Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Burnett Napier Henderson Orphoot | | Designation: | | | Born: | 1880 | | Died: | 8 April 1964 | | Bio Notes: | Burnett Napier Henderson Orphoot ('Phootie') was born at 'The Priory' in Eastgate, Peebles in 1880. He was the son of Thomas Henderson Orphoot, Sheriff Substitute of Lothian and Peebles and his wife Edith Carmichael Smythe Burnett, and the grandson of James Burnett of Barns. Educated at Rugby and the University of Edinburgh, he was articled to Dick Peddie & Washington Browne from 1900 to 1903, during which period he attended the Edinburgh School of Applied Art. On completing his apprenticeship he spent six months as assistant to Robert Rowand Anderson before leaving for Paris, where he found a place in the atelier of Gustave Umbdenstock and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. After six months he undertook a study tour of France and England before returning to Umbdenstock's office for a further twenty-one months. He then moved back to Britain and joined the office of Mewes & Davis in London, moving after a year and a half to that of Collcutt & Hamp.
Orphoot returned to Edinburgh and commenced independent practice at 25 Queensferry Street in 1910, and had an office in London at 16 Great James Street, Bedford Row by 1911. He was admitted LRIBA in the mass intake of 20 July that year, his proposers being Thomas Edward Collcutt, Stanley Hamp and Charles Henry Gage. He was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in the First World War, and while on active service he married in 1915 Marjorie Harriet White, daughter of the Reverend J B White, Instow House, North Devon, where he already had connections, having designed the Clovelly Hotel before the War.
The Queensferry Street office was re-opened after the War, but in 1922 the practice moved to 21 Alva Street and that summer he formed the partnership of Orphoot & Whiting; in the following year it became Orphoot Whiting & Bryce. Of his two partners Frank Edward Whiting was born in 1883 and articled to the London architect Alfred Conder c.1901, thereafter becoming assistant to Detmar Blow and Henry Walter Sarel. By 1914 he was in practice at 30 Bedford Row prior to war service. Whiting was rarely in the Edinburgh office and was based mainly at 21 High Street, Bideford where he held the office of Warden of the Long Bridge. His second partner, William Theodore Percival Bryce, was born on 30 January 1892 and trained with Burnet, Son & Dick and at the Glasgow School of Art and Royal Technical College, later joining Mewes & Davis for a brief spell, before taking charge of an office in Paris for Orphoot and Whiting in summer 1922, and joining them in partnership later that year.
Orphoot was elected FRIBA on 28 March 1927, his proposers being Oswald P Milne, Arthur Joseph Davis and Charles Henry Gage. He was a member of the Council of the Edinburgh Architectural Association from c.1930. His practice consisted mainly of large suburban houses and country house work. His clientele was not extensive but tended to be extremely well-off.
Bryce left the practice in 1932 and went into partnership with his wife, Helen Mary Bryce. He was replaced as third partner in 1933 by Ian Gordon Lindsay, who had had his own practice at 5 Castle Street since 1931. George Hay joined the practice as assistant three years later.
The outbreak of the Second World War, with Lindsay and Hay called up for military service, brought about the dissolution of the partnership with Whiting and the closure of the Alva Street office in 1940, Orphoot continuing the practice from his house in Easter Belmont Road where he lived with his sister Miss E Orphoot, until the end of the war, exhibiting earlier projects thereafter to maintain his associateship of the Royal Scottish Academy to which he had been elected in 1934. On his return from the war in November 1945, Lindsay re-opened the practice from the basement of Houston House, Uphall, which he had bought from the Shairp family in that year, Orphoot retaining most of his own office records at Easter Belmont Road and continuing to practise from there in a very small way.
The partnership of Orphoot and Lindsay was finally dissolved in 1952 when Orphoot retired completely. He died on 8 April 1964. | Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | 25, Queensferry Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | 1909 | c. 1922 | After 1922 Orphoot Whiting & Bryce address | | 3, Rothesay Place, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | Before 1909 | c. 1920 | Perhaps house and office initially and later until 1920s house | | 16, Great James Street, Bedford, London, England | Business | 1911 * | | | | 21, Alva Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Business | c. 1922 | 1940 | Initially Orphoot Whiting & Bryce and after c.1927 | | 28, Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1927 * | | | | Instow House, North Devon, England | Private | 1927 * | | | | Well House, Easter Belmont Road, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1931 | 1964 | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployersEmployees or Pupils| The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | Robert McDowall Symonds | 1911 | 1913 | Assistant | Within this period of time. |
RIBARIBA ProposersRIBA Proposals
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | RIBA | 1939 | The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | | | Scottish Biographies | 1938 | | | E J Thurston (pub.) | |
Archive References| The following archives hold material relating to this : | | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | L v19 no1494; F no2489 (box 7) |
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