Charles Kinnear

They were noted for their development of the Scots Baronial style, typified by Cockburn Street in Edinburgh, which evokes a highly medieval atmosphere.

Kinnear was also a pioneer photographer credited with inventing the bellows attachment on early cameras.

He was asked to join the rising John Dick Peddie as a partner in 1855, bringing an always-welcome large cash injection to the firm as a result.

[3] Kinnear lived in a large Victorian townhouse at 12 Grosvenor Crescent in Edinburgh's West End.

In 1857, he contracted a Mr Bell of Potterow, Edinburgh to create a new camera, which is said to be the first use of a customised bellows, allowing complete darkness whilst comfortably adjusting the focal plane.

He died suddenly of a heart attack after a normal day at the office in November 1894 and was buried against the north wall in the northern extension to the original Dean Cemetery.

They did many banks and churches but are best remembered in Edinburgh for Cockburn Street: a specific town planning exercise, creating a serpentine link down from the Royal Mile to improve access to Waverley Station.