William Walcot, a Scot by birth, was born in Lustdorf, near Odessa. He lived and worked in Russia until 1908. After graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts, Walcot went to Paris, where he continued his education in architecture. His most prominent Moscow projects are the Yakunchikova House on Prechistensky Lane and the building of the Metropol Hotel. In the UK, Walcot worked as a graphic artist, an etcher, and a lithography master. ‘Westminster Abbey’, one of the few preserved original drawings by Walcot, gives an idea of the master’s style and his vision of an architecture landscape.