The Second World War had a huge impact on social and economic life in the United Kingdom. Architects were faced with the demands of war such as the need to build quickly with scarce resources, the provision of air raid protection, the fire-proofing and repair of buildings and, after the war, an increasing amount of housing. This exhibition uses the Dick Peddie and McKay Collection as an example of one architectural practice's response to these war demands and in turn an example of the impact that war had, not only on architecture but also on society in general.

Principally known for its work during the Victorian age, the Edinburgh based practice of Dick Peddie and McKay was established in the 1840s with the partnership of John Dick Peddie (1824-1891) and Charles Hood Kinnear (1830-1894). In 1936, Lindsay Auldjo Jamieson (c.1890-c.1960), (formerly of Jamieson and Arnott), and David John Chisholm (1885-1949), joined the practice to work with William James Walker Todd (1884-1944) at 8 Albyn Place. John Ross McKay (1884-1962) joined in 1942. The Collection also holds material prior to 1942, produced by the practice, J R McKay, which John Ross McKay formed with James S Richardson (1883-1970).

The images below show a small selection of the drawings from the Dick Peddie and McKay Collection which can be consulted in the public search room from Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm. Click on an image to view the full-size version. Prints of all images can be obtained by contacting RCAHMS directly at info@rcahms.gov.uk quoting the name of the site or building, the SC number, the size and nature of each image required. A price list of services for photographs, digital images and other copies can be found under the price list page.

Block plan, plan and East
and North elevations of
revised scheme for two
anti-aircraft batteries at
Turnhouse Road by J R
McKay, 1939.
(SC751448)

Proposed layout plan of
hutted hospital annexe at
Stirling District Asylum,
Larbert, by J R McKay, 54
Manor Place, 1939.
(SC751449)

In the late 1930s architects were responding to the increasing demands of the military as Britain prepared for war. In 1938-39 J R McKay designed the headquarters of the 52nd Searchlight Regiment in Alnwickhill Road, Liberton, Edinburgh. The Collection also has designs for a headquarters for the 94th anti-aircraft regiment AARA at Turnhouse Road in Edinburgh and a Territorial Army Drill Hall based in Firrhill, Colinton Mains Drive, Edinburgh. The functional design at Turnhouse for two anti-aircraft batteries consists of a large drill hall flanked by offices, stores and garages for trailers and lorries.

During wartime, standardised plans for new build projects were often issued from central government. The practice's work appears to have been the adaptation of these designs to a specific locality. In 1939, J R McKay worked on temporary hospital accommodation for Bellsdyke hospital (also known as the Stirling District Asylum), near Larbert, and Peel House, Clovenfords in Selkirkshire. The standard design of the hospital buildings was set out by the Ministry of Works based in Abell House, Westminster, who also had offices in 122 and 102 George Street, Edinburgh. The material by the practice principally consists of survey drawings showing ground levels and deals with problems of drainage, electricity, water supply and sewage disposal.

In 1942 John Ross McKay became a senior partner in the firm of Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson. In the same year, similar war work was undertaken with the creation of Prisoner of War Camp no. 77, near Annsmuir in Fife. Built between June and December 1942, the camp consisted of a square formation of wooden huts, with four lookout towers on each corner, surrounded by barbed wire and bounded on one side by an anti-tank ditch which formed part of the Fife Stop Line. Interestingly, the location of the camp is to the East of this, indicating that at this point in time the authorities were not afraid of invasion from the coast. The plans shed some light on life inside the camp, with a separate area for officers and guards with electricity and hot water, and for the prisoners, a recreation hut, barbers, tailors, grocery store, reception centre (with a separate entrance for the 'wounded and contaminated' and a detention block.

The Collection also holds copies of drawings for standard type factories based in Broxburn, Cambuslang, Dundee and Coatbridge by the Ministry of Works architects, S Sims and his assistant R P Mills, who were based at 122 George Street, Edinburgh.

In 1937 the government instituted air raid precautions and on the 16th October 1939 the River Forth was the target of the first air raid on Britain. A large part of Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson's work during the war consisted of designing air raid shelters and female lavatories for factories and offices as more women joined the war effort. Examples of clients include insurance companies based in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh; Church of Scotland offices on George Street, Edinburgh; the University of Edinburgh; Messrs Drybrough and Co. Ltd at Duddingston, Edinburgh; Linlithgow County Buildings; and Bonnington Tannery in Newhaven, Edinburgh. During rationing materials were hard to come by. In a basement plan of Messrs Wm Thyne Ltd's printing works in Lochend, Edinburgh, precious paper was stored in thick layers to form blast walls instead of the usual sand bags.

One of the practice's major clients throughout this period was the Scottish Motor Traction Company. During the war the army commandeered the company's vehicles, whilst its garages throughout Edinburgh were used for aircraft assembly and the production of guns and vehicles. At the Scottish Motor Traction factory at Marine Gardens, Portobello, Edinburgh a lack of a basement and perhaps the hazardous materials used in production, led the practice to increase the capacity of the Anderson shelter to contain 50 people and place six shelters under a bank outside of the factory by the road. Marine Gardens, formally an amusement park with a theatre, ballroom, mountain slide, great wheel and a scenic railway, was taken over by the War Department in 1914. The Collection holds plans and sections showing the layout of roller skating runways in the old ballroom prior to its conversion into a factory in the early 1940s. The old stadium was also converted into a test drive area.

The Collection records the changing roles that buildings played during the war. Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson converted 6 Queensferry Street from a showroom into a canteen, complete with ping-pong table, for the Red Cross and undertook alterations at Royal Hotel, Princes Street in Edinburgh to accommodate the American Red Cross who were stationed there to help with the war effort. Plans of the Great Western Hotel in Oban also show rooms commandeered by the Royal Air Force.

The practice not only helped to provide protection from bombs but also from gas attack, of which there was a widespread fear. At the start of the war 1,200 of the Edinburgh Electricity Department were trained in Air Raid Protection, 60 each in first aid and fire fighting and 500 in gas decontamination. Gas cleansing was often provided in the basement as part of the air raid shelter or as a separate area in the lavatories. The separate unit for the factory at Marine Gardens contained bucket showers, eye douches, areas for changing with bins for contaminated clothes and different entrances and exists for the 'clean' and the 'dirty'.

The "Blackout" requirement also presented risks. Working conditions were difficult as windows were painted over and sealed reducing natural light and ventilation. In contemporary trade literature advertising the dangers of poor ventilation and highlighting the need to buy the Colt Dark Room "Airmover" the dangers of poor ventilation are made clear:

"12,500 cases of cerebro-spinal fever were recorded in 1940, as against 1,500 cases in 1939. The primary cause was ascribed to lack of adequate ventilation due to the blackout…"

The advert goes on to claim that Colt Ventilation Ltd,

"…has been more vitally important to the War effort than filling shells or assembling tanks or aeroplanes; because they have been continuously increasing the production of thousands of War Workers all over the country."

It could be argued that the demands of war heightened health and safety issues. Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson also undertook alterations to existing buildings to minimise the risk of fire. This involved the use of reinforced concrete, asbestos sheeting and the addition of permanent external fire escapes and fire look out posts.

Buildings, particularly roofs, were vulnerable to the kilo magnesium incendiary bomb. In this period, the practice restored the roofs of the Aviemore Hotel, the Great Western Hotel in Oban, the Roxburghe Hotel and 20 Henderson Row in Edinburgh, all of which suffered fire damage.

Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson also designed several new buildings. In 1944 Beech Hill House in East Lothian was destroyed by a military aeroplane crash. In 1952 a new house was built next to the old one, re-using sinks and other materials. Such damage highlighted the need to record and survey buildings, the Collection holds many survey drawings of buildings prior to damage and alterations.

The housing shortage of the 1930s was further exacerbated by the war as rationing of materials prevented building. A 1943 report by the Edinburgh Advisory Committee on City Development, entitled 'The Future of Edinburgh', estimated that there was a shortage of 10,000 houses. One of its recommendations was the conversion of larger houses into residential flats, in recognition that, "flats for professional or business men or women will be in considerable demand after the war". It recognized a change in society's occupations and living habits, noting that the "...servant problem will make a reversion to their pre-war use spasmodic and difficult." A considerable proportion of the work carried out by the practice in the latter half of the 1940s and in the early 1950s was the sub-division of properties in Edinburgh to create more homes. This often involved the conversion of servants' rooms into self-sufficient flats.

After the war, Dick Peddie, McKay and Jamieson were involved in designing housing schemes working on County Council schemes in Peebles-shire (1919-1948), West Lothian, and Nairn (1946). The scheme at Tradespark in Nairn shows streets radiating from a community hall and bowling green. On the outskirts of the development are areas for temporary housing, a children's play area, public open spaces and an orchard.

The housing, while compact, includes all the facilities a young family may need, with a living room, kitchen, bathroom and window boxes and a pram store.

This sketch of the community hall in the arts and crafts idiom, with its harling, war memorial plaque and low archway leading to a garden courtyard, shows a peaceful vernacular building harmonising with its natural environment. The plan for the centre includes facilities for all ages with a rifle range, carpet bowls, billiards room, darts alley, hall with a stage and projection room and includes a canteen, youth room and committee room. In planning for the future, the community centre took a central role as authorities put the war behind them:

"…most important of all we consider that each area should have a hall and community centre…It not only keeps alive a sense of public spirit, but it fosters an interest in and desire to improve the well being of those in the area... A community centre acts as a natural focus for such a spirit, and should form an essential element in the lay-out of each area."