opportunity for them to put their beliefs into practice. for a typically Roman solution by constructing two
While the building’s design went through several flues in the floor to carry hot air from four furnaces
stages, the main elements of the principal façade and which were kept constantly burning in the basement
the centralised plan, consisting of a domed rotunda below to protect the records from damp.”
within a quadrangle, were present from the very first. The top-lit domed rotunda is not only the most
However, by the time the contract was signed in 1772 important room in General Register House, but at 50
the scheme had been reduced in scale, probably for feet in diameter and 80 feet in height and with an
financial reasons. The foundation stone was laid by area in excess of 2,000 square feet, it is also Adam’s
Campbell on June 27, 1774.” tallest and largest surviving room. Inspired by the
The contract stipulated that Robert Adam would Pantheon in Rome, the only source of natural light is
visit the site once a year, if necessary, or once every two the oculus 15 feet in diameter.
years, but he was greatly assisted in the management George MacKenzie points out that all this glass had
of the project by his Edinburgh-based brother, John, to be carefully taken down, cleaned and reassembled
and James Salisbury, his clerk of works on site. While during the restoration. “It is a superb feature,” he
most of the work was undertaken by local contractors said. “On a bright sunny day you can stand down
and tradesmen, tight control over the design was below and watch the white gulls wheeling overhead
maintained by the detailed drawings and patterns against the clear blue sky. That’s all very diverting,”
Adam supplied from his office in London. he said. “I just wish the gulls wouldn’t sit on it and
When Robert Adam travelled from London in do what gulls do best. We haven’t yet found a way to
August 1776 to inspect the building, it had been clean the mess.”
constructed to the top of the pillars and cornice. By One of the most interesting art objects in General
this time, however, funds were running low. Although Register House is the larger than life-sized statue
in the spring of 1778 the Trustees succeeded in depicting King George III standing in his coronation
obtaining a supplementary grant of £2000, this too robes. The sculptor, who is virtually unheard of
was soon used up and building operations had to today, was Anne Seymour Damer. Miss Damer was
be suspended early in 1779. For the next six years an amateur who was undoubtedly one of the few
Register House was left an empty shell, a public women sculptors working in marble at the end of the
eyesore that led the bookseller William Creech to eighteenth century. She was the niece of the man who
describe it in 1783 as “the most magnificent pigeon- awarded her the commission: the Lord Clerk Register,
house in Europe.” Lord Frederick Campbell.
Mr McLintock says that a second government The sculpture was originally placed on a plinth
grant, this time for £15,000, was obtained in 1784. in the centre of the rotunda. In the mid nineteenth
When work resumed in 1785 the programme included: century it was dismantled and moved to an obscure
finishing the ‘skylight’ in the dome; completing the alcove. This year, as a result of the building’s extensive
four corner towers; paving the interior courtyards and refurbishment, it was decided that the king deserves
the rotunda; constructing the inside staircases; clearing a place of greater prominence: not in the middle of
away earth around the building and surrounding it the rotunda as it was originally, but in a rather more
with a parapet wall; completing the brick arches in prominent niche, all the better for the former monarch
rooms and passages; and finishing the ceiling of the to survey the many Americans who come from his
rotunda to Adam’s design. While the finishing and lost colonies in search of their Scottish ancestral
decorating of the interior were mostly carried out records. The king’s gilt metal crown and sceptre are
between 1785 and 1788, the plastering and painting by Vulliamy of London, the royal clockmaker.
of the rotunda was not completed until 1789. When Her Majesty the Queen officially re-opened
“When designing General Register House,” Mr the refurbished building earlier this year she paid
McLintock says, “Adam incorporated a number of particular attention to this solemn reference to her
special features to counteract the traditional enemies own ancestor. “It’s not every day one comes face to
of archives – fire and mould. As a fire prevention face with a direct ancestor,” Mr MacKenzie said, “and
method, the building was solidly constructed of stone yet given all the data we now have available here, it is
and brick vaults and stone flags were used throughout. a very real possibility for many of our visitors.”
The Lord Clerk Register’s room is the only one with a
wooden floor. Similar considerations also influenced For further details visit www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk or
Adam’s interior, which was simply furnished with www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk
most of the rooms having plain tunnel vaults. While
the individual offices had their own fireplaces, heating
the rotunda posed a technical challenge. Adam opted
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