
• Middle Church Hall, Church Hill/School Wynd, 1895
• Greenlaw Church, Greenlaw Avenue, 1889 (designed with RS Symington)
• Mrs A Coats Girls Home, Weighhouse Close (off New Street), 1900
• 41-43 Causeyside Street/Johnston Street, 1903
• 45-47 Causeyside Street/Johnston Street, 1903
• 33 Causeyside Street/Orchard Street, 1905
• 46-60 George Street, 1906-1907
• High Church Hall, 19 Oakshaw Street, 1911

William Daniel McLennan (1872-1940)

The son of a Paisley manufacturer, WD McLennan was educated locally, and was probably apprenticed to Peter Caldwell. Although little travelled, he emerged as one of Scotland’s most original architects active around the turn of the century.

His small output is all in Renfrewshire, but includes the country’s best Art Nouveau pub interior (the Bull Inn), and a church which bears comparison with CR Mackintosh’s Queen Cross church. His five villas in Thornly Park (1899-1910) are in fantastical English Arts and Crafts half timbered style. However his Crosslee Mill (1916, demolished) was ahead of it’s time, expressing the building’s concrete structure. It justifies calling McLennan an engineer as well as an architect.

• 4 Glen Street, 1899

Curious close entry upsets symmetry of this quirky 4 storey red sandstone tenement.

• Ralston East UP Church, Cyril Street/Violet Street, 1899-1904 (now offices)

Art Nouveau Goth with steeply pitched porch roofs flanking great north window.

• Bull Inn, 7 New Street, 1900-01

Restlessly asymmetrical Free Style tenement with witches hat roof. Inside Art Nouveau pub with cosy snugs.

• St Matthews Church (Church of the Nazarene), Gordon Street, 1905

McLennan’s masterwork, Art Nouveau version of perpendicular Gothic with stunning interiors.

James Steel Maitland (1887-1982)

The son of an Argyll grocer, JS Maitland was apprenticed at 14 to William Leiper and attended the Glasgow School of Art, where painting was his first love. He qualified as an architect in the Beaux Arts tradition in 1908 and emigrated to Canada. In Montreal he worked for the practice of Brown and Vallance, giving him experiance of designing multi-storey commercial buildings.

He returned to Britain to serve as a pilot in the Great War, afterwards settling in Paisley, his mother’s home town. Inintailly he supported his young family by manufacturing wooden toys. TG Abercrombie took him on in 1921, immediately recognising his abilities by giving him the plum job of the Russell Institute. Maitland continued the practice after Abercrombie’s death in 1926 until retiring in 1963 at the age of 76.

Outwith Paisley, the large public housing estates Maitland laid out for Renfrew Burgh from 1931 are among the best in Scotland. The one, two and three storey blocks freely blend Art Deco and Scottish Arts and Crafts elements, and the Beaux Arts layouts of squares, streets and alleys give each area distinct identities.

• Russell Institute, Causeyside Street/New Street 1923

Monumental Beaux Arts children’s health centre, rich with bronze sculptures by Archibald Dawson.  Stone clad reinforced concrete. Visitors welcome to view marble clad memorial hall and flying staircases.

• Former Arnotts Department Store, Gauze Street, 1924

Handsome facade with bronze framed canted windows and the architect’s lion head signature.

• 35 High Street, 1932

Emphatically horizontal Art Deco office facade above shops.

• 50 High Street, 1934

Shops, offices and flats with elegant Art Deco corner.

• Kelvin House, Riverside Walk, off Forbes Place, 1937

Strongly symmetrical Art Deco office facade

• 26-28 Moss Street, 1921
• 14 St James Street, 1926
• Janitor’s House, Grammar School, Glasgow Road/ Crossflat Crescent 1938