Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Orphoot & Whiting | | Designation: | | | Born: | c. 1937 | | Died: | | | Bio Notes: | Burnett Napier Henderson Orphoot ('Phootie') was born at 'The Priory' in Eastgate, Peebles in 1880, the son of Thomas Henderson Orphoot, Sheriff Substitute of Lothian and Peebles and his wife Edith Carmichael Smythe Burnett and grandson of James Burnett of Barns. He was educated at Rugby and the University of Edinburgh and articled to Dick Peddie & Washington Browne from 1900 to 1903, during which period he attended the Edinburgh School of Applied Art. On completing his apprenticeship he spent six months as assistant to Robert Rowand Anderson before leaving for Paris, where he found a place in the atelier of Gustave Umbdenstock and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. After six months he undertook a study tour of France and England before returning to Umbdenstock's office for a further twenty-one months. He then moved back to Britain and joined the office of Mewes & Davis in London, moving after a year and a half to that of Collcutt & Hamp.
Orphoot returned to Edinburgh and commenced independent practice at 25 Queensferry Street in 1910, and had an office in London at 16 Great James Street, Bedford Row by 1911. He was admitted LRIBA in the mass intake of 20 July that year, his proposers being Thomas Edward Collcutt, Stanley Hamp and Charles Henry Gage. He was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in the First World War, and while on active service he married in 1915 Marjorie Harriet White, daughter of the Reverend J B White, Instow House, North Devon, where he already had connections, having designed the Clovelly Hotel before the War.
The Queensferry Street office was re-opened after the War, but in 1922 the practice moved to 21 Alva Street and that summer he formed the partnership of Orphoot & Whiting; in the following year it became Orphoot Whiting & Bryce. Of his two partners Frank Edward Whiting was born in 1883 and articled to the London architect Alfred Conder c.1901, thereafter becoming assistant to Detmar Blow and Henry Walter Sarel. By 1914 he was in practice at 30 Bedford Row prior to war service. Whiting was rarely in the Edinburgh office and was based mainly at 21 High Street, Bideford where he held the office of Warden of the Long Bridge. Orphoot's second partner William Theodore Percival Bryce was born on 30 January 1892 and trained with Burnet, Son & Dick and at the Glasgow School of Art and Royal Technical College, later joining Mewes & Davis for a brief spell, before taking charge of an office in Paris for Orphoot & Whiting in summer 1922, and joining them in partnership later that year.
Orphoot was elected FRIBA on 28 March 1927, his proposers being Oswald P Milne, Arthur Joseph Davis and Charles Henry Gage. He was a member of the Council of the Edinburgh Architectural Association c.1930.
Bryce left the practice in 1932 and went into partnership with his wife, Helen Mary Bryce. Ian Gordon Lindsay replaced Bryce as third partner in the Spring of 1933 (for the subsequent history of this partnership see entry for Orphoot, Whiting & Lindsay) . However it would appear that Orphoot and Whiting continued to operate in a separate partnership as they were responsible for the Regal Cinema in Barnstaple in 1937. It is as yet unclear how long this partnership was sustained. | Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | London, England | Business | c. 1937 | | |
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils| The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | Leslie Albert John Heywood | June 1926 | 1930 | Apprentice | in Bideford (Devon) office | | Leslie Albert John Heywood | 1930 | 1930 | Assistant | for six months, in Bideford (Devon) office |
Buildings and Designs| This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details): | | | Date started | Building name | Town, district or village | Island | City or county | Country | Notes | | 1937 | Regal Cinema | Barnstaple | | Devon | England | |
ReferencesArchive References| The following archives hold material relating to this : | | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | North Devon Records Office | Information sent to website by Raymond Forward | | Sent December 2007 |
|