Duddingston House

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Entrance front of Duddingston House

Duddingston House is a Georgian mansion in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, completed in 1768 . The building in the style of a Palladian villa was at the time of its construction by James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn , unique in Scotland and is therefore considered a pioneer of classicism ( English neoclassical style ) in this country. But shortly after the builder's death, the facility was cleared and rented to changing parties.

After extensive restoration in the 1990s, the main building is home to several companies, while the former utility wing has been converted into apartments. A golf club, rugby club and school have now established themselves in the park belonging to the property . In addition, modern residential buildings were built in the immediate vicinity of Duddingston House.

The building complex is since July 14, 1966 as Listed Building category A under monument protection . The preserved part of the associated park was entered in the Inventory of Garden & Designed Landscape on July 1, 1987 .

history

Duddingston used to be a small town on the eastern outskirts of Edinburgh. The land on which the mansion now stands was formerly owned by the Thomson family, who sold it to John Maitland , the Duke of Lauderdale , in 1674 . He gave it to his stepdaughter Elizabeth Tollemache, who was first Duchess of Argyll by marrying Archibald Campbell . At that time there was already a mansion and a stately park in Duddingston, in the north-western area of ​​which the pretender Charles Edward Stuart camped before the Battle of Prestonpans in 1744 . That is why this area is still called Cavalry Park today. The following year Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll , sold Duddingston House and land to James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn. His family had lost their Scottish property and the title of Dukes of Hamilton in the 17th century because they were Catholics . Hamilton tried to help his family regain influence in Scotland, but could not buy back the former family property in Abercorn , which is why he decided in 1745 to purchase Duddingston.

Design drawing by William Chambers for Duddingston House

The 8th Earl of Abercorn had the existing manor house rebuilt and modernized in the 1750s, but the building soon no longer met his requirements. He had a much more representative building in mind, so in 1760 he commissioned the architect William Chambers to design a new mansion for Duddingston. Chambers was shortly before the Architect of Works of the English King George III. and may have worked for Hamilton on his London townhouse in Grosvenor Square . Chambers designed a main building in the Palladian style. From the beginning of October 1762, William Key was on site as a representative to obtain materials for the construction and to negotiate contracts with workers. In February 1763, work on the new building was already in full swing. Since construction was also taking place in winter, the work progressed quickly. The monumental portico was completed in June 1764, and interior work was carried out during the following winter. In August 1767, Key traveled to London, where James Hamilton stayed for most of the year, to report that the facility was almost ready. In 1768 the construction was then completely completed. The total construction cost is said to have been £ 30,000  . In addition, there was William Chambers' architect fee, which amounted to 5 percent of the costs. The client had the old mansion demolished in the 1670s, except for two pavilion-like outbuildings, and his stones were used for other buildings on the property. The pavilion buildings stood on the site until 1959.

James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn, only used the new mansion in the summer. Then he received guests there, entertained and entertained them. On his death he bequeathed Duddingston House to his nephew John James Hamilton , the son of his brother Captain John Hamilton. The ninth earl was made marquess in 1790 . He was not interested in the property in Duddingston, however, and a year after the eighth Earl's death, his successor had most of the house's furnishings and furniture moved to other manors in the family. He sold the rest to Colonel Dugald Campbell, the first in a long line of tenants at Duddingston House. In the following years these included the widowed Countess of Morton and Sir Molyneux Nepean .

James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn , sold a large part of belonging to the estate, 1,500 acres (about 607  hectares ) large land holdings to 1,883 to the Benhar Coal Company. In 1894 a golf club also leased part of the park to set up a golf course there. After the Second World War , the buildings were almost completely derelict. In 1959 the then Duke of Abercorn sold Duddingston House with 9 acres of surrounding land to the contractor E. Gladstone. By 1963, he refurbished the building to such an extent that a hotel could be opened there. Also from 1959, construction work was carried out in the north-western area of ​​the castle park to build a school, which began operations in the 1960s.

In 1990 there was another change of ownership. Both the manor house and the attached farm wing were then extensively restored. The main building now offers office space for several companies and was designed inside by well-known designers and artists such as Vivienne Westwood and Vanessa Beecroft , while the former farm buildings are now used for residential purposes. The ground floor rooms of the manor house can be rented for events and filming.

description

The building ensemble of Duddingston House consists of a manor house and a service wing to the north, which are connected to one another by a low and narrow building. The buildings stand in the middle of an 84 hectare landscaped garden . Access to the property is provided by a gate system from the late 18th century installed on the east side , which has been a listed building in category B since July 14, 1966.

Mansion

Staircase in the entrance hall

The architecture of the two-story mansion is heavily influenced by Andrea Palladio's Villa La Rotonda and is the only Scottish country estate built according to the plans of William Chambers. Both the style and the shape of the building were unusual for the time, as Duddingston was the first mansion in Scotland to have the utility rooms and servants' quarters in a separate wing so that the main house did not need a basement.

The ground floor is designed as a main floor, which can be seen from the fact that the first floor has a low floor height. A stone balustrade rises above the protruding eaves and covers part of the slate roof. The entrance front on the east side is divided into five axes by windows . A monumental portico with Corinthian columns and triangular gables is built in front of the three middle ones. Behind the portico is the two-story entrance hall with a large fireplace. From there a multi-flight staircase leads to the upper floor with seven bedrooms and adjoining dressing rooms. The staircase has a wrought iron railing and a mahogany handrail . From the central hall also the representative rooms as the breakfast room and the dining room and a large were Salon ( English Drawing room ) reached followed bedroom and dressing room. The dining room has the richest interior decoration in the entire house, including a marble fireplace with a frieze , which was made by the English artist Sefferin Alken .

Economic tract

Utility wing, west and north wing

The mansion is connected to the two-storey utility wing via a single-storey corridor. This consists of three wings abutting each other at right angles, which form a horseshoe shape open to the east. Its masonry consists of house blocks . The kitchen rooms as well as the storage and wine cellar used to be in the south wing. In the north wing, however, were the horse stables, the tack room and the coach house as well as accommodation for the servants. The north and south wings were connected on the west side by a Doric colonnade . Together with another commercial building that housed the dairy, wash house and bakery , among other things , it formed the west wing. Its most striking architectural element is a roof structure with a domed roof and a large clock.

park

Golf course in the park at Duddingston House

Approximately 50 hectares (125 acres) of Duddingston House landscaped grounds are now occupied by a golf course. The golf club, which has been located there since the end of the 19th century, bought the land it had leased until then in 1972. The park is also owned by a school and a rugby club. The park's roots go back to the 17th century. At that time there was a kitchen garden with five compartments to the northwest of today's main house , which has now been built over. The foundation stone for the park in its current form was laid by James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn, in the 1760s when it was primarily used as a deer park. In the early 19th century landscape garden was expanded and south of the mansion a formal , walled garden ( English walled garden created). Over time, however, it almost completely disappeared, so that only a few remains of it are left today. The small formal rose garden to the east of the manor is much younger. It was created by W. Gladstone in 1983 and has a square water basin as its center.

In the northern area of ​​the park used by the golf club there is an artificially created pond. A second body of water not far from it disappeared around 1900. In the park, however, remains of the former cascade systems and canals can still be found. Near the pond is a garden pavilion designed by William Chambers in the form of a small round temple. He is - as the mansion - since July 14, 1966 as Listed Building category A under monument protection . Its roof was repaired in 1973 by students from Holy Rood High School . With an ice cellar from the 18th century, there is another listed building in the park (category C).

Most of the trees are made up of oaks and beeches . However, very few trees date from the 18th and 19th centuries, as the park's forest areas were reforested in the 1950s .

literature

  • Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. In: Architectural Heritage. Vol. 10, 1999, ISSN  1350-7524 , pp. 17-27.
  • Kirsty Burrell: William Chambers, the 'Very pretty Conoisseur'. The interiors at Duddingston House and the Inventory of 1790. In: Architectural Heritage. Vol. 11, 2000, ISSN  1350-7524 , pp. 12-36.
  • John Connachan-Holmes: Country Houses of Scotland. House of Lochar, Argyll 1995, ISBN 1-899863-00-1 , pp. 58-60.
  • Paul Drury: Pillars of society. In: The Scottish Mail. Edition of June 26, 2016 ( online ).
  • John Gifford, Colin McWilliam, David Walker, Christopher Wilson: The Buildings of Scotland. Edinburgh. Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-09672-0 , pp. 559-561.
  • David Walker: Duddingston House, Edinburgh. In: Country Life . Vol. 126, September 24, 1959, ISSN  0045-8856 , pp. 358-361.

Web links

Commons : Duddingston House  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, p. 24.
  2. ^ Entry of Duddingston House as a Listed Building on Scotland's National List of Monuments , accessed October 29, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Duddingston House in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland , accessed October 29, 2018.
  4. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, p. 25, note 2.
  5. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, pp. 17-18.
  6. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, p. 19.
  7. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, pp. 21-24.
  8. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, p. 18.
  9. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: The Building of the 8th Earl of Abercorn's 'noble villa' at Duddingston. 1999, p. 17.
  10. ^ David Walker: Duddingston House, Edinburgh. 1959, p. 359.
  11. ↑ Information on Duddingston House at parksandgardens.org , accessed October 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ Entry of the gate system as a Listed Building on the Scottish National Monument List , accessed October 29, 2017.
  13. ↑ a b Information on Duddingston House on jjmedia.com , accessed October 29, 2018.
  14. ↑ John Connachan-Holmes: Country Houses of Scotland. 1995, p. 59.
  15. ↑ John Connachan-Holmes: Country Houses of Scotland. 1995, p. 58.
  16. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: William Chambers, the 'Very pretty Conoisseur'. 2000, p. 12.
  17. ↑ Kirsty Burrell: William Chambers, the 'Very pretty Conoisseur'. 2000, p. 15.
  18. ↑ Location: 55 ° 56 ′ 32.6 ″  N , 3 ° 8 ′ 13.1 ″  W.
  19. ↑ Entry of the Garden Temple as a Listed Building on Scotland's National Monument List , accessed October 29, 2017.
  20. ↑ Location: 55 ° 56 ′ 27 ″  N , 3 ° 8 ′ 21.2 ″  W.

Coordinates: 55 ° 56 ′ 21 ″  N , 3 ° 8 ′ 12.7 ″  W.