Description

Alexander Heron, 1872. Early gothic buttressed hall church, entrance flanked by stair tower to left and tower with ashlar spire to right. Squared and snecked sand- stone with long and short ashlar dressings; pointed arches with alternating red and cream ashlar dressings. Base course. Delicate hoodmoulds with floreate label stops. Saw-tooth coping to buttresses. Later single- storey hall attached to NE.

SW (CALEDONIAN ROAD) ELEVATION: gabled entrance front with 2-leaf boarded door framed by engaged polished granite colonnettes with annulets and foliate capitals, roll-moulded arch; flanked by smaller plate-traceried windows with 2 rectangular lights; 4-light geometric window and oculus above. Lower 2-storey stair bay to left with plate traceried single window and oculus above; angle buttresses.

TOWER: 3-stage tower to right of entrance, with plate- traceried lights at ground (single to SE, 2 to SW), 2nd stage with lancets to exposed faces and 3-pointed oculi above; stop-chamfered corners above ground. Octagonal upper stage, 4 primary faces with pointed arch louvred aedicules flanked by granite colonnettes detailed as above, crowned by pediments; intermediary faces with hoodmoulded lancets. Squat spire and weathervane cross.

NW ELEVATION: 5-bay, each with 2-light plate-traceried window; buttresses dividing. Outer right bay advanced and gabled.

SE ELEVATION: 3-bay detailed as NW elevation. Tower at left; hall adjoining at right.

NE (RICHMOND TERRACE) ELEVATION: gabled with plate- traceried octofoil window and oculus above; buttressed wallhead coped stack at far right. Vestry with bipartite and pentice roof attached at centre; hall at left.

Diamond-pane leaded windows with stained glass in NE window.

Roof with 4 small slated, gabled and louvred ventilators to each side; purple slates; ashlar skews with finials and cusp-panelled gablet skewputts.

INTERIOR: narthex with stair to gallery to left; gallery supported on cast-iron foliate columns at S end of church; panelled stained timber pulpit and seats at N end, carved organ to right. Good fitted pews. Wagon roof (plaster with exposed purlins).

HALL: coursed ashlar. Door at left with roll-moulded frame; 3 bays to right with rectangular mullioned windows, chamfered arrises; central bipartite, outer tripartite. At far right narrow 2-storey link to 1 Caledonian Crescent. Gablehead stack at left, purple slates, rooflight.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low rubble wall with ashlar saddleback coping and plain iron railings to front. To rear, high rubble wall with semi-circular stugged coping; wooden gate.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Described by BUILDINGS OF SCOTLAND as 'Gawky French Gothic', and by THE BUILDER as Heron's 'first effort'. Egyptian plaque in the entrance hall commemorates John Aikman, founder, pastor and benefactor of the church who 'erected this place of worship at his own expense' and died 6th Feb 1884.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56630925

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy