Frederick Thomas Pilkington

Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832-1898), pupil of his father, was a "Rogue" British architect, practising in the Victorian High Gothic revival style.

Typical of his work is the Barclay Viewforth Church in Edinburgh, a polychrome stone structure with early French Gothic details.

[2] Pilkington studied mathematics under Professor Philip Kelland at the University of Edinburgh, passed his exams in 1858 and was Hamilton prizewinner in Logic, but did not bother to graduate.

[5] After an illustrious but troubled professional life Pilkington returned to London, England in 1883 and died in Pinner on 18 September 1898, leaving £6,609 (Probate November 1899).

His work featured polychrome stone, chunky rustication and lavish external carving of Venetian medieval buildings combined with French rose windows, decorated tracery, high-pitched roofs and deep, rain-conscious porches.

[7] The most dramatic was the Barclay-Bruntsfield Church (1862-4), Edinburgh, with its landmark spire, unprecedented conical cluster of prismatic sections crowning the apses of the heart-shaped plan.

[8] In 1866 he designed the Marykirk church in Stirling, commissioned by Christian Maclagan, which shared many of these features, although the kirk was built on a difficult site and was pulled down in 1954; full records of its style do not remain.