Memorial to John Playfair, Old Calton Burial Ground

James Playfair (5 August 1755 – 23 February 1794) was a Scottish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who worked largely in the neoclassical tradition.

Biography

Playfair was born in Benvie near Dundee, where his father was the parish minister. He was the brother of

William Playfair William Playfair (22 September 1759 – 11 February 1823), a Scottish engineer and political economist, served as a secret agent on behalf of Great Britain during its war with France. The founder of graphical methods of statistics, Playfai ...

the engineer, and the mathematician

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

. His son,

William Henry Playfair William Henry Playfair FRSE (15 July 1790 – 19 March 1857) was a prominent Scottish architect in the 19th century, who designed the Eastern, or Third, New Town and many of Edinburgh's neoclassical landmarks. Life Playfair was born on 15 ...

(1790–1857), was also a celebrated architect, responsible for many of the buildings in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

’s New Town. James Playfair's works include

Melville Castle Melville Castle is a three-storey Gothic castellated mansion situated less than a mile (2 km) west-south-west of Dalkeith, Midlothian, near the North Esk. History An earlier tower house on the site was demolished when the present stru ...

in Midlothian and the Glens Old Parish Church, Kirriemuir (1786–1788). His most famous building is

Cairness House Cairness House, south-east of Fraserburgh in Buchan in the county of Aberdeenshire, is a country house built in the Neoclassical style between 1791 and 1797 to designs by architect James Playfair. It replaced an earlier house of 1781 by Robe ...

(1791–1797), in Aberdeenshire, which used revolutionary forms of neoclassicism, and is unique in British architecture of the period. Cairness House shows the influence of the French architects

Étienne-Louis Boullée Étienne-Louis Boullée (12 February 17284 February 1799) was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects. Life Born in Paris, he studied under Jacques-François Blondel, Germain Bof ...

and Claude Nicholas Ledoux, and is also notable for having the earliest complete Egyptian room in Britain. On his death in 1794, most of Playfair's papers were bought by his close friend

Sir John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professo ...

and are now housed at

Sir John Soane's Museum Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...

in London.

References

Parks & Gardens, UK

External links

* http://www.castlehillsberwick.com/playfairexhibition/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Playfair, James 1755 births 1794 deaths British neoclassical architects 18th-century Scottish architects 18th-century Scottish people Burials at Old Calton Burial Ground