John Dobson (architect)

John Dobson (1787 – 8 January 1865) was a 19th-century English architect in the neoclassical tradition. He became the most noted architect in the North of England. Churches and houses by him dot the North East - Nunnykirk Hall, Meldon Park, Mitford Hall, Lilburn Tower, St John the Baptist Church in Otterburn, Northumberland, and Beaufront Castle among them. During his career he designed more than 50 churches and 100 private houses. However, he is best known for designing Newcastle Central Station and for his work with Richard Grainger developing the centre of Newcastle in a neoclassical style.

Dobson was born on 9 December 1787 in High Chirton, North Shields, in the building that is now The Pineapple Inn. He was the son of an affluent market gardener, [John Dobson, whose wife was Margaret], and young Dobson was educated in Newcastle. As a young child he had an exceptional gift for drawing. Aged 11, he executed designs for a local damask weaver. At the age of 15, he was placed as a pupil with David Stephenson, the leading architect-builder in Newcastle, designer of All Saints Church and the Theatre Royal that stood in Mosley Street. In 1810, aged 23, Dobson completed his studies. He then decided to go to London to study art and became a pupil of John Varley the watercolourist. He was strongly encouraged by friends to stay and work in London, but by 1811 he was back in Newcastle and assisting Sir Charles Monck to design Belsay Hall. Monck was a passionate devotee of Grecian art and architecture, and it is thought that it was he who strongly influenced Dobson to adopt that style of architecture in so many of his future works. At that time, apart from Ignatius Bonomi in County Durham, he was the only practising architect between York and Edinburgh. It is not known beyond doubt what was Dobson’s first building, but Dobson’s daughter maintained that it was North Seaton Hall, near Ashington, built in 1813 and demolished in 1960.

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