Robert Adam - Edinburgh Bridewell

Fig 1. Upper level Plan. The visitors entrance to the prison is at the North end at this upper level (top edge of the drawing). The design allows for a fall across the site from North to South. Most of the rooms around the courtyards at this level are either workshops for prisoners, or offices for staff, or stores.

Fig 2. Lower level Plan. From the North entrance an enclosed walled walkway leads down via two mirrored curved flights of steps, to an enclosed courtyard in front of the clock / bell tower block in the center. From here access can be gained to all the courtyards and other buildings. Also at this level is a colonnade leading to the elliptical courtyard outside the chapel to the South. This courtyard also has a road passing through East-West as does the Bell Tower Courtyard.

This second design for the Bridewell, in classical garb, is a more fully worked up version of the proposal that appeared in the sketch for a viaduct linking Princes Street and Calton Hill.

The building is symmetrical about its North South axis, the entrance being on the North side, (at the top in the plans above). The curving wall is not to the South but the North, contradicting the orientation of the perspective sketch in the previous scheme. This curved wall would have created a curious spatial dynamic with the flanks of Calton Hill behind.

The design took account of site levels falling from North to South. A guardroom at the North entrance is on the first floor. Access to the building is controlled from here. A walled walkway leads down via two sets of mirrored curving steps eventually arriving at a square courtyard in the centre of the complex. This courtyard itself contains a square clock / bell tower sitting on a two-storey block acting as a plinth to the tower and containing various functional rooms, such as kitchens, coal cellar, larder etc. This central courtyard gives access to all the other courtyards. At this lower level, at the north end is a room titled on the drawing Blackhole - a punishment cell.

Each of the courtyards was dedicated to different classes of prisoners. Clockwise from the North West (top left) semicircular courtyard, the courtyards are titled on the plan:-

Court with Cells for Idle Youth
Court with Cells for Women
Court with Cells for Small Crimes
Court with Cells for Debtors

Interestingly there are far fewer courts (and therefore separation of classes of prisoners) in this design. There is no court with cells for men, so presumably the intention was that the Cells for Small Crimes and Debtors were reserved for men, and all women prisoners were to be kept together.

The rectangular block on the West side is an Infirmary and on the East a Bedlam (lunatic asylum). Walled courtyards separate both from the main prison block. No part of the prison is more than two floors high. The cells line the perimeter of the courtyards at the lower level. Over these at the upper level are workrooms and staff offices.

At the South end, (bottom of the plan drawing) is a Chapel which (from the label) also appears to double as a manager's office. This is accessed through an elliptical courtyard.

The free standing buildings outwith and to the South of the main enclosure are either cottages or offices for a surgeon and prison chaplain respectively. They have South facing Venetian windows.

These early designs for the prison incorporated much of the very latest thinking about prison design. Adam clearly knew about John Howard's proposals for prison reform. This design enacts many of these proposals, namely:-

1. Prisoners be separated according to their sex and degree of criminality.
2. There should be solitary cells at night for each prisoner, but they should be together during the day for work, again grouped together according their classification.
3. Their health should be considered. Adequate provision should be made for bedding, food, fresh air and baths. There should also be access to an Infirmary.
4. For moral improvement prisoners should have access to a chapel, and be kept in separate cells at night because (Howard believed) solitude might lead to repentance.

Fig 3. South Elevation. On either side, separated from the prison by a walled courtyard, are the Bedlam and Infirmary The semicircular projection in the center contains the chapel and managers office. Between are the two story blocks containing the cells and prisoners' workshops

Fig 4. North Elevation. The main entrance to the building is at the upper level through the projecting center pavilion. A section of entablature bearing the word Bridewell, projects to form a portico, supported by a pair of Doric columns, The entrance pavilion is finished in rusticated stonework, in contrast with the smooth finish of the curved walls on either side.

Fig 5. North South Section. On the right is the guardhouse with the entrance to the North. The walled walkway with two curved flights of steps leads down from the entrance to a courtyard in front of the block with the bell / clock tower. A colonnade of Doric columns leads from here to the elliptical court on the left, in front of the Chapel, which is shown as elaborately finished internally with Corinthian columns.

Fig 6. East West Section 1. Taken through the Southern courtyards looking North, this section shows the arcaded courtyards with cells and, in the center, the colonnaded courtyard running North South between the Chapel and central block, with tower behind. The section also goes through the Infirmary and Bedlam, showing the courtyard in front and double height spaces internally.

Fig 7. East West Section 2. Taken through the Northern Courtyards, this section shows the curved arcaded blocks with cells below and workshops above. The curve block is broken by a central pedimented pavilion, with upper Diocletian window, which is the staircase linking the cells to the workshops.

The South elevation of this drawing appears to have a date written very faintly in pencil on the bottom right corner., which is Sept 21 and 2. The title of North elevation drawing is "Another Design..." so there may have been yet more designs for the Bridewell that are now lost, or this may be referring to the previous scheme. In this design, the courtyards have the feeling of cloisters, and the entire complex is somehow reminiscent of a monastery. It all looks workable, but was rejected, as was the classical architectural language proposed. The next designs see Adam using the Castle Style.