| Architect Details |
William Leslie, architect c.1872.
William Leslie was born at New Deer in 1802. His family were Independents, i.e. Congregationalists. He established himself at Park Cottage, Broadford, Aberdeen by at least 1828 when he designed a castellated lodge and gate for Hatton Castle. As a contractor his first job is said to have been the additions at Craibstone House, presumably those built in 1829, but it is not clear whether he designed them. He certainly built the North Church in Aberdeen to John Smith's designs in 1829-30 and Castle Newe to Simpson's designs in 1831. In 1836 he was appointed agent for the Sutherland estates, undertaking architectural and civil engineering work, from 1838 in partnership as McDonald & Leslie, based in Dornoch. His Sutherland appointment did not exclude contracting for others and in 1840-41 McDonald & Leslie widened the Bridge of Dee to the designs of James Walker of Walker & Burgess, London, using the original facings as far as practicable, a contract which marked the beginning of a shift of his business interests towards Aberdeen. In 1844 the Duke of Sutherland commissioned designs from Sir Charles Barry for the enlargement of Dunrobin. These could not be fitted into the contours of the site, and after a castellated design made by the Duke himself had been discarded, the Duke returned to Barry's design and adapted it to the site with William Leslie as his architect in 1845, Barry being consulted on the details as the work proceeded. Leslie's role there is detailed in a letter by Leslie to Barry's son and biographer the Rev Alfred Barry 11 September 1866, enclosing a sketch elevation and ground plan by the Duke, 30 June 1844. Much of the detail design work was however in the hands of a pupil of Archibald Simpson's, Peter Kerr, from 1845 until 1848 when he joined Barry's staff in London. The partnership of McDonald & Leslie was dissolved in 1853 when Leslie concentrated his business interests and practice in Aberdeen. Sometime thereafter he became a town councillor and was Lord Provost 1869-73; during his tenure of that office he became a landed gentleman buying the small estate of Nethermuir, remodelling the house as a neat Scots baronial villa. Although he appeared as an architect in the 'Architects Engineers and Building Trades Directory' 1868, with an address at Union Street his principal businesses were those of railway contractor and granite merchant. The buildings known to have been designed by him are few in number and mostly on the Sutherland estate. He died in Aberdeen on 18 February 1879.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)