Bute House () is the official residence and workplace of the First Minister of Scotland. Located at 6 Charlotte Square in the New Town of Edinburgh, it is the central house on the north side of the square and was designed by Robert Adam. It has served as the official residence of every first minister since Donald Dewar in 1999, and prior to that, the Secretary of State for Scotland who headed the Scotland Office, from the 1970s until 1999. Bute House was conveyed to the National Trust for Scotland by the 6th Marquess of Bute in 1966.

The house is a Category A listed building and is constructed in an 18th century town house Neoclassical style, using sandstone materials. Designed by Robert Adam, Charlotte Square was designed by Adam as a single scheme, and it was part of architect James Craig’s First "New Town plan" which was unveiled in 1767, with Adam being commissioned in 1791 to design unified frontages for Charlotte Square. Together with Charlotte Square as a whole, Bute House has been described as "perhaps the finest architectural achievement of Georgian Edinburgh".

Alongside two other personal offices at the Scottish Parliament Building and St. Andrew's House, Bute House also contains a smaller office used by the first minister when in official residence. As well as serving as the official residence of the first minister, Bute House is frequently used by the First Minister to hold press conferences, media briefings, meetings of the cabinet of the Scottish Government and appointing members to the Scottish Cabinet.

The four-storey house contains the Cabinet Room, where the Scottish Cabinet meets each Tuesday, governmental and ministerial offices, conference, reception, sitting and dining rooms where the first minister works and where Scottish Government ministers, official visitors and guests are received and entertained. The second and third floors contain the private residence of the first minister.

History

Early occupants

Charlotte Square was designed by Scottish architect Robert Adam. The Lord Provost and Edinburgh Town Council commissioned Adam to draw up plans for the square in 1791 as the culmination of Edinburgh's first New Town. However, Adam died in 1792, and his completed designs had to be realised by others. The north side of the square was built first and is faithful to his intentions. The plot where Bute House now stands was sold in 1792 by public roup (auction) to Orlando Hart, a shoemaker, prominent member of the Town Council and deacon-convener of the trades in Edinburgh, for £290.

The house was occupied by John Innes Crawford, who lived there between 1796 and 1800. He was born in Jamaica on 27 October 1776. In 1781 he inherited the Bellfield estate in St James, Jamaica, from his father, John Crawford. He later moved to 91 George Street, Edinburgh where he lived between 1801 and 1825.

In May 1818, the house was purchased from Davy by Henry Ritchie of Busbie. Ritchie was a Glasgow merchant, a partner in the Thistle Bank, and the owner of landed estates in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. Oman turned his new townhouse into Oman's Hotel, which was to remain for over 20 years. The fixings for the letters of the hotel's name can still be seen today on the exterior wall above the front entrance door of Bute House. Following Mrs Oman's death in 1845, 6 Charlotte Square was sold by her heirs to Alexander Campbell of Cammo, who lived in the house with his family until his death in 1887. The Trustees raised the £40,000 required for the alteration and redecoration of the house and its furnishings. The interior decoration and colour schemes were the responsibility of Lady Victoria Wemyss and Colin McWilliam. Because funding was tight, the interior refurbishment of Bute House was dependent on a number of loans.

Bute House is not owned by the Scottish Government but remains in the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland, a charitable organisation dedicated to the preservation of historic buildings and sites of natural significance across the country. The property is also legally under the supervision of the Bute House Trustees, a group whose existence was provided for in the original trust deed passing ownership from the Bute family. who remained as a resident in it until devolution in 1999.

The Secretary of State for Scotland ceased the ability to reside in Bute House in 1999 following the establishment of the office of First Minister of Scotland. In 1999, Donald Dewar became the first First Minister of Scotland and the first occupant of Bute House in the office of First Minister. Dewar died while in office in October 2000, and since then, Bute House has been occupied by successive first ministers; Henry McLeish (2000–2001), Jack McConnell (2001–2007), Alex Salmond (2007–2014), Nicola Sturgeon (2014–2023), Humza Yousaf (2023–2024) and John Swinney (2024–present). A portrait of each of the first ministers are currently on display in the main staircase of Bute House.

There is no expectation for the First Minister to take up permanent residence in Bute House. Instead, Bute House is always readily available for the First Minister or their family to reside in for any period of time, whether longterm or an overnight stay while in Edinburgh. Therefore, it is not a statutory requirement of the office of First Minister for an incumbent office holder to "move in" to Bute House upon their appointment.

It is the responsibility of the Scottish Government, under the terms of their lease from the National Trust for Scotland, are responsible for the protection of all possessions, assets and items loaned to Bute House against any kind of theft, damage or loss. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, a member of staff was always present within Bute House for security and protection purposes. During the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns in Scotland imposed by the Scottish Government, the only people permitted to enter Bute House were Scottish Government ministers, including the First Minister, to conduct essential government business, as well as officially appointed Scottish Government contractors to maintain the building as well as staff from Historic Environment Scotland.

Suitability and costs

thumb|left|First Minister [[John Swinney in the Drawing Room of Bute House]]

As an 18th-century town house with an open single stairwell, questions have been raised about the suitability of Bute House as the official residence and accommodation space for any First Minister who have dependent children under the age of eighteen on the grounds of safety. Unlike flats in Downing Street, the private residence section of Bute House does not have self-contained modern accommodation, and any prospect of a future First Minister with dependent children taking up residence at Bute House during any period raises the limitations of Bute House as an official residence which is ultimately maintained to museum like standard. As a result of Bute House being a Category A listed building, any alterations to the building, including on safety grounds, have to be balanced against the maintenance of the original features and fabric of the building as is. A child safety risk assessment for Bute House was conduced by Mitie surveyors to enable dependent children to live within Bute House with the First Minister if required at any point during their tenure in office.

In 2017, following extensive survey work on the condition of the building undertaken by the building's conservators, Bute House was closed for urgent repairs, with the First Minister having to decant the building until necessary work was completed. The work to Bute House was coordinated by Historic Environment Scotland, with "temporary measures" put in place for the First Minister to reside and for meetings of the Cabinet while the building was being restored. A substantial programme of repair and refurbishment to Bute House commenced on 17 April 2023 and set to last for a total of 20 weeks until approximately 1 September 2023. During this period, alternative accommodation was to be sought for the First Minister. The main entrance door for most New Townhouses would more normally be placed on the same side as the staircase. However, the central door of Bute House was a necessary function of Adam's palace front.

The wide, four-panelled entrance door is made of polished black oak. Between the top sets of panels are the brass Roman numerals "VI". Below the numerals, between the bottom sets of panels, there is a brass letter box on the left-hand side of the door and a brass door knocker on the right-hand side. The door is framed by small side windows and adorned with a semicircular fanlight window. A black ironwork fence runs along the front of the house and up each side of the flight of six steps leading up to the entrance door. The fence rises on either side of the front step to support iron gas lamps.

As the vestibule does not open directly into the stairwell, Balfour Paul sought to ensure that it would not appear dark and forbidding by deciding to greet the visitor with a welcoming central chimneypiece in white marble facing the front door. The plan of the vestibule is T-shaped, with archways leading through from the right-hand and left-hand sides of the fireplace. The vestibule features a rosette ceiling, highly decorative plasterwork in the Adam Revival style, and a floor of polished flagstones in octagons and black squares. The new single-leafed doors replaced 19th-century double doors, which connected this large drawing room at the front of Bute House, to the back drawing-room that is now the cabinet room. This room retains its original cornice, but the chimneypiece and the shaped treatment of the south wall, which replaces the 19th-century double folding doors that led into the front drawing room, were introduced in the 1920s by Lord Bute and Balfour Paul.

The cornice is thought to be original design from the original construction of the house, however, a shallow recess to allow a sideboard to be included was added at some point by Lord Bute. The gilded curtain boxes features above each of the windows in the drawing room were commissioned by Lord Bute and were modelled on designs produced by Robert Adam for the 3rd Earl of Bute's house located in Luton. The private resident apartments within the house are serviced, and all bed linen and towels are laundered by the Scottish Government within the service arrangements.

In 2004, it was reported, incorrectly, that a bomb had been found close to Bute House while McConnell was serving as First Minister. After an investigation, it was concluded that the suspect was indeed carrying nothing that could be deemed harmful and was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

As a result of further restrictions to tackle rising COVID-19 cases in Scotland, 70 protesters gathered outside Bute House to protest against further restrictions in Scotland, claiming that it was a "conspiracy theory". Four men were later arrested for breaking the coronavirus lockdown restrictions that were currently in place within the Edinburgh area at the time of the protest.

References

Further reading

  • Gifford, John; McWilliam, Colin & Walker, David (1984). Edinburgh: The Buildings of Scotland. (Pevsner Architectural Guides.) New Haven: Yale University Press. .
  • Paton, Hugh (1842). A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings by the late John Kay. Edinburgh: Hugh Paton.
  • Youngson, A. J. (2001). The Companion Guide to Edinburgh and the Borders. Companion Guides. .
  • Office of the First Minister of Scotland
  • The Scottish Government
  • History at Random Blog: The History of Bute House – Home to the First Minister of Scotland