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Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh: preliminary designs for an entrance gate to Holyroodhouse, ND, unexecuted (1)

Notes

Holyrood Palace is the official royal residence for the monarchy in Scotland. Originally a twelfth-century Augustinian monastery, it has been altered extensively, and most significantly in the 1670s by the architect Sir William Bruce. Robert Adam’s father, William Adam (1689-1748), also worked on the Palace between 1733 and 1742, as well as Robert’s eldest brother John Adam (1721-1792). In 1739, William was made responsible for the redecoration and refurnishing of the Duke of Hamilton’s apartment at Holyroodhouse, one of his most important commissions in interior decoration. He included survey drawings of ‘Holy-rood-House’ in his anticipated Vitruvius Scoticus (1812) which was published after his death.

There are two Adam office designs for a castellated entrance gate to Holyroodhouse Palace. It is not clear when or why these designs were made, and they do not appear to have been executed.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, p. 11; J. Fleming, Robert Adam and his circle, 1978, pp. 59-60; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, p. 245; J. Simpson, (ed.), Vitruvius Scoticus: Plans, Elevations and Sections of Public Buildings, Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Houses in Scotland by William Adam, 2011, pp. 10-11, 27

Louisa Catt, 2023

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Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

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Contents of Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh: preliminary designs for an entrance gate to Holyroodhouse, ND, unexecuted (1)