Architects

Name:

William Henry Playfair

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

15/07/1790

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

19/03/1857

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Bio Notes :

William Henry Playfair was born in London on 15 July 1790, a younger son of the architect James Playfair. He was baptised in the Fitzroy Chapel. When he was fourteen in 1804 he went to Edinburgh to live with his uncle, Professor John Playfair and completed his education there. He was articled to William Stark. Stark died in 1813 and Playfair moved to London where he worked in the offices of James Wyatt and Robert Smirke. In 1816 he visited France with his uncle but returned later in the year to Edinburgh.

In 1816 he entered and won the competition for the completion of Robert Adam’s University building. In 1818 he secured the commission for the planning of the area to the north of Calton Hill. The fact that he had been given these jobs suggests that he was an architectural heir to William Stark. In the Calton Hill scheme he follows closely the principles laid down by Stark.

Playfair’s practice grew to rival those of William Burn and James Gillespie Graham in fame if not in the number of his commissions for country houses and churches then at least in the realm of public buildings. He designed some of Edinburgh’s most prominent public buildings, including The Royal Institution (later the Royal Scottish Academy), the Surgeon’s Hall, the National Gallery, Donaldson’s Hospital and the Free Church College. The first three were classical in style following the pattern laid down in Edinburgh by some of his predecessors. However he was also adept in Gothic, for example in the Free Church College and in Jacobethan in Donaldson’s Hospital. His early houses used a picturesque style loosely based on Italian villas. However by 1830 like his contemporaries Burn and Blore he was experimenting with Scots and English vernacular styles. The remodelling work at Floors Castle was the largest commission he executed in this style though this was not entirely a success with coarse and over-crowded details. At Lurgan, Bonaly and Islay he was more successful and went some way to recapture the Elizabethan and Stuart past.

Playfair was painstaking and meticulous. All his designs were worked out with great care. He wrote: ‘Nothing good in Architecture can be affected without a monstrous expenditure of patience and India Rubber’. He was a perfectionist and expected the same from those who worked for him such as his builders. He was just as demanding with his pupils and staff. David Cousin who was a pupil ‘used to tell with great glee many stories of the strictness and rigour of Mr Playfair’s rule, and the devices to which his assistants had to resort to escape detection if at fault’.

Playfair made one trip to France but never visited Greece or Rome. In 1842 he went to Florence to try to improve his health. His older brother James practised medicine there. However the experience had little or no effect on his architecture as he found little to admire in the city. He returned to Edinburgh where his health continued to deteriorate with deafness, crippling rheumatism and chronic bronchitis. He continued to practice but had to decline some work because of his health.

He died on 19 March 1857. He was buried in Dean Cemetery adjacent to his friends Andrew and Sophia Rutherford. He was unmarried.

Playfair’s papers and drawings are preserved in various places. There are drawings in the RIAS collection at RCAHMS. Edinburgh University Library holds drawings and a diary for 1817 with accounts for 1817-22 and town surviving volumes of an elaborated series of letter-books (volume 4 covering 1830-33 and volume 7 covering 1840-45). A brief journal describing a trip to Arran in 1811 is located in Cambridge University Library while many letters to Andrew Rutherford and his family are held in the National Library of Scotland. The sale catalogue of his library is also in the National Library of Scotland. It shows he owned a large number of views of Athens by his friend Hugh W ‘Grecian’ Williams.

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Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
79 Queen Street Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business
43 Heriot Row Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business
17 Great Stuart Street Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date From Type	Date To	Date To Type	Notes
79 Queen Street Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business
43 Heriot Row Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business
17 Great Stuart Street Edinburgh Scotland	Private/business
Edinburgh Scotland	Business

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The following individuals were employed or trained by this person (click on an item to view details):

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
David Cousin	200171	Before 1830	In year 1831	Assistant
James Anderson Hamilton	201194	Before 1857		Principal Clerk
John Notman	202344	In year 1829		Assistant
William Notman	202346	c. 1823	c. 1827	Apprentice
William Notman	202346	c. 1827	After 1840	Assistant

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
University of Edinburgh, Old College	In year 1817		Edinburgh	Scotland	Modified the designs and completed the Adam work.
City Observatory, boundary wall and Playfair Monument, Calton Hill	In year 1818		Edinburgh	Scotland	Original building. Also boundary wall and Playfair Monument.
Calton Hill, area to north, inc. Blenheim Pl, Brunswick St, Brunton Pl, Carlton Ter, Elm Row	In year 1818		Edinburgh	Scotland	Appointed architect for the development of the area to north of Calton Hill. In 1819 he produced a printed \'Report to the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Council fo the City of Edinburgh on a Plan for laying out the New Town between Edinburgh and Leith.\'
Signet Library	In year 1819		Edinburgh	Scotland	Staircase for the Faculty of Advocates (to upper floor)
Houses, Royal Circus, Circus Place and Circus Gardens	In year 1820		Edinburgh	Scotland
Houses, Academy Place	c. 1820	Dollar	Clackmannanshire	Scotland
The Glen	In year 1821	Innerleithen	Peeblesshire	Scotland	Additions to original house on site.
Royal Institution	In year 1822		Edinburgh	Scotland	Original building
St Quivox Parish Churchyard, Campbells of Craigie Mausoleum	In year 1822	St Quivox	Ayrshire	Scotland
Thomson Tower	In year 1823	Duddingston	Edinburgh	Scotland
Duddingston Manse, curling house and studio	In year 1823	Duddingston	Edinburgh	Scotland
Premises for the Highland Society	In year 1823		Edinburgh	Scotland
National Monument	In year 1824	Calton Hill	Edinburgh	Scotland	In collaboration with C R Cockerell
House, 8 Inverleith Row	In year 1824		Edinburgh	Scotland
Heriot's Hospital, monument to James Denholm	In year 1824		Edinburgh	Scotland

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Colvin, H M	A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840	1995	New Haven and London: Yale University Press	3rd edition
DNB	Dictionary of National Biography				Article by Charles McKean
Pride, Glen L	The Kingdom of Fife	1999	The Rutland Press	2nd Edition	p194
APSD	The Dictionary of Architecture		The Architectural Publication Society (8v 1852-1892)	ed Wyatt Papworth
Graham, J M	Notice of the Life and Works of W H Playfair	1861	Transactions of the Architectural institute of Scotland, 1859-61	v, part iv

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
Builder	1857	XV	p208
Builder	1960	xviii	p140
Building News	1857/04/10		pp359-60
Building Chronicle	1857	ii	pp181-2
RIBA Journal	1990/05
Builder	1882/06/10		p717 for Cousin's recollections of the Playfair office.

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
Register of Fitzroy Chapel	LMA	201470

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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