This thesis explores the architectural practice of John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear from Peddie's earliest known designs of 1844 to his withdrawal from the partnership in 1879. A detailed investigation has been made of their unusually well-preserved drawings archive - preliminary studies and rejected proposals as well as executed schemes - and followed up by examination of surviving buildings and records of those now lost, in order to understand how the elevations, planning and underlying compositional principles were conceived. The re-use and adaptation of features - the partners' own and those of other architects who influenced them - across the unprecedented variety of styles and building-types which characterised the period has been the subject of special attention, principally since it helps explain the practice's singular ability, in British terms, to produce exceptionally well-considered designs even if there were few or no previous examples to follow. Reference to contemporary publications, especially the building journals, and to more recent studies in architectural history has been made to ascertain any obvious precedents and parallels as a result aesthetic, technological, economic, social and legislative change. Family history and business and church records have also been researched to establish what lay behind the partnership's success. The partners' well-connected backgrounds and willingness to become involved with their own money in ambitious business ventures are constant themes, contributing to the growth of the practice until it became the largest in Scotland. Initially one of the most successful practices in Scotland fmancially, that entrepreneurial role subsequently led to catastrophe even as some of their very greatest architectural projects were being realised. The thesis has been comprehensively illustrated in the hope that it may become a guide not only to Peddie & Kinnear, but also to the rich variety of Scottish architecture in the Victorian period generally.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:603436 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Walker, David W. |
| Publisher | University of St Andrews |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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