Scotland’s Architecture

Public Bodies and Architecture in Scotland

Public bodies commissioned power stations, planned towns, libraries and offices across twentieth-century Scotland. Their buildings range from engineering works in river valleys to carefully ordered city façades. The organisation that commissioned a building, the body that later occupied it and its present owner can belong to different periods of its history.

Different kinds of institution

The Scottish Government’s public-bodies directory distinguishes executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies, public corporations and other categories. These have different responsibilities and relationships with ministers. The informal term “quango” does not identify a single architectural type.

Electricity: the Hydro Board at Pitlochry

Pitlochry Dam and Power Station was developed for the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in 1947–51. Harold Ogle Tarbolton’s architecture and J. Guthrie Brown’s engineering brought the turbine hall and river-control works into one composition. Tall windows, pilasters and shallow arches order the industrial front; precast concrete gives the modern-classical building its surface.

The balustraded walkway crosses above the drum gates, connecting the generating complex with a public river crossing. Inside the turbine hall, a steel-trussed roof and travelling crane belong to the maintenance of heavy machinery. The Board’s programme joined electricity generation with the extension of supply to remote communities.

New Town planning: Cumbernauld

Cumbernauld was designated a New Town in 1955. Its Development Corporation’s architects and planners conceived the first town-centre phases under Hugh Wilson and Geoffrey Copcutt; Philip Aitken and Neil Dadge directed the construction of Phase One in 1963–67. Phase Two extended the complex into the early 1970s. Shops, offices, civic accommodation and housing occupied different levels around routes for vehicles and pedestrians.

This was public planning at the scale of an urban centre, with commercial premises within the resulting complex. Its later history involves different owners and redevelopment decisions. North Lanarkshire Council records its purchase of The Centre in June 2023 and the demolition of the separate Fleming House office building in August 2025. As checked in November 2026, replacement of the shopping centre remains a phased programme with estimated dates.

A national collection: George IV Bridge

The National Library of Scotland, established in 1925, is listed in the Government’s directory as an executive non-departmental public body. Its George IV Bridge building translates the needs of a national collection into a steep urban site. Reginald Fairlie designed the building in 1934–36; work began in 1937, stopped during the Second World War and resumed in 1951. The official opening in 1956 preceded completion in 1958.

The sandstone street front, with Hew Lorimer’s allegorical figures, rises above seven bookstack floors below bridge level. A steel frame encased in concrete and reinforced-concrete floors support this vertical arrangement. Public reading spaces and closed storage have different requirements for access, light and circulation.

Government offices: a comparison

St Andrew’s House was built in 1934–39 to bring government departments serving Scotland together in Edinburgh. Thomas Tait arranged its stepped office blocks around an internal courtyard on the slope of Calton Hill. Its ashlar surfaces and Art Deco detail belong to a departmental headquarters, distinct from the separately constituted bodies described above.

Access and photographs

Power infrastructure and government workplaces have controlled interiors. Use signed public routes and check current arrangements with the operator. Library reading rooms have registration requirements. Redevelopment can change pedestrian routes at Cumbernauld. Photographs and illustrations on linked records carry their own credits and reuse conditions.

Sources and further reading