Description

Malcolm Stark, dated 1887. 2-storey church with Baroque-detailed facade at the centre of Whitehall Crescent terminating the vista from Whitehall Street, extending to Dock Street at the rear. Sandstone ashlar, grey piended slate roof.

WHITEHALL CRESCENT ELEVATION: 3-bay, symmetrical. Base course, channelled ground floor and angle pilaster strips supporting corniced base to 1st floor, 4 Ionic pilasters to 1st floor, fluted to top and supporting corbelled entablature with balustraded parapet, broken segmental pediment to centre and pyramidal finialled dies to angles. Centre bay slightly advanced, keystoned splayed doorcase, 2-leaf panelled door to centre, pilastered and pedimented doorpiece with festooned cartouche and florid sculptural decoration, narrow leaded sidelights and fanlight into which pediment projects, pilastered window to 1st floor with narrow sidelights and columned mullions, keyblocked

and moulded lunette above with leaded glazing, broken pediment with finialled mannered pier flanked by winged putti-like figures at tympanum; recessed bays to left and right comprising original shopfront to ground floor with short tripartite window above, window to 1st floor with Gibbs surround and oculus above.

DOCK STREET ELEVATION: 3-storey and attic, 5-bay. Sandstone coursers with ashlar dressings. Corniced ground floor, 4 giant pilasters to 2nd floor supporting corniced entablature. Vehicle entrance to ground floor centre flanked by altered shopfronts, 2-leaf doors with fanlights to outer bays, corniced bipartite window to 1st floor centre flanked by canted window to left and right, 3 windows to 2nd floor with leaded

glazing, window to outer bays rising through 1st and 2nd floor with dividing panel to centre, 3-bay attic floor with 3 tripartite leaded-glazed windows.

INTERIOR: large auditorium with 2-tier U-plan gallery, 2nd tier now partitioned from main space, decorative cast-iron panels to 1st tier, wooden panels to 2nd tier, cast-iron columns with embellished Ionic capitals; pews removed except from 1st tier gallery; leaded lights to clerestorey, compartmentalised ceiling with key-pattern decoration; 3-tier dais with communion table, pulpit and organ console to each tier, flanking balustraded stairs lead to 2nd tier, decorative panels with swag motif to 3rd tier, large 3-bay classically-detailed organ case.

Statement of Interest

Gilfillan Memorial Church is an ecclesiastical building in use as such, named after the notable minister and social reformer the Rev George Gilfillan. The cupola which formerly surmounted the central bay is shown in a photograph in McKean and Walker.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17812082

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)