John Douglas (11 April 1830 – 23 May 1911) was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall.

Other vernacular elements he incorporated include tile-hanging, pargeting and the use of decorative brick in diapering and the design of tall chimney stacks.

The highest concentration of his work is found in the Eaton Hall estate and the surrounding villages of Eccleston, Aldford and Pulford.

John Douglas was born at Park Cottage, Sandiway, Cheshire, on 11 April 1830 and baptised on 16 May 1830 at St Mary's Church, Weaverham.

Their five children were born in these houses, John Percy in 1861, Colin Edmunds in 1864, Mary Elizabeth in 1866, Sholto Theodore the following year, and Jerome in 1869.

He also had a "strong sense of national loyalty", incorporating statues of Queen Victoria in niches at Walmoor Hill and in his buildings in St Werburgh Street, Chester.

As his office was in Chester, most of his works were in Cheshire and North Wales, although some were further afield, in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Scotland.

Around the same time, Lord Delamere commissioned him to build the church of St John the Evangelist at Over, Winsford, as a memorial to his first wife.

It is estimated that for the 1st Duke alone he designed four churches and chapels, eight parsonages and large houses, about 15 schools, around 50 farms (in whole or in part), about 300 cottages, lodges and smithies, two factories, two inns and about 12 commercial buildings on the Eaton Hall estate alone.

[21] Other wealthy landowners who commissioned work from Douglas included William Molyneux, 4th Earl of Sefton, Francis Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere, George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley, Rowland Egerton-Warburton of Arley Hall, Cheshire, and in Wales, the family of Lord Kenyon, and the Gladstone family, including W. E Gladstone.

[19] Although the firm where Douglas received his training was in a provincial city in the north of England, it was at the forefront of the Gothic Revival in the country.

[24] Both Edmund Sharpe and E. G. Paley had been influenced by the Cambridge Camden Society and, more specifically, by A. W. N Pugin who believed that "Gothic was the only correct and Christian way to build".

[27] Douglas's first church, that of St John the Evangelist at Over, Winsford, was entirely English Gothic in style, more specifically Early Decorated.

[29] One characteristic feature of Douglas's work is the inclusion of dormer windows rising through the eaves and surmounted by hipped roofs.

[32] The first Chester architect involved in the revival had been Thomas Mainwaring Penson, whose first work in this genre was the restoration of a shop in Eastgate Street in the early 1850s.

Other early Chester architects involved in the revival were T. A. Richardson and James Harrison[33] and it came to be developed mainly by T. M. Lockwood and by Douglas.

[43][44] Meanwhile, Douglas had designed a shop at 19–21 Sankey Street, Warrington (1864) with Gothic arcades and detailed stone carving which Hubbard considers to be his "first building of real and outstanding quality...in its way one of the best things he ever did".

[57] 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.

[70] 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.

[71] 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.

[72] St Mary's Church, Whitegate was restored in 1874–75 for the 2nd Baron Delamere, retaining much of the medieval interior but rebuilding the exterior, adding a short chancel, and incorporating half-timbering.

[79] During this period Douglas built or restored a series of churches entirely in stone, incorporating mainly Gothic features together with vernacular elements.

[116] In 1886–87 Douglas added a bell tower to St John the Baptist's Church, Chester and this was followed by the rebuilding of its north aisle.

[123] During this period one of Douglas's most important secular buildings was designed, St Deiniol's Library, at Hawarden, Flintshire, for W. E. Gladstone and his family.

[129] Douglas's last major project was the addition of a tower to his church of St Paul's at Colwyn Bay, but he died before this could be completed.

The pictures depicted buildings and furniture, mainly dating from the late medieval period and the 16th and 17th centuries, and mostly from Cheshire and northwest England.

[132] Douglas practised for the whole of his career in a provincial county town, and most of his works were concentrated in Cheshire and North Wales, yet he "conducted a practice which achieved national renown".

[136] In the companion series The Buildings of Wales: Clwyd, Hubbard expressed the opinion that he was "the most important and active local architect of the period".

[137] Critical praise was not confined to Britain; Douglas's works were acclaimed by the French architect Paul Sédille, and Muthesius wrote of his "consummate mastery of form".

[16] The major characteristics of his buildings are "sure proportions, imaginative massing and grouping ... immaculate detailing and a superb sense of craftsmanship and feeling for materials".