Edinburgh Bridewell - Linking to the City

This undated drawing (Fig1.) by Robert Adam, held at the Sir John Soane's Museum, is for gates for the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. The Palace has three gates, one opposite the bottom of Canongate, the other two (more or less mirrors of each other) from Queens Drive (leading to Holyrood Park) to the South and Abbeyhill to the North. The upper design in the drawing may have been intended for the Canongate entrance, and the lower for the other mirrored pair.

Fig 1. Sketch Design for gates for the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. The turrets are clearly intended to echo the turrets of the side wings of the Palace. These are echoed again in the turrets for the proposed side wings for the Bridewell.

It is very tempting to speculate that this drawing is contemporary with the castellated designs by Adam for the Bridewell that was built on Calton Hill and the sketch design for a fortified bridge that was proposed to link Princes Street to Calton Hill, mentioned below.

The turrets of the proposed new gates take up the theme of the turrets of Holyrood Palace.

Fig 2. The Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh. View from the gate to Holyrood Park

Fig 3 The Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh.. Turret

Fig 4 The Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh. Gates to Holyrood Park

These in turn were clearly the inspiration for the turrets and side wings of his proposal for Bridewell - Castle Style Scheme 2 . Had these side wings, designed to house a Debtors Prison and an Infirmary been built, they would have been visible from Holyrood Palace. Positioned on a crag, the Bridewell, in the Castle Style, with its half-cylinder cell block, would also have echoed the great bastion of Edinburgh Castle across the valley.

Fig 5 Bridewell -Scheme 2 - Computer reconstruction. Proposed West Wing (Debtors Prison) View from South

Fig 5 Bridewell -Scheme 2 - Computer reconstruction. Proposed West Wing. View from South West Cloister in Men Debtors Yard

Fig 5 Bridewell -Scheme 2 - Computer reconstruction. Proposed West Wing View from North West Cloister in Women Debtors Yard

Fig 5 Bridewell -Scheme 2 - Computer reconstruction. Side Elevation view from West

The visual link between these buildings; the seat of power (the Palace) the instruments of state power (Edinburgh Castle) and the instrument of state punishment (the Bridewell), would have emphasised the authority of the state. The castellated architectural style of the Bridewell would then have been re-echoed in the proposed design for a fortifed bridge or viaduct to link Calton Hill and Princes Street, which would have visually, physically and symbolically linked the Bridewell to the city.

Fig 9. Fortified Bridge. This drawing is entitled "Sketch of a Bridge of Communication between the New Town and Buildings on the Calton Hill, forming the entrance to the Old Town by the Calton Street & Leith Wynd to the High Street of Edinburgh".

Fig 10. Computer visualisation of Bridge from NW.

Fig 11. Computer visualisation of Bridge from WNW.

Fig 12. Computer visualisation of centre arch from NE.

Fig 13. Computer visualisation of East turret from North.

Robert Adam habitually thought well beyond his immediate brief about the context of the buildings he was asked to design. Another example of this is his design for the South Bridge in Edinburgh. His brief was to bridge the Cowgate. The bridge / viaduct he actually designed was double the size required to solve the problem, and was designed to provide a new grand processional route into the City from the South.

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