Publication Account

Date 1951

Event ID 1097766

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097766

RCAHMS County Inventory: The City of Edinburgh

57. The University of Edinburgh, South Bridge.

The circumstances under which a College came to be founded are far from clear and, although the late Professor Hannay appears to have explained the outstanding puzzles (1), the subject is too complicated for detailed discussion here. It must suffice to say that the College belonged to the Town, and that it was created by the burgesses and ministers with some royal support, in pursuance of the educational policy of the Reformation. The most important of the relevant charters is one dated 1582, in which the king grants to the Town, among other things, powers to repair schools and erect colleges (2). Building operations began in 1583, and Robert Rollock was appointed "Regent" and began to teach in the autumn of the same year (3). The buildings in which the College began its life consisted only of a house, originally erected by the Duke of Chatelherault, and a wing which was added thereto by the Town Council (4). To these structures additions were made piecemeal at various later periods (5), but no materials exist for reconstructing the arrangement of the place as a whole at any earlier date than the middle of the 18th century. For this period we have Edgar's map* of 1742, which shows the College as occupying the site of the present University quadrangle and as consisting of three courts, one large oblong one running E. and W. with a small square one at its N.W. corner and another projecting from the N. part of its E. side. Both these latter lay at a lower level than the main court and were connected with it by steps. The College possessed two entrances, one placed at the S.W. corner of the main court, close to the Potterrow Port, and the other on the N. side of the small N.W. court. This latter opened, under Burnet's bell tower , upon a lane known as Jamaica Street.

By the third quarter of the 18th century the College buildings had become entirely inadequate for the needs of the students, whose numbers were rapidly increasing, and they were also partly ruinous. Responsibility for improvement rested not on the Senatus but on the Town Council and, in order to allow the raising of the necessary funds, the private Act of 1785, which gave Edinburgh powers to build the South Bridge (p. lxxviii), also empowered the Trustees to devote to the rebuilding of the College any surplus remaining over from the South Bridge scheme as well as any sums collected specifically for that purpose. No surplus was realised and the subscriptions fell far short of the sum required, but the Town Council received private advice that substantial assistance might be forthcoming from the Treasury, and on the strength of this decided to proceed with the work (6), and obtained a design for a new University building from Robert Adam* who was then at the height of his fame. According to his biographer (7), it was in his work on the University that Adam most nearly achieved what was his principal ambition, to erect a great public building; but the commission came late in his career - by 1792, when he died, only a fraction of his scheme had actually taken shape, work was stopped in 1793, and thereafter even such parts as had been built lay practically derelict for more than twenty years. Moreover, as will be explained shortly, when the decision was taken to make a fresh start, the urgent need for economy resulted in radical departures being made from the plans that he had prepared.

The site with which Adam had to deal fronted, on the E., on the new artery known as the South Bridge, and rose sharply W. to the old Horse Wynd, which led to the Potterrow Port. On the N. it was bounded by Jamaica Street, which ran W., on the line of the modern Chambers Street, through Argyll's and Brown's Squares to Candlemaker Row. The boundary on the S. was the old “Thief Raw” which has become College Street. The E. end of College Street is some 10 ft. higher than that of Chambers Street, and in his admirable lay-out Adam took full advantage of this difference of level, placing a great portico-possibly the noblest work that he ever designed-in the centre of the facade. This portico gave entry to an atrium or transverse forecourt inside, whence an arcaded passage led W. to the main quadrangle beyond. The quadrangle was square in shape, with what Adam called "circular corners." Taken as a whole Adam's plan (Fig. 276), which is preserved in the Soane Museum, London, was very compact, showed a symmetry of parts, and had a grace and richness which held the promise of admirably proportioned interiors. The foundation stone of the new buildings was laid by Lord Napier, Grand Master Mason of Scotland, on November 16th, 1789, and building thereupon commence at two points, the portico and the N.W. corner of the main quadrangle.*** But the work soon suffered a check. Robert Adam died, as has been said, in 1792, before even the portico and the N.W. corner had approached completion. After his death his brothers, James and William, were appointed to carry on his scheme, but progress was now retarded by lack of money. For some months the contractors continued their operations on credit, but by 1793 all work had ceased. In 1801 the N.W. corner and the E. side were still without their roofs, while the site of the main quadrangle was still a builder's yard encumbered with sheds. Moreover, outlay had exceeded income by £3,000, the deficit being met by a Government grant of £5,000. In 1810 the Town Council of Edinburgh, backed up by the other Royal Burghs, petitioned the Government urging the necessity for completing the buildings, and pointing out that only six new rooms had as yet been made available for the work of the University. This unsatisfactory state of affairs continued until 1815, when an Act of Parliament sanctioned the expenditure of £10,000 a year from public funds until the buildings were completed, a Commission being appointed by the Treasury for the purpose of carrying out the work.

However, as a result of these arrangements, Adam's original scheme had to be modified. Robert Reid, the last to hold office as King's Master of Works, who had reported in 1810 on the possibility of completing Adam's scheme, had advised that theatrium or forecourt should be omitted as a measure of economy. This and the other changes that were agreed to virtually necessitated a fresh design. Competitive plans were therefore invited by the Commissioners “for finishing the College of Edinburgh, on a reduced scale, leaving out the south front, and the cross building, which formed the small court in the original plan-regard being always had to the part already executed, and to the preservation of the architecture of Mr. Adam, as far as practicable”; but to those who admired the genius of Robert Adam the final qualifying clause must have caused misgivings, and these, as events were to prove, were not unjustified. The competition produced designs from nine architects, including Robert Adam's brother William, and the choice fell on the scheme submitted by William Henry Playfair. Playfair's scheme was put in hand without delay and was virtually completed by 1828 although some minor work occupied a further six years. Adam had proposed to crown his facade with a dome; but this project remained in abeyance until 1883, when the Senatus received a bequest for this specific end. Then, as Adam's design was deemed unsuitable for the composite work, a new design for the dome was prepared and executed by Sir R. Rowand Anderson in 1887. To Anderson's dome a bronze figure by John Hutchison, R.S.A., representing Youth bearing the Torch of Knowledge, forms a fitting finial.

[see RCAHMS 1951 116-119 for an architectural description]

RCAHMS 1951

(1) University of Edinburgh. Charters Statutes, and Acts of the Town Council and Senatus, 1583-I858, pp. 2-21. (2) Reg. Mag. Sig., 1580-1593, p. 211. (3) Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, i. pp. 111, 132. (4) Ibid., i, p. 129. (5) Grant gives a detailed account of the growth of the College, op. cit., ii, pp. 184 ff.; cf. also Maitland, History, p. 370. (6) Grant, op. cit., ii, p. 197. (7) Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, i, p. 112.

*Grant points out that Gordon's view, of 1647, is inaccurate (Old and New Edinburgh, ii, p. 367).

**He may have been the "Robert Adams" who matriculated in 1743.

***These points were selected in order to leave the bulk of the existing College buildings available for use.