John Grainger's Architectural Designs
John Grainger was born in 1855, into a family of architects and engineers. He had supposedly received some education in a Westminster institution and later at a school in France, possibly in Yvetot. Where he received professional training of any nature still remains a mystery, but it is quite clear that he has received tuition in both of the fields of architecture and of engineering. It had been thought that John Grainger had been apprenticed to an engineer, but this cannot be verified. However, despite the mysterious beginnings, in 1877 John Grainger came to Australia, generally believed to fill one of three vacant positions for "good railway draughtsmen" which had been requested by the engineer-in-chief of the Public Works Department of South Australia.
Through the design for the Melbourne Princes Bridge in 1879, attention would be focused unexpectedly on John Grainger for the first time. This would be the first fo a variety of bridges for which John Grainger would receive much acclaim and firmly establish himself as one of the most forward thinking designers in the colony of Victoria - where, due to his first prize win in the competition for the design of the new Princes Bridge, would bring him to Melbourne to live with his new wife Rose in New Street, Brighton.
Click on the thumbnails for full-size images.
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