James Shotton
James Shotton (1824–1896) was a North Shields born 19th-century artist. He painted a portrait of Thomas Haswell, a North Shields songwriter. Brief details Shotton was born in North Shields in 1824. He showed a talent for drawing from an early age and later attended the Royal Academy Schools, where he became a friend of William Holman Hunt. When his father died he returned to North Shields. In 1857, he designed what is thought to be the first Victorian Turkish bath in England at Tyneside House, home of local ironmaster George Crawshay, who had just returned from seeing the first Victorian Turkish bath in the British Isles being built at Blarney, near Cork in Ireland. In 1869, Shotton designed the Cecil Street Turkish Baths in North Shields, in which Crawshay had shares, and followed this in 1874 by designing one in Pilgrim Street for the Turkish Bath Company Limited. After the earlier resumption of his artistic studies, he gained quite a reputation being accepted by the Royal Academy in 1863. He was a member of the Cullercoats Artists' Colony, and he rarely exhibited his work, but was well regarded as a portrait painter, twice painting Wesley Stoker Barker Woolhouse (the noted