page_title: John Douglas (architect)
section_title: Secular
hierarchical_section_title: John Douglas (architect) / Significant works / Early mature buildings (1870–84) / Secular
caption_attribution_description: English: Scanned from the book by me. Shows the entrance front around 1879. Taken from British Architect, 11, 1879, p. 36
context_page_description: John Douglas was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall. He was trained in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester. Initially he ran the practice on his own, but from 1884 until two years before his death he worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants.
  Douglas's output included new churches, restoring and renovating existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a variety of other buildings, including shops, banks, offices, schools, memorials and public buildings. His architectural styles were eclectic. Douglas worked during the period of the Gothic Revival, and many of his works incorporate elements of the English Gothic style. He was also influenced by architectural styles from the mainland of Europe and included elements of French, German and Dutch architecture. However he is probably best remembered for his incorporation of vernacular elements in his buildings, in particular half-timbering, influenced by the black-and-white revival in Chester.
context_section_description: Many of the secular buildings in this period were smaller-scale structures. These include cottages in Great Budworth, and cottages, houses, schools and farms in the Eaton Hall estate and its associated villages. In 1872 he designed Shotwick Park, a large house in Great Saughall, built in brick with some half-timbering; it has steep roofs, tall ribbed chimneys and turrets. About the same time he reconstructed Broxton Higher Hall, incorporating much half-timbering. Commissions for more large houses came in the late 1870s and 1880s. The Gelli (1877) is a house in three ranges designed for the Kenyon sisters in the village of Tallarn Green, Flintshire. Also built for the Kenyon family is Llannerch Panna in Penley, Flintshire (1878–79), which is "competent in its handling of timberwork". An entirely black-and-white house with jettying is Rowden Abbey (1881) in Hertfordshire. Back in North Wales, Plas Mynach (1883) in Barmouth includes much detailed woodwork internally.
  In about 1879–81 Douglas built a terrace of houses on his own land in Chester, 6–11 Grosvenor Park Road, the road leading to the main entrance to Grosvenor Park, in High Victorian style. About 1883 he designed Barrowmore Hall (or Barrow Court) at Great Barrow (since demolished) which was one of his largest houses. Also around this time he designed buildings on the Eaton Hall estate, including Eccleston Hill (1881–82), a large house for the Duke's secretary, the Stud Lodge, a smaller building of the same dates, Eccleston Hill Lodge (1881), a three-storey gatehouse at the main entrance to the park, with a high hipped roof and turrets, and The Paddocks (1882–83), another large house, this time for the Duke's land agent. In Chester city centre his designs included the Grosvenor Club and North and South Wales Bank (1881–83) in Eastgate Street, built in stone and brick, with a turret and a stepped gable, and 142 Foregate Street for the Cheshire County Constabulary (1884), with a shaped gable in Flemish style.
caption: Shotwick Park around 1879; image taken from The Builder
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