Stewart Henbest Capper

Stewart Henbest Capper (15 December 1859 – 8 January 1925) was a prominent architect in the Arts and Crafts style closely associated with Sir Patrick Geddes with much of his work mislabelled as Geddes'. Due to ill health he did not achieve much that he might have, and his contemporary Sydney Mitchell completed much of his most public works. His style cleverly mimics medieval and Renaissance details, and, as it sometimes includes either original or faked medieval date-stones, is regularly accepted as being several centuries older than its true age.

In later life he is remembered as Professor Capper due to his academic role at McGill University in Canada. This is often remembered more than for his work in Scotland, and much of his due fame has been laid on the shoulders of his clients and those who completed his works.

Early life

Born in Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of Jasper John Capper (1820–1918), he was raised in Upper Clapton in London until his family moved to Edinburgh when Stewart was nine years old, either just before or just after the death of his mother, Harriet Millington Jackson (1820–1870). His father remarried soon after the death, to Anna Coventry Blyth. The family lived at 1 Beaufort Road in the Grange district.

Stewart, and his two brothers, were educated at the Royal High School, where he was dux for the academic year 1874/5. At 16 he then won a place at Edinburgh University and gained a First Class Degree in Classics. The studies included a period attending the university of Heidelberg in Germany, from which it may be concluded that he spoke German competently.

Architecture Capper then decided to pursue a life in architecture and received a post in the office of John Burnet & Son in Glasgow in 1884. However, ill-health forced him to abandon this role, and he chose instead to act in the role of personal tutor to the only son of Sir Robert Morier a diplomat in Portugal, also acting as Morier's personal secretary. Here he learned both Portuguese and Spanish. After a relatively brief period in this role he moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a pupil of Jean-Louis Pascal. He stayed here for 4 years of study, during which time he befriended Alexander Nisbet Paterson, Frank Worthington Simon and John Keppie.

Following the death of his father and inheritance of the house at 1 Beaufort Road, he returned to Edinburgh in 1887 to work as assistant to George Washington Browne where he worked until 1891 whereafter he moved totally to his own practice which he had established in 1888. During this period with Browne he had input into the design of the Central Library on George IV Bridge, This was also agreed by the principal of McGill, William Peterson. This Capper accepted believing it would improve his health, but the job was conditional upon him ceasing all other jobs, so this alone may have been the reason for him abandoning the Ramsay Gardens project.

Capper pushed for architecture to be a university-learnt skill rather than the established practice of being "articled" to an existing architect to learn the skill.

In 1903 he returned to Britain, taking a chair as Professor of Architecture in Victoria University of Manchester.

Principal works

Hope Chapel, Wigan (1888) (with Frank Worthington Simon) Tenements at Wright's Buildings, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh (working for George Washington Browne) (1887) Edinburgh Central Library (working for George Washington Browne) (1887–88) Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children (working for George Washington Browne) (1888–89) 3-7 James Court/493-495 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (1892) 453-461 Lawnmarket, including Lady Stair's House, Edinburgh (1892) 11-16 Ramsay Gardens (1892–93) (5-10 completed by Sydney Mitchell) Blairhoyle Masonic Lodge, Thornhill, Stirlingshire (1893) Restoration of Riddle's Court and buildings fronting Lawnmarket (1893) Blackie House on Lawnmarket (1894) Conversion of Craigleith House, Edinburgh to a hospital for consumptives (1894) 48 Inverleith Place, Edinburgh (1895) (Capper's sole major commission for a private villa) New lodge house for Blairhoyle House, Stirlingshire (1895) Golf Clubhouse for Edinburgh Ladies Golf Club (1895) Whitworth Laboratory, Manchester University (1909)