Plaw, John

PLAW, John (1746-1820), an important and influential architect in London, England and later one of the first professionally-trained architects to live and work in Canada. Born in London and baptised on 8 January 1746 he trained for nine years under Thomas Kaygill . At the young age of seventeen he received his first architectural award, that for a drawing of Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, designed by Inigo Jones (built 1619-22) and it was this drawing which revealed a gifted and precocious talent. Over the course of the next twenty years Plaw exhibited his drawings at the Royal Academy of Arts on 13 separate occasions, and designed a number of country villas, cottages and model farm buildings in a neoclassical style. However, it was his books containing both executed and unbuilt designs which proved to be influential. These included Rural Architecture or Designs from the Simple Cottage to the Decorative Villa (1785), Ferme Ornee or Rural Improvements (1785), and Sketches for Country Houses, Villas and Rural Dwellings (1800). These publications, directed towards 'persons of moderate income' showed his predilection for vernacular building materials and his preoccupation with picturesque composition in a natural setting. The aquatint colour plates in his books appear, at times, to subordinate the villa designs to the image of the English landscape. The demand for his books, in England and on the Continent, and even in the United States, forced his publisher to reprint Rural Architecture in six separate printings over the next 15 years.

It is unclear why Plaw decided to leave the prosperity and comfort of his home town and move to the remote North American colony of Prince Edward Island. His arrival in the small provincial town of Charlottetown in 1810 must have been a rude shock, particularly having come from the large metropolis of London, England. He managed to obtain one commission on the Island in 1811, and then decided to look beyond the horizon and actively seek out work in Nova Scotia, designing major buildings in Halifax (later built, but not to his design), in Mount Uniacke (built 1813-15) and in Windsor (built 1817-21). He lived in Halifax for about two months in late 1813, and solicited business there with a long advertisement headed 'A Professional Architect' where he offered to '...make designs for Public or Private Buildings from the Cottage to the Palace' (Royal Gazette [Halifax], 13 Oct. 1813, 1, advert.). Plaw was a talented delineator, and several of his exquisite watercolour elevations and plans for buildings in Charlottetown survive and can be found in the collections of the Public Archives of Prince Edward Island. In addition, a full suite of plans and elevations for the Collegiate School in Windsor, N.S. are now held by the Anglican Diocese Archives in Halifax.

Plaw died in Charlottetown on 24 May 1820 and was buried at the Elm Avenue Cemetery in that city. An illustration of his tombstone and gravesite appeared in an article written by the Charlottetown architect Charles B. Chappell and published in The Architectural Review [London], xlv, June 1919, 130-31, illus. His personal library of architectural books was auctioned in Charlottetown in November 1823. A list of these books appeared in an advertisement in the Prince Edward Island Register, 15 Nov. 1823, 4, and reveal a man of cultivated taste and wide-ranging knowledge of English architectural design in the 18th century. (obit. Gentleman's Magazine [London], 1820 (ii), 376; biog. and list of works in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, iii, 440; Dictionary of Canadian Biography 1800-1820, v, 1983, 678-80; H. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 1995, 761-62; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [London], xliv, 2004, 545-6.; inf. Mrs. M.G.Morrow, Toronto; Irene Rogers, Charlottetown). An essay on the work of Plaw in Canada by Pierre du Prey entitled 'John Soane, John Plaw and Prince Edward Island' was published in the Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xxxi, No. 2, 2006, 87-94, illus.

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., Courts of Justice & Houses of Assembly, 1811-14; demol. 1972 (Weekly Recorder [Charlottetown], 25 March 1811; N. Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 90, illus.; dwgs. for two variant designs by Plaw at PAPEI)
HALIFAX, N.S., Admiralty House, on the grounds of CFB Stadacona, 1813, but not built to his design (Royal Gazette [Halifax], 20 Oct. 1813, 2, t.c.; Acadian Recorder [Halifax], 30 Oct. 1813, 3, t.c.; N. Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 139, illus.; E. Pacey, Historic Halifax, 1988, 146-7, illus.; dwgs. Public Record Office, London MP1/166; British Admiralty Records, mfm. Reel 3, Vol. 504, pp. 299, 1813; copies of PRO drawings at PANS)
(attributed) MOUNT UNIACKE, N.S., residence of Richard J. Uniacke, Attorney General of Nova Scotia, 1813-15 (Arthur Wallace, Early Buildings in Nova Scotia, 1976, plates 57-60, but lacking attribution; E. Pacey & A. Comiter, Landmarks: Historic Buildings of Nova Scotia, 1994, 34-7, illus.)
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., retail store for Waters & Birnie, George Street at Water Street, 1814 (I. Rogers, Charlottetown, 1983, 310-11, descrip.; dwgs. PAPEI)
WINDSOR, N.S., Collegiate School, College Street, 1817-21; burned 22 Sept. 1871 (Leslie S. Loomer, King's-Edgehill School 1788-1988, 20-3, illus.; dwgs. in the Harris Papers, Anglican Diocese Archives, Halifax)
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., Public Market Building (also called The Round Market House), Queen Square, designed 1819; built 1823; demol. c. 1867 (N.Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 99, illus.)