John Fairweather

Edinburgh Playhouse, 2009

John Fairweather FRIBA (5 February 1867 – 13 January 1942) was a British architect, who specialised in cinemas.

Early life

John Fairweather was born on 5 February 1867, at 11 Franklin Terrace, Anderston, Glasgow , the son of John Fairweather, a farmer, draper and mercantile clerk in the wool trade from Alyth, and his wife Elizabeth Brown Fyfe who came from Leuchars.[1]

Career

Fairweather was the in-house architect for the Green’s cinema chain.[2]

Fairweather was the architect of Green's Playhouse, which opened in Glasgow in 1927, and of the Edinburgh Playhouse which opened in 1927 and is the UK's largest working non-sporting theatre in terms of audience capacity. He designed The Playhouse, Colchester, Essex, which opened in 1929, and has been a Wetherspoon's pub since 1984.[3]

Personal life

Fairweather married Evelyn Ronaldson in 1906 and their son William John Fairweather, born in 1907, also became an architect, starting as an assistant to his father.[1]

Death

He died on 13 January 1942, during the wartime blackout, crossing Cumbernauld Road in Stepps.[1]

Legacy

In April 2014, Wetherspoon's announced that the Savoy Cinema in Cambuslang, designed by Fairweather and built in 1929, and later a bingo hall in the 1960s, before closing in the 2000s, would become a pub named the John Fairweather, in his honour.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "John Fairweather". scottisharchitects. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Kenny (17 April 2014). "Pub chain reveals name for Cambuslang outlet". The Daily Record. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Playhouse (Colchester)". The Theatres Trust. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
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