David Bryce, R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

David Bryce was born on 3 April 1803, the second son of William Bryce and his wife Agnes, nee Todd. William was first a mason and then a successful architect-builder.

David was born 1803 in Edinburgh, and died 07 May 1876 in Edinburgh. He is buried in the New Calton Cemetery in Edinburgh, beside his nephew, John Bryce, also an architect.

He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and showed early artistic aptitude.

5 December 1823 his much older brother William Bryce, Jr. died, leaving him and his brother John with financial responsibility for his widow and three young children, Margaret, William and David.

To provide an income for the family David and John continued the academy set up by William, and Burn gave David his brother's place in his office. This arrangement enabled his father William Bryce Senior to retire from business in 1826, when he moved to Agnes Grove, Trinity.

c.1832 his brother John had left the Bryce household and academy to set up independent practice in Glasgow. Nevertheless the brothers remained close, jointly undertaking speculative development in Garnethill and in Cambridge Street in Glasgow.

Bryce's middle years were beset with continuing family problems and responsibilities. His brother William's family had grown up and his son David Bryce (junior) had left to set up practice on his own account by 1852, his architecture being very similar to his uncle's. But Bryce's sister Ann who had married into the Lawrence family, Bryce's quantity surveyors, had also died early and Bryce seems to have made himself responsible for her family; and on 31 August 1851 his brother John died and he found himself wholly responsible for the upbringing of nephews and nieces for a second time.

Sometime before that event Bryce had a natural son of his own, also named David Bryce, who was brought up separately with his mother and was provided for in a will made in 1852. They lived at a respectable New Town address and the reasons why Bryce did not marry the mother are unknown.

Bryce's own household at 131 George Street was managed by a cousin on his mother's side, Jane Todd, in later years with the assistance of his niece, John's elder daughter, Jessie. A seaside house was maintained at Portobello, probably to keep the nephews and nieces out of the office as far as possible, and when he died it was willed to John and Jessie jointly. (Jessie is on the same tombstone as her uncle, born 1832, died Feb 20 1915),

Like his pupil Kinnear he was a co-founder of the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1856 and he may have taken a Kinnear camera on his travels. (source:

Award 1: Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Award 2: Fellow of the Royal Society of Scotland.

Award 3: Grand Architect for Scotland.

Freemason - Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Scotland (as mentioned in The Greenock Advertiser' 1849 Tues am Dec 4, Vol. L - No.6598)

Education: High School of Edinburgh.

Exhibitor: Bet. 1851 to 1880, Regular exhibitor at Royal Scottish Academy.

In or about 1870 Bryce slipped on a frozen-over platform at Cargill Station when returning from an inspection of the work at Meikleour House. He broke a leg and never fully recovered becoming subject to recurrent bronchitis.

Sources: ScottishArchitects.org and http://www.ourlocalhistory.co.uk/DAVIDBRYCE.HTM: extracts...

David Bryce, the eminent Scottish architect died on the 7th of May 1876. He was the last of a school of architects whose influence will not be succeeded by a similar class. The architect profession in those days was not crowded by hosts of aspirants jostling each other, it was confined to a few men of mark, each of whom was characterised by a peculiar excellence.

Mr Bryce was born in 1803, his father having been a builder in good practice in Edinburgh. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and having, at an early age, exhibited an aptitude for drawing, entered the office of Mr William Burn in 1825. He later became a partner with Mr Burn, until 1844, when Mr Burn left for London. After 1844, David Bryce carried on the business on his own until then late 1870's when Mr Robert Anderson joined him as a partner. This arrangement only lasted for around twelve months, when Mr Anderson retired from the business, after which Bryce carried on the business with his nephew, Mr John Bryce. This nephew completed the works left behind on David's death.

The works of David Bryce are distinguishable by two leading features,- adaptability to circumstances and position, and propriety of plan and arrangement. Imbued with true artistic feeling, David Bryce was ever careful as to the ensemble of his works, and to their fitness for the position they were to occupy,and harmony with the surroundings. When he had a work on hand where anything like scope was allowed to his powers, he wrought upon it as a painter does upon a canvas on his easel, revisiting it again and again, altering proportions, and rearranging the grouping of masses, and in doing so he did not hesitate occasionally to obliterate what had cost much labour.

Arguably, in the late nineteenth century, no other man in the land had altered more mansion houses than David Bryce.

Bryce was cosmopolitan in style. He designed buildings of almost every description, and in the most various phases of architecture; however it was in the adaptation of the Scottish Baronial style to modern needs that he was most at home.

He was a man of varied acquirements, and although somewhat rough in manner, he was of warm genial nature, and his company was much sought after by a large circle of friends.

He died at the age of seventy-three, and, although vigorous in intellect to the last, his state of health had, for some years prior to his death, required him to abstain from over-exertion and excitement. He left several works in an unfinished state, the most important of which were the Royal Infirmary and the Union Bank of Edinburgh. The drawings for the hospital were made and now reside with the hospital archives.

[Marion Bryce McGaan Cousens referred to David Bryce Jr. as being the nephew of Henry Bryce, her gr-grandfather'. i.e. Henry Bryce's brother was William Bryce.]