Annual Lecture – Sir Ninian Comper: artistry in the design and furnishing of churches
The early works of Ninian Comper in Aberdeen, and on the direct influence of his family on the first commissions undertaken in the city.
This paper is a transcription of the annual lecture given in January 2021 on behalf of the Aberdeen City Heritage Trust. The text for the lecture was condensed from a conservation plan first published in March 2020 on the church of St Margaret of Scotland, Braemar, previously in the Aberdeen and Orkney Diocese of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Since 2013 the church has been in the care of a charitable trust, Historic Churches Scotland, which had commissioned the conservation plan.
The paper focuses on the early works of Ninian Comper in Aberdeen, and on the direct influence of his family on the first commissions undertaken in the city. Other key works of the architect undertaken in the Northeast of Scotland are examined, concluding with the major project undertaken for St Andrew’s Cathedral on Aberdeen’s King Street, completed in the early 1940s.
