James MacLaren

James Marjoribanks MacLaren (12 January 1853 – 20 October 1890) was a Scottish architect associated with the Arts and Crafts movement and the development of Scottish Vernacular architecture. He was a major influence on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and designed buildings in London, the Canary Islands, Stirling and Fortingall in Perthshire.

Early life and education MacLaren was the sixth of 11 children of John MacLaren, a farmer at Middleton of Boquhapple, Thornhill, Callander, and his first wife Janet Downie. MacLaren was educated at the village school and at Stirling High School.

Architecture education and career In about 1868 he moved to join his three elder brothers in Glasgow and was articled to Salmon Son & Ritchie. In 1875, he moved to London, joined the Architectural Association and began work as an assistant to Richard Coad - who recommended MacLaren to the Royal Academy Schools in January 1876.

In 1884, MacLaren went into partnership with Coad, but also began to develop his own practice, which he eventually established as an independent venture in late 1887 at 21 King William Street, London, having just won a competition to design Stirling High School and the patronage of Sir Donald Currie MP. That year, he was also commissioned to design a hotel for the Canary Islands Company at Las Palmas, a stopping place for Currie's Castle route, but became ill with tuberculosis. Two houses in Bayswater, London (1890) Ledbury Park, Herefordshire Stirling High School (1887-1890 - this building, in Spittal Street, is now the Stirling Highland Hotel) Aberfeldy Town Hall (1889) Buildings in Glenlyon estate, Perthshire Fortingall Hotel, Perthshire