Designing for colonial wealth: James Playfair at Dunninald, Urie and Cairness

The Angus-born architect James Playfair established himself in London in the 1780s under the patronage of Henry Dundas, the most senior Scottish politician of his day. Until his early death in 1794, Playfair's clientele expanded chiefly amongst Dundas' allies in Scotland, his abilities being recommended by his work remodelling Dundas' own residence at Melville Castle. This article examines the colonial dimension to Playfair's career, namely his commissions for David Scott of Dunninald, a director of the East India Company; Robert Barclay Urie, a relative of the London merchants who founded Barclay's Bank; and Charles Gordon of Cairness, a plantation-owner estate in Jamaica. Cairness House was the only one of the three to be constructed, but all three designs testify to similar ambitions from Playfair's clients to solidify their wealth through architecture. Exploring the development of Playfair's schemes for Dunninald, Urie and Cairness and the commercial networks from which they were derived, it shows that Playfair's designs were informed by a web of connections between Scotland, London, and the British Empire. Henry Dundas was a central figure here, but Playfair's location as a Scotsman in London was also important. London was where his clients sought parliamentary seats under Dundas' patronage, processed their fortunes with bankers and merchants and invested in the services of a fashionable architect to manifest their wealth in Scotland. Charting the projects at Dunninald, Urie and Cairness adds to our understanding of a much-overlooked British architect's career but also illuminates the ways in which colonial wealth impacted the built environment of late eighteenth-century Scotland, as articulated by the overlapping of architectural, colonial and political patronage in London.