Alexander Laing (architect)

Alexander Laing (13 June 1752 – 10 September 1823)[1] was a Scottish architect who was mainly involved in house and castle design.

He appears to be the son of Thomas Laing (d.1774), a knife- and tool-maker who lived near the Theatre on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

[2] Laing trained as a stonemason, and (as was typical in that age) was also styled "architect", and was based in Edinburgh;[3] He is first listed in Williamson's Edinburgh Directory of 1774 as a "Mason" living at Theatre Row (on the south side of the Royal Mile near the now Museum of Childhood).

[4] Laing married three times: first to Charlotte Polson in 1772, then to Margaret Turnbull in 1786, and finally to Beatrix Currie in 1789.

[7] In 1795, Laing purchased the James Adam-designed 7 York Place, the manse for the adjacent St George's Chapel in Edinburgh, where he lived until 1818.