Description

Archibald Scott, 1828. 2-storey (basement to N and W) piend-roofed 5-bay plain classical former church, with arcaded porch to E. Coursed sandstone to E, random rubble to sides and rear, droved ashlar dressings. Blocking course. Long and short quoins. S elevation adjoins former Salvation Army Women's Refuge (see Notes).

E (VENNEL) ELEVATION: 5-bays. Flat-roofed single storey porch (now blocked) with tripartite ashlar Doric arcade flanked by single windowed bays; raised blocking course.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: 4 bays. Tall round-headed windows in 2 inner bays.

Predominantly 12 pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. 2 corniced chimney stalks with small circular cans behind E blocking course.

INTERIOR: (not seen 2000) converted (1999) to form studios for Edinburgh College of Art.

BOUNDARY WALL, RAILINGS, GATE AND GATEWAY: cast-iron railings on ashlar-coped random rubble boundary wall. Stone steps to S (from Vennel) flanked by ashlar-coped coursed sandstone walls to round-arched ashlar gateway with cast-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building no longer in use as such. B group comprises the former Portsburgh Chapel, The Vennel, and the former Salvation Army Women's Hostel, West Port. The Portsburgh Chapel was built as a Succession Church for an Associate (Burgher) congregation which had succeeded from the Nicholson Street Antiburgher congregation in 1789. A new Succession Church was built on this site in 1792, rebuilt in 1828. The Succession congregation moved out in 1859, to be replaced by a United Presbyterian congregation, who used the building as a mission church. The building became the Salvation Army Rescue Home in 1881. The Salvation Army Women's Hostel was built in 1910 as an extension to the former. Both now form part of an annexe to Edinburgh College of Art, Lady Lawson Street (separately listed). Listed as a simple Georgian preaching box of a type once common, now the only surviving example in Edinburgh city centre., and for its contribution to the character of the Old Town Conservation Area.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795089

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)