Thomas Bonnar
British architect
Thomas Bonnar (d. 1847) was a Scottish interior designer and architect of note, working in the Edinburgh area. He is particularly remembered for his outstanding ceilings.
Thomas was the father of the artist William Bonnar (1800–1853) and the engraver Thomas Bonnar (1810–1873), who collaborated with each other on several works.
The group are also known by the family company name of Bonnar & Co.
Life
Bonnar was born in Edinburgh around 1770, the son of John Bonnar who had created the ceilings in Penicuik House. His family lived in a new house at 6 South St David Street during his teenage years.
He was appointed as a burgess of the city in 1795 and a "sworn measurer" in 1807 and Superintendent of Works for the city in 1809, operating from the Magdalene Chapel in the Cowgate. From 1810 he acted as architect and surveyor to George Heriot’s School. He lost all public posts in January 1819 due to a bungled execution on 30 December (part of his wide scope of duties) which ended in a public riot.
The public source identifies “Thomas Bonnar” as british architect. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Bonnar and British.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18736953. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1800, 1853 and 1810.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Bonnar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.