Dobson, John

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Dobson, John (1787–1865). The most gifted and prolific architect, engineer, and surveyor working in north-east England in the first half of C19, his best architecture was in a restrained Neo-Classical style. With the builder Richard Grainger (1797–1861) he was responsible for the area bounded by Grey, Market, and Grainger Streets (c.1835–7), Newcastle upon Tyne, one of the most distinguished urban developments in the England of King William IV (1830–7 ), although Eldon Square was destroyed in the late 1960s. His Central Railway Station, Newcastle (1847–50), built on a gently curving plan, combined Greek Revival architecture with a station roof of iron and glass, while his entrances to Jesmond Old Cemetery (1836) are as severe and stark as any Continental architecture of the period. His best country-houses are Nunnykirk (1825) and Meldon Park (1832) in Northumberland. He advised Monck at Belsay Castle (1807–17).

Bibliography

Colvin (1995);
Dobson (1885);
Faulkner & and Greg (1987);
Wilkes (1980);
Wilkes & and Dodds (1964)