Thomas Hamilton (architect)

Thomas Hamilton (11 January 1784 – 24 February 1858) was a Scottish architect, based in Edinburgh where he designed many of that city's prominent buildings.

Born in Glasgow, his works include: the Burns Monument in Alloway; the Royal High School on the south side of Calton Hill (long considered as a possible home for the Scottish Parliament); the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; the George IV Bridge, which spans the Cowgate; the Dean Orphan Hospital, now the Dean Gallery; the New North Road Free Church, now the Bedlam Theatre; Cumstoun, a private house in Dumfries and Galloway; and the Scottish Political Martyrs' Monument in Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh.

[citation needed] His father returned to Edinburgh after his birth and was most notable for remodelling the north-west corner of St Giles' Cathedral in 1796.

[citation needed] In 1803 the family moved to a newly built house of 47 Princes Street in Edinburgh's New Town.

John Hamilton (d.1812), a builder living and operating from 4 Dundas Street in the New Town,[5] helping with building projects such as Heriot Row.

[citation needed] Since the move to Princes Street, however, his father's affairs had been in disarray, with Hamilton possibly supporting him to some degree.

[citation needed] In 1813 his uncle James Hamilton of Springhill agreed to pay £40 towards his father's debts to fend off creditors, but this was never paid.

[citation needed] Hamilton's earliest known architectural drawing, dated 1813, is a plan requested by the Dean of Guild for a scheme by Robert Burn (architect) (1752–1815) to remodel a house on St Andrew Street.

[8] In 1852, he submitted a design for improving the Bank of Scotland's Head Office, which was unpopular and described as a "prominent deformity" by Lord Cockburn in 1849.

The Scottish Political Martyrs' Monument is a 90-foot (27 m) tall obelisk which is a prominent feature on the Edinburgh sky-line.

The building of a mausoleum on the grave of Robert Burns in Dumfries in 1815 was followed by a general move to erect memorials and statues of the bard in other Scottish towns and cities.

Following a large subscription in 1817 from Scottish expatriates in India[1] a monument in Edinburgh was funded and after a debate lasting over a decade Thomas Hamilton won this commission in 1831.