Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

William Hay and George Henderson, 1880-1905, with later alterations and additions (see Notes), including Seabury Chapel, Henderson, 1904-5; Warriors' Chapel, Matthew Montgomerie Ochterlony, 1924-6; and vestry building (Laurie Memorial Building, adjoining to rear), Shaw-Stewart, Baikie and Perry, 1960-2. Early English gothic church built on narrow, steeply-sloping site beween Carrubber's Close and North Gray's Close; tall, buttressed gable to left to Jeffrey Street (chancel above and church hall below); advanced gabled block to right, (1924-6) with door in re-entrant angle, containing Calvary Stair and Warriors' Chapel; 2-stage bellcote to chancel ridge. Squared and snecked yellow sandstone, bull-faced to sides and rear; polished dressings; squared and snecked grey sandstone to stair block. Base course; long and short quoins. Harled vestry building.

N (JEFFREY STREET) ELEVATION: cross-finialled gable to left with 3 short hood-moulded lancets to ground floor (church hall); interlaced blind arcade (to floor level of chancel) and 3 tall lancets (partially blocked); cusped vesica pisces above. Cross-finialled advanced gable to right with 2 hood-moulded lancets, string course and moulded shaped gable; timber crucifix attached to elevation above string course. 2-leaf timber boarded door in hood-moulded double pointed-arched surround with blank shield and lancet lighting stair above in re-entrant angle.

W ELEVATION: stepped elevation on steep slope; steps at Carrubber's Close; 3 bays over 2 projecting bays.

S ELEVATION: 5-bay gable; vestry buildings via glazed corridor.

E ELEVATION: 7 bays on stepped slope. Attached vestry buildings; projecting timbered bay onto North Gray's Close; plain fenestration deep-set in harled walls.

Grey slate roof; terracotta cresting ridge tiles; stone skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: segmental-vaulted 3-flight stone stair (known as Calvary Stair) leading to 7-bay nave lit by lancets to E; bays divided by shafts on tall pedestals, with grotesque beasts supporting trusses of open timber roof. Octagonal dark oak pulpit at E wall. Steps to 2-bay chancel to N; foliate Art Nouveau wrought-iron rood screen on polychrome marble base; organ in 2 arches of aisle to E supported by pink granite column with shaft ring and stiff leaf capital; marble floor. 3-bay oak sedilia below organ pipes. Oak 3-bay choir stalls carved with poppyheads and griffons, 1891. 3 arches beneath truncated clerestorey with geometric tracery to W to Seabury Chapel; low timber-roofed aisle with 3 round-headed triple-arched windows. Warriors' Chapel to NW; plain ashlar walls with names of fallen in bronze Roman letters; compartmental wagon-vaulted oak ceiling.

Calvary Stair: della Robbia-style majolica plaque of Madonna and Child; white marble crucifixion, Alfred Hardiman, 1926. Nave: white stone Madonna and Child, Louis R Deuchars; white stone baptismal font, with short polished black columnar shaft on polygonal, stepped base, beneath S gallery. Chancel: neo-Norman timber altar and gilded gothic reredos, designed by George Henderson and carved by John Gibson, with figures and angels holding scrolls by Sebastian Zwink of Oberammeragau; panel to centre (copy of Benvenuto da Siena's enthroned Madonna and Child, National Gallery of Scotland, see Notes); choir stalls; organ, Henry Willis and Sons, 1879, originally from the Cathedral Song School, installed here in 1888. Seabury Chapel: oak altar; gilded gothic triptych, George Henderson; timber crucifix at tie-beam. Small oak children's chapel at E of nave: miniature altar and furniture; coved and quatrefoil pierced ceiling; applied ribs and bosses, 1929. Stained glass: Calvary Stair with 2 stained lights at top; chancel with 3 lancets, Crucifixion, St Paul and St Columba, and vesica, Cox & Sons, Buckley & Co, 1895. Seabury Chapel: 2 groups of 3 windows, Percy Bacon Bros, 1907; 3rd group Annunciation, Nativity and Presentation, Karl Parsons, pre 1945. Nave: 2 plain, 5 stained lancets.

ANCILLARY BUILDING AND BOUNDARY WALL: adjoining Laurie Memorial Building, Shaw-Stewart, Baikie & Perry, 1960-62; overlooking garden enclosed by harled wall at W at Carrubber's Close. Harled exterior with dark-stained timber tongue-and-groove panelling; shuttered concrete and brick internal stair.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The church, known as Old St Paul's since 1884 to avoid confusion with St Paul's at York Place, is located on the site of the oldest Episcopalian church in Scotland. The congregation, formed by Bishop Rose, first worshipped in a wool store near the site after their exile from St Giles' Kirk in 1689. (The rood screen is known as the 'Bishop Rose Screen'). Following the demolition of buildings in Carrubber's Close during the 1867 Improvement Act, the building in which the congregation had been meeting was condemned and closed in 1873. Money for the new building was raised partly by public subscription, but mainly from the Walker Trust, a fund left by the unmarried daughters of Sir Patrick Walker (developer of Easter Coates, in the West End of Edinburgh). The Trust also funded the building of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral by Sir George Gilbert Scott. William Hay was a pupil of Gilbert Scott's and George Henderson was the son of John Henderson, architect of several Episcopal churches including St Columba's by the Castle (1846-7). Old St Paul's was opened on 27th January 1883. The nave was extended to the south by Hay and Henderson in 1888-9, and again in 1904. The chancel floor was raised and floored in marble in 1891, the carved choir stalls and pulpit were installed in 1891-2. The reredos was completed in 1896 and the central panel was donated by Cornelia Dick Lauder, whose nephew, the Reverend Mitchell-Innes, was Rector of Old St Paul's from 1884. Cornelia Dick Lauder, member of the congregation from 1884 until her death in 1900, also presented Lauder House (at 39 Jeffrey Street, separately listed) to Old St Paul's as a clergy residence. The side chapel (Lady Chapel) is in memory of Bishop Seabury, 1904. The decorative timber miniature Children's Chapel, an unusual artefact, was installed in 1929.

External Links

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