Fettes College. David Bryce (1803-1876). 1864-70. East Fettes Avenue, Edinburgh, Scotland. This public school, possibly one of the inspirations for J. K. Rowling's Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter series, is amongst David Bryce's best-known works. A "symmetrical high-roofed composition of bartizans, towers and spires," its "main, axial avenue to the south added yet another grand, spired vista to Romantic Edinburgh" (Glendinning et al. 280). Elsewhere it is called Bryce's "Scottish baronial-French Gothic masterpiece" (Gifford et al. 573). The fact that Bryce was working on it concurrently with the former Bank of Scotland on the Mound is proof of his versatility and eclecticism. — Jacqueline Banerjee. Photograph © Peter Stubbs, with thanks for permission to use it here.
References
Gifford, John, et. al. Edinburgh (The Buildings of Scotland series). London: Penguin, rev. ed. 1991.
Glendinning, Miles, Ranald McInnes, and Aonghus MacKechnie. A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
Last modified 5 January 2010