17 March 2010: William Henry Playfair

William Henry Playfair was one of the most influential Scottish architects of the nineteenth century.

Although born in London in 1789, the death of Playfair’s father saw him sent to Scotland at a young age to live with his uncle, Professor John Playfair, a leading figure in Edinburgh's Enlightenment.

A prodigious talent, by his late twenties Playfair had already established a reputation as a fine architect, and his designs would go on to have a dramatic impact on the Edinburgh cityscape.  Some of his most significant works include the elegant town houses of Royal Terrace, Carlton Terrace and Regent Terrace in Edinburgh’s New Town, the Royal Scottish Academy Building, the National Gallery of Scotland, the New College of the University of Edinburgh, Donaldson's Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons and the National Monument on Calton Hill. Outwith Edinburgh, his work ranges from Dollar Academy in Clackmannanshire,  Floors Castle in Roxburghshire and Dunphail House in Morayshire, to Lurgan House in Northern Ireland and Spottiswoode House in Berwickshire.

The engraving here shows St Stephen’s Church in Edinburgh, which was designed by Playfair in 1828.  The massive structure of St Stephen's lies at the bottom of St Vincent Street in the Stockbridge district of the New Town, acting as a striking focal point at the end of the slope running down Frederick Street and Howe Street. The exterior is basically square, but positioned diagonally with a corner facing the street, to which the large arched porch entrance is attached. Beneath the church are tunnel-vaulted cellars, which once contained an evening school opened by the first minister of the church, Doctor William Muir, for the education of his illiterate parishioners.