Description

Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, 1866-97. Early gothic church on corner site. Rectangular-plan, aligned EW, with polygonal apse to E, bowed chapels, transepts, lean-to aisles, 2-storey lean-to narthex to W and polygonal corner turret with stone spire to SW. Squared and snecked slightly bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings. Plate tracery; hoodmoulds to pointed arches; continuous moulded courses at cills and eaves.

W ELEVATION: 2-storey lean-to narthex has 2 sets of arcaded round-arched 3-light windows with circular windows above in hoodmoulded pointed-arched surrounds; 3 lancets in each bay above (lighting gallery), linked by hoodmoulds and separated by gabletted buttress; rose window with plate tracery in gable above. Polygonal corner tower (containing spiral stair to gallery) has narrow windows to W and S at 1st stage, hoodmoulded pointed-arched louvred openings on each facet at 3rd stage; scalloped mouldings and carved label-stops to stone spire.

S ELEVATION: timber boarded door (entrance to 2-storey vestibule in lean-to narthex) with decorative cast-iron hinges in hoodmoulded scalloped round-arched surround, flanked by columns with foliate capitals, under sloping stone-roofed projection; circular window with plate tracery above. 3 paired hoodmoulded lancets separated by buttresses in lean-to S aisle; buttressed corner and single lancet in return to W; 3 lancets flanked by colonnettes to clerestorey above. Projecting transept to right with buttressed corners; timber boarded door with decorative cast-iron hinges in hoodmoulded trefoil-arched surround with carved label-stops in left bay; 2-light window with circular (roseate) window above in hoodmoulded pointed-arched surround (label-stops left in block) in gable above. Bowed chapel (St Michael's) lit by lancets in re-entrant angle.

E ELEVATION: piend-roofed polygonal apse with wrought-iron finial, lit by pointed-arched windows (small rose window in pointed-arched surround above St Michael's Chapel). Bowed end of Lady Chapel (built circa 1897) with lancets to NE.

N ELEVATION: lancet windows to Lady Chapel show above low, flat-roofed Sacristy. Projecting transept with buttressed corners and 2-light window with circular (roseate) window in hoodmoulded pointed-arched surround in gable above. 3 paired hoodmoulded lancet windows separated by buttresses in lean-to N aisle; 3 lancets to clerestorey above.

INTERIOR: wagon-roofed nave; lancets lighting clerestorey; small paired lancets light N and S aisles; red sandstone columns support pointed arches (larger at transepts) on French stiff-leaf capitals of grey stone. Splay-ended chancel lit by 2 (formerly 3) large, high lancets; paired pointed-arched openings from chancel to St Michael and Lady Chapels; apsidal-ended Lady Chapel entered by triple-arched Romanesque arcade (capitals left in block). Gothic arcade to gallery at W end. Narthex entered from SW; hoodmoulded trefoil-arched door gives access to present kitchen; stairs in turret give access to gallery and choir room.

Tall painted and gilded reredos in chancel (see Notes) - CE Kempe, 1889. Altar and painted and gilded altarpiece in St Michael's Chapel (see Notes) - Hamilton More-Nisbet, 1901. Painted and carved limestone altarpiece in Lady Chapel (see Notes) - William Burges circa 1869. High quality stained glass in all windows, by William Wailes, CE Kempe, Clayton and Bell etc. Hexagonal carved wood pulpit, 17th century Renaissance, poss. Spanish.

Small-pane leaded windows with stained glass. Graded grey slates. Cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers. Tall splayed stone stack with circular can to NE at eaves. Stone skews with cross finials to gables.

Statement of Interest

B group comprises St Michael's and All Saints Church, Brougham Street, former Parsonage House, 26 Brougham Street, and former Sisters' House, School and Hall, 22-30 Glen Street. Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Congregation first formed 1853 as mission church of St John, Princes Street, in a building on the site of the present Methodist Central Hall. Originally named All Saints; amalgamated with St Michael's, Hill Square in 1965. Burges' altarpiece and the carved pulpit were formerly at St Michael's, Hill Square. Kempe's reredos was made for All Saints.

Begun in 1866, opened 1867 (nave and aisles, transepts, chancel and St Michael's Chapel). It was intended to build a massive tower and steeple at the SW corner, but this was not built due to lack of funds. Instead, in 1876, Anderson designed the 2-storey narthex and triforium, and the SW turret. In 1897 the church was again extended with the addition of the Lady Chapel (with an organ loft above) at the NE, again designed by Anderson.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Church of St Michael and All Saints at Wikipedia
• Church of St Michael and All Saints official website
• Wikidata Q17570567

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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