Peddie & Kinnear

Peddie & Kinnear. Scots architectural firm founded in 1845 by John Dick Peddie (1824–91) and Charles George Hood Kinnear (1830–94), who became a partner in 1855. Peddie had been apprenticed to Rhind, from whom he imbibed a sound knowledge of Graeco-Roman (e.g. Sydney Place United Presbyterian Church, Duke Street, Glasgow (1857–8—now offices) ) and Italianate (at numerous Banks (e.g. Stirling (1854) and Maybole, Ayrshire (now Strathclyde— 1856) ) styles. On occasion both Romanesque and Gothic elements were mixed with Renaissance architecture, as at the Chalmers Hospital (1861), the Royal Infirmary Convalescent Home (1866—now the Corstorphine Hospital), and the St Cuthbert's Poor House (1867—now the Western General Hospital, much altered), all in Edinburgh. Probably his best work was the atrium and domed telling-room of the Royal Bank of Scotland Head Office, Edinburgh (1857). Kinnear had been apprenticed to Bryce, from whom he derived his Franco-Scottish late-Gothic and Scottish Baronial styles. Among his works may be cited Morgan Hospital, Dundee (1863—now the Academy), the Town House, Aberdeen (1868–74), and several houses (Drygrange, Roxburghshire (now Borders—1887) ). Also Baronial was his Cockburn Street, Edinburgh (1859–64). The firm designed numerous churches, including the Pilrig Free Church, Edinburgh (1861–3— with plate-tracery reminiscent of the Rogue work of Teulon), and the Blythswoodholme Hotel, Hope Street, Glasgow (1875–7—now offices), which was one of the largest hotel projects in Britain at the time, and reflects the influence of Alexander Thomson on the practice in the mid- to later 1870s. Also major works were the three hydropathic establishments: Dunblane (1875–8—Italianate); Craiglockhart, Edinburgh (1877–9—Thomsonesque Neo-Classical); and Callander, Perthshire, later Stirling (1879–81—French Second Empire, with Francis Mackison, C.E.). From 1879 the firm was renamed Kinnear & Peddie by John More Dick Peddie (1853–1921—Peddie's son, who had worked with ‘Middle’ Scott and had studied in Germany) and Kinnear, and after Kinnear's death George Washington Browne was active in the partnership from c.1895 until 1907. Later works include the Bank of Scotland, George Street, Edinburgh (1883—an essay in the Italianate palazzo style, beefed up with early Renaissance detail), the Beaux-Arts Classical entrance to the Caledonian Station, Edinburgh (later (1899–1903) part of the Caledonian Hotel), and the National Bank, Glasgow (1899—a Baroque confection, now the Cooperative Bank). A late masterpiece by the younger Peddie was Westerdunes, North Berwick, Lothian (1908—a fine house in the Jacobean style). Kinnear was a pioneer in the use of the camera for architectural purposes, inventing the first bellows camera for portability in 1857, a development of a much heavier folding camera invented by Francis Fowke.

Bibliography

David Walker ; RIASQ, iv (1922), 6–9, 179–201;
Jane Turner (1996)