Sir John Steell, RSA (1804–1891) was a Scottish sculptor. He modelled many of the leading figures of Scottish history and culture, and is best known for a number of sculptures displayed in Edinburgh. These sculptures have become so much part of Edinburgh’s beauty that they almost go unnoticed, as commented on in this old newspaper feature:
Here is some of John Steell’s Edinburgh work:
In this post I am going to share the fascinating story of John Steell’s studio at 9 Randolph Place, Edinburgh, where some of Scotland’s largest and most famous 19th-century public monuments were sculpted.
The story involved is circular: with a building built as a chapel for singing [St Cecilia’s Hall] being repurposed as the studio of Scotland’s most celebrated sculptor, before returning to a place of worship as St Anne’s Oratory.
But first, a few images of John Steell:
The rest of this post provides a timeline, inevitably incomplete, of the building that housed John Steell’s studio.
1820, Charles Thomson map [Charlotte Place was later renamed Randolph Place]:
22 May 1850: St Cecilia’s Hall being erected [John Steell’s studio was initially on the other side of Randolph Place]
1851 Ordnance Survey map: St Cecilia’s Hall. [The Hall, only just completed, was built for an organization called the Association for the Revival of Sacred Music. However, the society struggled financially almost immediately after opening the doors. They could not maintain the vaulted building, and the association collapsed shortly after the map’s survey].
8 March 1852, Edinburgh Evening Courant [the last advertisement in the newspaper archive for St Cecilia’s Hall]:
1854, Postal Directory [John Steell has now moved his studio across the road and is using the vacant St Cecilia’s Hall]:
16 March 1865, Caledonian Mercury:
4 October 1887, Aberdeen Evening Express:
16 September 1891, Edinburgh Evening News [death of Sir John Steell]:
1894, Ordnance Survey map:
1900: A new front was constructed for 9 Randolph Place acting as a grand entrance that hid the older studio/chapel building behind it. Commissioned by William Welsh Macfarlane, the architect Thomas Duncan Rhind deliberately rejected Georgian aesthetics in favour of an Elizabethan half-timbered style:
27 June 1905, The Scotsman:
26 April 1930, The Scotsman: MacFarlane’s closes
10 October 1931, Catholic News: 9 Randolph Place returns to being a place of singing and worship:
10 April 1945, Daily Record:
27 August 1971, Fife Free Press [9 Randolph Place has become Edinburgh Woollen Mill]:
19 September 1989, The Courier [9 Randolph Place has become an Antiques centre known as ‘Tudor House of Edinburgh’]:
2026: Today, the building serves as Le Di-Vin Wine Bar:
Footnote: Graham Steell, the youngest son of John Steell was a prominent British physician and cardiologist who is remembered for identifying the cardiac murmur that bears his name. As a young medical student, training in Aberdeen, I recall being taught how to auscultate with a stethoscope and to listen to a “Steell murmur”. Sometimes, it is all too easy to miss the subtle murmurs of history.