Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Edinburgh, Milton Road West, Duddingston House, Offices And Stable Block

Office(S) (18th Century), Stable (18th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, Milton Road West, Duddingston House, Offices And Stable Block

Classification Office(S) (18th Century), Stable (18th Century)

Canmore ID 139322

Site Number NT27SE 350.01

NGR NT 29034 72416

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/139322

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

192. Duddingston House.

ln 1763, having already subdivided and enclosed his estate, James, eighth Earl of Abercorn, started to build this mansion, which took five years to complete (1). The architect was Sir William Chambers of Ripon, who had an extensive practice throughout England; he was a man of scholarly and refined taste, and is best known by his design for Somerset House, London (1772). Chambers also designed the townhouse of Sir Laurence Dundas in St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh (No. 127); but that house, like the majority of his buildings, has been remodelled internally, and consequently Duddingston House, which has come down intact, is one of the few in which the interior design by which Chambers made his name can be studied to full advantage. Beneath the S.E. shoulder of Arthur's Seat and E. of Duddingston Loch, the mansion stands within extensive wooded parks, laid out by 'Capability' Brown, the foremost landscape-gardener of the day, which exemplify a standard of care and good taste seldom found in Scotland. On the S. and E. winds the Braid Burn on its way to the sea; on the N. is a temple in the fashion of the time; and on the W. is a secluded garden, in the wall of which are incorporated twin garden-houses with ogival roofs. These features are all that remains of the contemporary setting as recorded in the Statistical Account of Scotland (2).

The Earl was a bachelor. This fact may account for the unusual lay-out of his house, which includes, in the first place, a large two-storeyed Palladian block, facing E. to command the estuary of the Forth and containing only the principal apartments; while the whole of the offices are in subsidiary blocks arranged in the form of a hollow square on the N.W. of the main building and connected to its back by a covered passage. This wide-spread plan, inconvenient though it must have proved, enabled Chambers to indulge to the full his feeling for the relationship of parts to the organic whole. The masonry throughout has unusually high courses and is gray in colour but relieved by dressings of cream-coloured stone. The façade is simple and dignified. Its central part advances in a Corinthian portico rising from a podium of shallow steps to an entablature and raking pediment, all very carefully detailed. The entablature returns round the four sides of the main building and is surmounted by an open balustrade, within which the roof rises. At ground level is a moulded plinth. A moulded sill-course runs below the lower windows and, below the two windows at the ends of the front, surmounts a blind balustrade. These long, lower windows have back-set, moulded architraves and cornices supported by scrolled brackets, the upper ones, nearly square, only have moulded architraves. The front and back of the building have five opening son each floor, and the sides have four (Fig. 420 [SC 1468382]). The entrance opens directly from the portico into a central entrance-hall, which runs from the front of the building to the back and rises through both storeys. With its walls and ceiling richly decorated in stucco duro with ornament based on antique models, this hall is an entirely characteristic example of Chambers' design. The staircase, which has a wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany rails, rises against the back wall in a single flight to a landing where it branches to right and left and gives access to the bedrooms, which are situated at the N. and S. ends of the building. On the ground floor there are two rooms on each side of the hall. The morning-room, situated at the S.E. corner of the building, is lit from S. and E. and has on the W., a fireplace enriched on its frieze with a bold fret on either side of a central panel carved with a garland and palm-leaves. Its cornice bears egg-and-dart and anthemion ornaments. The doorways have pediments carved on their friezes with bunches of wheat and enriched on two members of their cornices. The walls have an enriched frieze and the ceiling is enriched with tendrils and scroll-work. The drawing-room, situated at the S.W. corner, is admirably proportioned. It is lit from the S. and has a fireplace on the N. Chambers excelled in the design of fine fireplaces and this one, supported by ram-headed terminals and carved on the frieze with an urn flanked by swags, is a good example of his taste. The walls have a panelled treatment in stucco duro, in which tendrils and leafage are twined round the panel mouldings. The ceiling is divided into compartments by heavily enriched ribs. * These two rooms communicate with one another through a little intermediate lobby, which· also leads out to the garden on the S. This lobby has a domical ceiling, delicately enriched.

On the N. of the hall, the library occupies the N.E. corner of the building. Lit from N. and E., this room has a fireplace to the S. enriched with egg-and-dart ornament on the architrave and with anthemion ornament on the frieze. The pediments of the doorways are carved with garlands and foliage, and the dentilated cornices have anthemion enrichment. The ceiling, divided into compartments by enriched ribs, has a lozenge-shaped scroll-work in the centre. The library opens into the dining room, which is situated at the N.W. corner of the building. This is an L-shaped room and evidently includes two of the original rooms. Lit from the N., it has a fireplace on the E. carved on the frieze with garlands in relief and enriched on the cornice with egg-and-dart and anthemion ornaments. The over mantel is a recent importation. The ceiling of the E. part of the room has in the centre a circular panel between two oblong panels, all three being enriched with egg-and-dart ornament. The frieze is enriched with the anthemion. The ceiling of the W. part is coved, has a delicately moulded cornice, and the central panel, which is square, has a border enriched with a fret. This part of the room communicates with a small service-lobby which leads in turn to the kitchen passage.

The outbuildings [NT27SE 350.1] are designed as a separate unit and consist in the main of two low oblong blocks, standing on the N. and S. sides of the open courtyard and linked by loggias to a third block which projects W. from the centre of the W. side. Although smaller in scale than the principal building, they are likewise ashlar-built and have been detailed with care. The N. and S. blocks are uniform, but while the one to the S. has a subterranean cellarage, two floors above ground and an attic which may be comparatively modern, the one to the N. has two storeys only. Both have Doric porches facing into the courtyard, with triangular pediments at their E. ends. Farther W., the central part of both blocks is advanced, recessed, and pedimented. The windows, upright on the ground floor and horizontal on the upper one, have moulded architraves. Below the lower windows runs a plain sill-course. The block on the W., also of two storeys, has an open portico with a triangular pediment, and is surmounted by a Classic belfry with a copper dome in which there is a clock.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

(1) Stat. Acct., 1796, xviii, p. 364. (2) Ibid.

*Chambers did not abandon the compartmented ceiling as did his contemporaries, the brothers Adam.

Photographic Survey (1955)

Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1955.

Photographic Survey (November 1957)

Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1957.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions