Scottish Architecture

Edinburgh, Scotland was a booming city filled with commercial traffic as well as served as a home of the Caledonian Railway that was a major Scottish railway in the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, Scotland had become the land of artists and poets, engineers and inventors. The Caledonian Railway had brought a new pace of life to the capital. In 1903, Princes Street Station was to become the base for a grand hotel. Sitting in the heart of the city center, the station served as two purposes. Not only did the station provide transportation, but also construction of a hotel was in effect. Starting in 1899, the Caledonian Hotel was well underway and completed in 1903. In 1965, British Rail, who is now a single national company, closed the Caledonian Station. The station was demolished leaving the city of Edinburgh the Hotel. The Caledonian Hotel was what remained of the Caledonian train station. With a direct view of the Edinburgh castle, the Caledonian Hotel served as a grand railway hotel. It was built above the main entrance of the station and opened in 1903, after some construction delays.

It was built in red sandstone from the west of Scotland. It was designed in the style of many Glasgow buildings. The Glasgow architecture focused on a classical style. Glasgow remained the model by which standards were set. At the time of its construction it was much criticized for obstructing the view of the spires of Saint Mary’s Cathedral for on Palmerston Place, which were previously visible from Princes Street Gardens. Stemming from Glasgow, Sir George Washington Browne was a famous architect who helped with the design of the Caledonian hotel. Sir George Washington Browne began as a designer of more private dwellings. Through these small projects, Browne brought more of a picturesque freedom to his architecture. He furthered his career by joining John Dick Peddie in late 1895. Sir George Washington Browne brought to Edinburgh a Glaswegian style and love of bristling complexity, covering a full range of building types. Browne had a way to import commercial architecture into the typical vertical profile and busy application of gables and pilasters of Northern Renaissance eclecticism. Gables are the triangular portions of a wall between the edges of a slopping roof. The gables are in shapes of little bells that decorate the top windows of the hotel. Pilasters are projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. It is a classical element in classical architecture that is used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. Pilasters are found around windows or main entrances, especially seen with the architecture of the hotel and the station (Picture 5). By the 1880’s, there was growth of Scottish classicism. Sir George Washington Browne based the design of the Caledonian off of one of the main stylistic variants of ornamented classicism,