Esmé Gordon

Alexander Esmé Gordon (12 September 1910 – 31 May 1993) was a Scottish Modernist architect, writer, and painter who served as Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy between 1973 and 1978.

Born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh College of Art, Gordon worked as an assistant at Burnet, Tait, and Lorne before setting up his own practice in Edinburgh with James Robertson. During the Second World War, Gordon served in the Royal Engineers. In 1946, he formed a partnership with William Gordon Dey. Gordon worked mostly on ecclesiastical, educational, and commercial buildings: notable designs include the South of Scotland Electricity Board's George Street headquarters and Heriot-Watt University's Department of Brewing and Biochemistry as well as additions to St Giles' Cathedral and Moray House. In the latter part of his life, Gordon devoted his energies to the Royal Scottish Academy, serving as its Secretary between 1973 and 1978. Gordon was also a watercolourist, art collector, and author of books on St Giles' Cathedral, church design, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Biography Early life Gordon's parents were Alexander Shand Gordon WS (d.1938) (son of Alexander Gordon Solicitor of the Supreme Court), and Elizabeth Catherine Logan (d.1947). He was born on 12 September 1910 in Ramsay Garden in the Old Town of Edinburgh and brought up at 36 Heriot Row in the New Town. Gordon received secondary education at Edinburgh Academy. Between 1928 and 1934, he studied at Edinburgh College of Art under John Begg, John Summerson, and Adam Bruce Thomson. While at Edinburgh College of Art, he won various minor scholarships that helped him to make sketching tours of England and two month-long trips to Italy in 1931 and 1933. In 1934, Gordon won the Owen Jones Scholarship, which he used to travel to Italy in 1935.

He spent a year with Burnet, Tait, and Lorne in London, returning in 1934 as a qualified assistant. He worked mostly under Tait and his senior assistant Andrew D. Bryce. He was proposed as an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects by John Begg, Alexander Lorne Campbell and Frank Mears and admitted on 2 December 1935.

Later life Gordon was a member of the Scottish Committee of the Arts Council between 1959 and 1965 and president of the Edinburgh Architectural Association between 1955 and 1957; he designed the Association's Centenary Bronze Medal, awarded annually from 1957. Gordon also researched the history of the academy, uncovering artefacts such as plans by Thomas Hamilton and a collection of calotypes by David Octavius Hill.

Work Architecture Most of Gordon's original designs are classified as Modernist; "modern-traditional", and "Neo-Fascist".

Between 1947 and 1980, Gordon made a number of additions to Moray House, Edinburgh. The most prominent of these are Dalhousie Land (1960), built in a style the authors of the Buildings of Scotland guide to Edinburgh describe as "modern-traditional", and the now-demolished gymnasium (1968). The gymnasium's attenuated portico is cited by Miles Gledinning, Ranald MacInnes, and Aonghus MacKechnie as a late example of the "severe, usually astylar classicism" popular in eastern Scotland's post-war urban architecture; the authors of the Buildings of Scotland guide to Edinburgh describe the design as "Neo-Fascist". Among Gordon's other educational buildings are Heriot-Watt University's Department of Brewing and Biochemistry, Edinburgh (1960s) and Oxgangs Primary School (1953).

Writing Gordon's work in church building was reflected in his books A Short History of St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh (1954) and A Handbook on the Principles of Church Building: Furnishing, Equipment and Decoration (1963).

Robert Scott Morton and Anthony Wheeler described Gordon as "enthusiastic, generous and sociable, and an entertaining raconteur". Jean Jones wrote of Gordon: "Though a lively raconteur with old-fashioned courtesies, his outlook on life - political and otherwise - was more radical than his manner suggested, not least in the way he treated women as equals. He rarely spoke of his own achievements."