Description

Frederick T Pilkington, 1862-4, and Sydney Mitchell and Wilson, 1891. Ruskinian/Romantic Gothic Church (originally Free Church). Ovoid/clam-shell-shaped plan on an awkward trapezoid site; massive tower with facetted lucarned stone spire to N. Bull-faced cream (now grey) sandstone with ashlar dressings (cusped surrounds to windows and doors in red sandstone); polychrome voussoirs. High battered base course with moulded dividing course above. Complex roof plan. Programme of naturalistic sculpture (uncompleted) by Pearce.

N ELEVATION AND TOWER: principal entrance in advanced battered base of tower to right, up steps bounded by saddle-backed parapets, to paired diagonally-boarded 2-leaf timber doors with decorative cast-iron hinges and handles; 12-pane gothic fanlight above with Art Nouveau glass; trumeau to centre and flanking paired columns with carved angels bearing heraldic shields and streamers in capitals; pointed-arched hoodmould over door with angel label stops. Prominent moulded band between base and 1st stage of tower; paired pointed-arched louvred openings to internal space on each face of 1st stage; gabled pointed-arched opening, divided by colonette with roundel above breaking eaves of spire on each face; 4 slated lucarnes on alternate facets of spire (see Notes); recessed rosettes to spire, facets divided by rope-moulding. Hipped gable to left bay contains plate traceried rose window with cusped red sandstone over-arch, which lights the upper gallery within; flanking buttresses clasp corner, linked by shallow sloping stone projecting roof with vine-leaf decoration at cornice; polychrome relieving arches to tripartite windows below with small quatrefoil lights over trefoil-headed pointed-arched windows separated by colonnettes.

E ELEVATION: curved bay to left (adjoining later church hall) with 3 angled gables above, each containing plate-traceried 3-light window (blocked at S by hall addition) with 3 quatrefoil windows above, flanked by colonnettes with naturalistic foliate capitals; 2 sets of paired small pointed windows flanked by dwarf colonettes below, those to right angled to stair; blocks of stone awaiting carving on corners. Paired diagonally-boarded doors with small leaded-pane fanlights in shouldered-arched openings, separated by trumeau with foliate capital, in cusped pointed arched and gabled porch to right. Engaged circular stair tower in centre bay with polychrome-slated conical roof and cusped pointed-arched windows angled to stair; circular bartizan in re-entrant angle to right with small pointed windows. Diagonally-boarded door in cusped pointed-arched opening under gabled porch in outer right bay.

W (BARCLAY PLACE) ELEVATION: recessed panel with arcaded top (3 lancets separated by colonnettes on pedestals with foliate capitals in arcade) to base of tower to outer left. Steeply-gabled bay with 3-light window in trefoil-arched opening to left; scallop-slated lean-to roof over triple arched porch below with 2 trefoil openings between arches; diagonally-boarded doors with small leaded-pane side-lights in outer arches. Curved bay to centre with 2 angled gables above each containing plate-traceried 3-light window with 3 quatrefoil windows above; 3 small trefoil-arched windows below swathe of rich carving - shepherd and sheep, palm fronds and vines (showing how rest of church would have looked had all intended decoration been carried out). Angled single storey gabled porch to right; trefoil-arched opening leads to diagonally-boarded door; small paired trefoil-arched windows with small-pane leaded glass light porch. To outer right, steps up to narrow diagonally-boarded timber door in shoulder-arched surround leading to small circular tower with polychrome scallop-slated conical roof topped by single chimney, housing stairs to boiler; stairs lit by small trefoil-arched windows with leaded panes, separated by dwarf columns.

S ELEVATION: largely concealed by flats to SW built in 1885 and by church hall to SE built in 1891, and altered when organ built in 1896. Rather Germanic steep double-canopied curved roof over chancel, with carved foliage under eaves.

INTERIOR: 2 tiers of galleries with barley-sugar turned colonnettes to front, supported on cast-iron columns; curved ranks of wooden pews (see Notes). Stairs to upper galleries in tower (new timber and cast-iron spiral stairs also link galleries). Painted and gilded timber roof (see Notes) carried on 2 massive square-section piers with palm frond capitals rising through lower gallery, and 2 columns with foliate capitals and dosserets; radial rafters, intersecting trusses with arch-braces, barley-sugar turned queenposts and kingpost with foliate pendant. Gothic carved timber screens in vestibule.

CHURCH HALL: Sydney Mitchell and Wilson, 1891. Gothic church hall. Squared and snecked yellowish sandstone with ashlar dressings. 2-storey 2-bay double-gabled hall block, with conical roofed circular bartizan in re-entrant angle, conical-roofed lantern to ridge of hall roof, entrance and stair in centre bay and 3-storey curved linking bay to church.

E ELEVATION: paired gabled bays to left with arcading in V. Moulded cill band at 1st floor and in gable. Tripartite louvred opening in gable; plate tracery to windows in chamfered gothic surrounds at 1st floor; 4 small shouldered lights below, 4 trefoil-headed lights above and 4 quatrefoil lights in apex; paired stone-mullioned and -transomed windows at ground, 2 larger lights below, 4 small lights in pointed-arched surrounds above. Circular bartizan corbelled out in re-entrant angle; romanesque arcading under slated conical roof with ornamental finial, ring of machicolation, and 3 unevenly distributed narrow windows. Entrance at left of recessed bay; 2-leaf timber door with decorative cast-iron hinges in hoodmoulded surround with carved label stops. Carving ('suffer the little children...) in tympanum; tall narrow small-pane glazed windows in shouldered surrounds and stone-mullioned tripartite window above light stair. 4-bay bowed section forms link to church; door in outer bay to right; door and windows to ground and 1st floor in shoulder-arched surrounds, paired vertically in recessed panels. 6 windows to 3rd floor in round-arched arcade (centre arch blind) with red sandstone columns.

INTERIOR: halls, kichen and meeting room at ground floor; large wagon-roofed hall at 1st floor, lit by plate-traceried windows at either end.

Predominantly small-pane leaded windows.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

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Source: Historic Environment Scotland