James Cormack & Sons Ltd

Plumbers, glaziers and heating contractors

James Cormack & Sons, heating and ventilation engineers and blacksmiths, first appeared in the Glasgow Post Office Directory at North Street, Glasgow, in 1874. The business was run by James and his two sons, William and James. James Junior left the partnership in 1879. 1 By the time James Senior retired in 1894, the firm had expanded its activities to include manufacturing radiators and held their own patents. 2

Among the buildings on which the firm worked was J. J. Burnet's Athenaeum Theatre in Buchanan Street (1893); Ayr Industrial School for Girls (1895); Muiredge School, Uddingston (1895); and Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women (1899). 3 The firm was by this time based at 36 Abercorn Street and survived until the next generation of the family, Alexander G. Cormack, entered voluntary liquidation in 1929. 4

B/W Advertisement for James Cormack & Sons Ltd., 'Glasgow Building Trades Exchange', 1896, p. 186

Notes:

1: Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1874–5; Edinburgh Gazette, 3 June 1879, p. 7.

2: Edinburgh Gazette, 24 August 1894, p. 8.

3: Athenaeum, photograph GWD110/1, from Academy Architecture 1893, http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/details/370513/; Ayr Industrial School, Glasgow Herald, 4 December 1895, p. 8; Muiredge School, Glasgow Herald, 11 April 1899, p. 4; Samaritan Hospital, Glasgow Herald, 18 May 1895, p. 9.

4: Edinburgh Gazette, 5 November 1929, p. 9.

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.