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English architect

John Dobson (9 November 17878 January 1865) was a 19th century English neoclassical architect. During his life, he was the most noted architect in Northern England. He designed more than 50 churches and 100 private houses, but he is best known for designing Newcastle railway station and his work with Richard Grainger developing the neoclassical centre of Newcastle. Other notable structures include Nunnykirk Hall, Meldon Park, Mitford Hall, Lilburn Tower, St John the Baptist Church in Otterburn, Northumberland, and Beaufront Castle.

Dobson was born on 9 December 1787 in High Chirton, North Shields, in a building which is now the site of The Pineapple Inn. He was the son of an affluent market gardener, John Dobson, and his wife Margaret. Educated in Newcastle, he had an exceptional gift for drawing as a young child. Aged 11, he took the role of Hournary Draftsman for a well renowned local damask weaver producing designs and sketches. At 15, he was placed as a pupil with David Stephenson, the leading architect builder in Newcastle and the designer of All Saints' Church and the original Theatre Royal on Mosley Street. Dobson completed his studies in 1810, when he was 23. At first, Varley refused the offer of Dobson studying under him, saying he could not spare the time. However, upon seeing his disappointment, he agreed to give him lessons and quickly developed a mutual rapport. During his time in London, he formed lasting friendships with the likes of J. M. W. Turner, William H. Hunt, William Mulready and Robert Smirke.

Dobson was very versatile and could design in Gothic or Tudor style if his clients desired, but Georgian was his preferred style. His country houses are not well known, as they generally are privately held, not large enough to be open to the public, and landscaped behind parkland and trees. Architectural features of Dobson country houses include the use of golden sandstone, Corinthian or Ionic pillared entrance porticos, elegant staircases with beautiful ironwork balustrades leading to an upper gallery with matching iron balustrades, and an entry hall with a domed ceiling and glass centrepiece. Often the ground floor design includes a curved or bow end at one side of the house, like Nunnykirk Hall and Longhirst Hall. The quality of the stonework in all Dobson homes is superb, and it is believed that he regularly used the same team of stonemasons as he did with other craftsmen he employed. The council chose Barras Bridge on Magdalene Meadow, belonging to St Mary Magdalene Hospital, as the location for the new chapel. Dobson designed it in the modified Gothic style in 1827, featuring a novel hollow tower. Construction was completed by 1830, at the cost of £6,000. Dobson also designed the Watergate Building, Sandhill, which replaced the demolished Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr.

In 1849 the High Level Bridge was built over the River Tyne, bringing the railway to Newcastle and north to Scotland. A suitably impressive station was required for a thriving town such as Newcastle, and Dobson provided it in his plans. His original plan of 1848 showed an ornate façade with a vast portico having double colonnades and an Italianate tower at the east end. Behind this was an enormous train shed made up of three arched glass roofs built in a curve on an 800 feet (244 m) radius. This design won an award at the Paris Exhibition of 1858. Unfortunately, Dobson was forced to alter his plans to produce a much less substantial portico and remove the Italianate tower. The station was completed in 1850 without the planned portico, and it was not until 1863 that this was added. John Dobson argued for the role of the architect in building railway stations, and his Newcastle Central is regarded by many as the finest in England. According to Gordon Biddle and Oswald Nock in The Railway Heritage of Britain: "Undoubtedly it would have been one of the finest 19th century classical buildings in Europe had it been completed Even so, Newcastle Central today is magnificent inside for its spectacular combination of curves and outside for its sheer size and length". The train shed at Newcastle, the authors state, "was the first of the great arched roofs and represented a bold step forward which was copied by others". It was the first use of malleable rolled iron ribs – indeed the first large glass and iron vault in England, predating the Crystal Palace. Gibson Kyle, Dobson's nephew, was the clerk of works on this project.

In 1830, the Newcastle City Council rejected Richard Grainger’s proposed corn exchange on a site at the bottom of Pilgrim Street, opposite Mosley Street. Grainger then built a Dobson designed shopping arcade on the site, completed in 1832. Modelled after an elegant London shopping arcade, it had two office blocks facing Pilgrim Street and Manor Chare. The two were connected by a narrow block that formed the arcade. The arcade's front façade had six fluted Corinthian columns, and its interior was 250 feet (76 m) long with an arched Grecian style ceiling with several domed skylights. Although elegant, the Royal Arcade was not a commercial success. It was located too far from the town centre's main shopping areas.

In 1824, Richard Grainger commissioned Dobson to produce designs for Eldon Square. Dobson's clean Grecian inspired design had three two and story terraces facing a central square. The east and west terraces had 27 bays of windows, and the north terrace had 39 bays. The first floors had continuous cast iron balconies with Grecian honeysuckle decoration. Giant Doric pilasters at the end of each terrace were faced with finely cut ashlar, more elegant and clean than the stucco used extensively in London at the time.

Grainger's plans for the development of Newcastle town centre involved the demolition of the existing flesh market. Grainger, therefore, offered to build a new meat market and vegetable market. The meat market was placed between two new streets, Grainger Street and Clayton Street, and the vegetable market was placed on the west side of Clayton Street. Both were designed by Dobson. The meat market had pilastered arcades, 360 windows, fanlights and wooden cornices, and four avenues each 338 feet (103 m) long. It contained 180 butchers' shops when it opened. The vegetable market was given an open plan layout, 318 feet (97 m) long, 57 feet (17 m) wide and 40 feet (12 m) high, with a fine timber roof. In 1835, to celebrate the opening of the markets, a grand dinner was given in the vegetable market, with 2,000 guests and presided over by the Mayor. Surprisingly, in the after dinner speeches, no mention was made of Dobson. Dobson was originally credited for the whole street's design (by Pevsner for one), possibly due to his daughter's assertions. It is now believed that Dobson was responsible only for the east side from Shakespeare Street to Mosley Street, and architects from Grainger's office, John Wardle and George Walker, designed the west side.