The expansion of England? Rethinking Scotland's place in the architectural history of the wider British world

Despite all the efforts of ‘New British’ and ‘four nations’ history in recent decades, much confusion still prevails.There is a serious historiographic point to this, which I wish to explore here. It refers to the idea of British imperialism, and, more specifically, revolves around the question of what it actually means to speak of a ‘British’ empire. Consequently, and by extension, it concerns what it means to use a term such as ‘British architecture’. I have written elsewhere on what I think such a term ought to encompass, grounding my observations in J. G. A. Pocock’s conclusions regarding the idea of British history.6 But I want to unpack this some more by suggesting that such an idea, while remaining coherent, would benefit from further disaggregation if we are to understand properly how the various nations, cultures, and ethnicities of ‘Britain’ made identifiable, and in some cases unique, contributions to the built environment throughout the wider British world. In this respect ‘Britishness’, as will be argued here, must be understood as neither an entirely disaggregated nor wholly coherent phenomenon, but more as a series of interrelationships. I raise this matter because all too often I see reference made to ‘British imperial’ or ‘British colonial’ architecture without adequate qualification.