Copeland House, (former Astronomer's House) The Royal Observatory, Observatory Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

W W Robertson of HM Office of Works, 1892-94. 2-storey, 3-bay asymmetrical classical house built for the Astronomer Royal as part of a group of buildings forming the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill. Cream sandstone ashlar. Base course, pilasters flanking window openings, dividing band course, dentilled eaves and cornice.

The north (entrance) elevation has a central doorway with panelled door and plate glass fanlight, flanking pilasters, dentilled cornice and carved panel to doorpiece; single window at the 1st floor above and to both floors in a recessed bay to the outer right. 3-light bowed window to the ground floor outer left with dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet; bipartite window at the 1st floor above.

To the east there is a full height, 4-light canted window to the outer right with dentilled cornice between floors; single windows at both floors of the central bay; advanced tripartite window at the ground floor outer left with dentilled cornice and urn finials; bipartite window at the 1st floor above.

To the south there is an original conservatory at ground floor to gabled bay to outer right; carved bargeboards to gable; irregular fenestration.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof; coped wallhead stacks.

The interior of the building was seen in 2015 and retains largely the original floor plan of the former house where the rooms are now used as office accommodation. The interior has timber and glazed doors and an arched detail to the main entrance hall. The staircase handrail is a later alteration and appears to date to circa 1930.

Statement of Interest

Copeland House (the Former Astronomers House) was designed and built from 1892- 4 as accommodation for the Astronomer Royal as one of a group of buildings within the walled compound forming the new Royal Observatory on the Blackford Hill site.

The main observatory building is designed as a highly detailed bespoke design for a nationally important scientific facility and the site continues in the same use. Copeland House is designed to complement the main observatory building and is accordingly highly detailed and constructed of high quality materials.

The Royal Observatory and its associated complex of buildings were built on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh from 1892-4 and the complex first appears on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map of Edinburghshire, (surveyed 1894, published 1897).

The new observatory was built following a donation of astronomical instruments and literature to the City of Edinburgh from the 26th Earl of Crawford from his private observatory on the family's estate at Dunecht, Aberdeenshire. Since 1822 the Edinburgh Royal Observatory had been housed in the Observatory Building on Calton Hill however by 1888 its efficiency had been affected by inadequate buildings, outmoded instruments and by what had become an unsuitable site.

In 1888 a Royal Commission recommended that the Edinburgh Observatory should cease to be a National Scottish Institution and that its buildings should be handed over to the University. It was this threat to the future of the Observatory that prompted the Earl of Crawford to offer his gift of the instruments and astronomical library from his own personal estate on the condition that the Government build a new building on the Blackford Hill site and maintain it to ensure a future for the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. The publicly funded site was designed to act as a public monument to astronomy as well as a state-of-the-art research centre for the time.

The resulting brief for the architect W W Robertson (1845-1907) was to create a building to adequately house the technical instruments and library whilst also designing the group of buildings to a high level of detail and design quality befitting the buildings' status as a public monument for the city of Edinburgh. The carved stone Zodiacal designs to the main observatory building are finely detailed and the stone towers with their copper domes are both practical and highly decorative. The multi- period site continues to be in use for the purpose for which it was built and is a nationally important for astronomical research and study in the UK and is now (2105) occupied by the Scientific Technologies Facilities Council and the University of Edinburgh. The telescopes were designed and built by Grubb Parsons of Newcastle: to the east tower is a 36 inch telescope (referring to the size of its main mirror) built in 1928, which, when installed in 1930, was the largest operating telescope in Britain; to the west is a Schmidt telescope built in 1930 but bought by the Observatory in 1951.

The architect Walter Wood Robertson (1845-1907) was born in Elie in Fife and studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. In his early career he spent time articled to the offices of both Peddie and Kinnear and Brown and Wardrop before spending some time working in London. Robertson is best remembered for his large Post Office commissions at Perth, Greenock and Dundee executed from 1897-8,

however the observatory site, completed a few years earlier, is also one of his most prominent commissions.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2016. Previously listed as 'Observatory Road, Blackford Hill, The Royal Observatory, Astronomer's House.'

External Links

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