William Stark (architect)

In 1798 Stark visited St Petersburg, possibly in connection with the neoclassical Scottish architect Charles Cameron, who worked at the court of Catherine II of Russia.

Sir Walter Scott, who employed Stark at Abbotsford around 1811–13, described him as having ‘genius’ and said that "he must rise very high in his profession if the bad health from which he suffers does not keep him down".

The Scots Magazine, in which his plan for the Third New Town was published in 1815, reported that "his reputation, deservedly high in Scotland, was spreading rapidly in England at the time of his death".

This short essay emphasised building the Edinburgh townscape with picturesque variety and careful attention to contours, using the benefits of oblique views and the value of trees, rather than imposing the geometry and symmetry exemplified by James Craig's First New Town.

From the practice of these great masters, who we must regard as unerring authorities, of constantly combining trees and architecture, it must be inferred to have been their opinion that there could be no beauty where either of these objects was wanting."