Description

Henry F Kerr, 1899-1900. Rectangular-plan gothic church with 5-bay nave, side aisles, narthex, porch and side chapel; adjoining hall by kerr, 1894; cream sandstone, coursed and snecked rubble, ashlar dressings (red ashlar dressings to hall); moulded ashlar mullions.

NARTHEX: 2-stage 3-bay arthex as rectangular projection masking liturgical W end to SE; angle buttresses with octagonal pinnacled turrets; tall ground floor blank except for 3 narrow arrowslit windows; blind arcading of lancets with moulded arches and colonnettes to gallery, every 3 lancets divided by buttresses with central lancets with inset window; cill course and parapet with gablet-capped pinnacles above. ENTRANCE PORCH: tall gabled porch to left of narthex opening to SW flanked by buttresses; pointed-arch doorway to Montpelier Park with clustered colonettes to chamfered reveals and moulded arch; open timber roof with corbels inside; relieving arch over inner doorway, wide framed-and-lined timber double door; decorative cast-iron gates. STAIR BLOCK: low polygonal stair block to NE of narthex with lancet stair windows and parapet; slightly advanced round-arched doorway to Montpelier with bracketted ashlar dentilled roof, moulded arch and carved inscription in tympanum.

NAVE: gabled projecting liturgical E end to NW with 2 tall lancet windows to chancel and oculus in gablehead, gablet skews, stone cross finial above; narrow side aisles flanking with lancet windows and lean-to roof; clerestorey consisting of tripartite lancet windows (4 to NE, 5 to SW); rose window with distinctive tracery in SE gable wall, stone cross finial above.

TRANSEPT AND CHAPEL: low gabled transept to NE with paired lancets in end gable. Rectangular-plan gabled side chapel to SW corner; angle buttresses; cornice and parapet with pinnacles; oculus with curvilinear tracery and hoodmould in NW gable, stone cross finial above; 2 4-light pointed-arch windows with tracery and hoodmoulds divided by buttress to SW; pointed-arch doorway in porch set obliquely in re-entrant angle formed with side aisle, roll-moulded with hoodmould.

HALL WITH LINKING PORCH: gabled, rectangular-plan set alongside NW; stepped tripartite window under pointed-arch hoodmould in SW gable, central 2-light window, plain stone cross finial above; stepped tripartite window with cusped heads in NE gable. Link to main church with round-arched doorway to Montpelier Park with nook-shaft and hoodmould, 1 rectangular and 1 small bipartite window to right of doorway; small parapet. Steeply pitched tall roof, green slates to church, black slates to hall, lead flashings, 5 small gablet roof vents to each pitch; single stack to NE of nave.

INTERIOR: rubble with ashlar dressings, outer walls rendered; narrow aisles; pointed arch arcade with octagonal stone piers; plain clerestorey; elaborate crown-post rimber roof with decoratively carved wallplate; timber dado to aisles and west wall, arcade wall stugged rubble; single slender colonnettes with annulets rising from foliate corbels at arcade; arcade of 3 pointed-arch openings to gallery in W wall; square-headed roll-moulded doors to vestibule in centre of W wall and in aisle ends; moulded chancel arch with single shaft rising from plain corbel. Plain chancel with elaborately carved stone reredos in Decorated style; 2 organ chambers in arches on each side with Decorated Gothic carves timber bases (Morgan & Smith, 1900). Stained glass by C E Kempe in E wall (dated 1899, Christ in Majesty, scenes from the crucufuxion and resurrection); rose window of SW chapel also by Kempe (Trinity). Low rubble boundary wall with saddleback coping, short gatepiers.

Statement of Interest

The congregation has originally used an iron church which had been re-erected for them in Bruntsfield Gardens in 1890. The present church was built at the cost of $11.936 and opened in 1900. Allegedly, the internal arrangement and design was much influenced by Henry J Wotherspoon, a notable liturgiolist, who was minister at St Oswald's from 1894-1923. Now used by the drama department of Boroughmuir High School.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17809487

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.

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