Edinburgh’s College of Justice, which includes the Supreme Courts of Scotland and its associated bodies, is located to the north of the Cowgate, on Parliament Square, next to St Giles Church. It was initially housed in an L-shaped building called the Parliament House, built between 1632 and 1640 and designed by Sir James Murray, the King’s Master of Work. This included a three-storey north-south block comprising Parliament Hall (forming the Outer House of the Court of Session), with another hall below called the Laigh Hall. The Inner House was located in the eastern block, with the national records stored below. From the early-eighteenth century, part of Laigh Hall was used as the library of the Faculty of Advocates.

By 1790 the Advocates’ library was becoming overwhelmed and unsuitable for its purpose. Correspondence between Robert Adam and his clerk of works John Paterson in 1790 reveals that conversations had taken place between the Treasurer of the Faculty of Advocates, Allan Maconochie (later Lord Meadowbank), and Paterson regarding a library extension. This coincided with an idea that Adam had to reform the townscape to the west of Parliament House, creating a ‘West Bridge Street’ approach to the city from the south across two existing streets. The clearing of the buildings on these two streets and extensionof the College of Justice westwards would have secured the College from the potential spread of fire. Included in one of these letters from Paterson is a sketch ground-plan of the proposed extension to the College with later additions in pencil, possibly added by Adam.

Adam’s designs went beyond adding an Advocates’ library to the existing College of Justice and introduced a new Inner House courtroom, a purpose-built library for the Writers to the Signet, and additional service rooms such as a robing room and clerks’ room. The drawings show a group of variant designs, in particular some with the addition of a large octagonal tower to the east front in place of the existing Goldsmith’s Hall at the north end of Parliament Hall. Notes on the floor plan design, SM Adam volume 33/5, provides insight into how Adam’s design could be altered depending on the needs of the Faculty. This plan does not include the octagonal tower and is presumed to be an earlier design. There is no plan for the final design. There is also an axial section through the west front of Adam’s design and the existing Parliament Hall within the Faculty of Advocates’ collection, showing the proposed Advocates’ Library above the Court of Session. There is also a document in the National Library of Scotland with financial calculations by Maconochie (treasurer) that Brown argues must relate to Adam’s 1790-91 scheme.

Although the Lord Provost at the time, James Stirling, was generally positive about Adam’s designs, his extension was never executed. A new library wing, as well as other additions to Parliament Hall, were eventually made in the early-nineteenth century to designs by Robert Reid with some interiors by William Stark, and in 1830 a new purpose-built Advocates’ Library to the designs of William Playfair was added. Reid’s new front to Parliament Hall and the north façade of his new library are of particular interest as they included stylistic elements directly lifted from Adam’s designs for the Old College (Edinburgh University), such as Adam’s colonnaded south façade and quadrant corner.

Literature: National Library of Scotland: MS. 19992, Correspondence between Robert Adam and his Edinburgh clerk of works John Paterson, 1789-91; A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, 1922, pp. 221-220; Index, p. 11; I. G. Brown, ‘A Handsome Library for the Faculty of Advocates’ in Building for Books: The Architectural Evolution of the Advocates’ Library 1689-1925, 1989, pp. 61-75; A. M. Kerr, ‘The Library that never was’ in Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet Review, 1998, pp. 4-7; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, pp. 50-51, 54

With thanks to the Arts Society Fund and the Art Fund’s Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant which enabled archival visits in Edinburgh to support research for this scheme.

Louisa Catt, 2023