Description
Hippolyte J Blanc, 1883-84. Cruciform-plan, aisled Gothic style church with clerestorey, polygonal apse, porch at SW, classroom at NE; later additions at NE. Pink rock-faced and snecked rubble masonry with polished long and short dressings; green slate roof with terracotta decorative ridge tiles. Windows: paired and stepped lancets at aisles and transepts, 3-light with Y tracery at clerestorey, chamfered margins (hoodmoulds with label stops at S elevation); single trefoil-headed with continuous hoodmould at apse; paired 2-light Y-traceried at W elevation between 3 smaller blind lancets, with nook shafts, colonettes and continuous hoodmould.
S ELEVATION: porch at left (originally to ahve formed 1st stage of tower and spire) with set-back buttresses, fine multiple moulded Gothic arched entrance on triple nook shafts with foliate capitals; 2-leaf panelled door with blind plate tracery; string course, and moulded trefoil at gable head; wallhead dormer with lancet and truncated tower buttresses at W wlevation. 4-bayed nave; aisle with burttresses, paired lights and lean-to roof. S transept, apse and organ chamber in re-entrant angle at right: transept; set-back buttresses with gargoyles, cill course, stepped lancets, moulded quatrefoil with hoodmould and label stops at gable head. Fleche with weather vane over crossing.
N ELEVATION: similar to S but with classroom in re-entrant angle at E and polygonal vesgry (originally ladies' powder room) at W.
E ELEVATION: apse with 5 single lights; lower organ chamber set back at left; single-storey classroom at right with moulded Gothic-arched gabled door; adjoining modern addition.
W ELEVATION: central moulded Gothic-arched entrance with continuous hoodmould to flanking paired lancets; cill course, 2 large windows at gallery level as described above, and moulded vesica with hoodmould and label stops at roof space; Celtic cross finial; set-back buttresses with gargoyles, porch at right, polygonal vestry with lancets and buttressed aisle at left.
INTERIOR: original and richly detailed throughout. Narthex; fine mosaic floor by Burke and Co, Paris; 2 moulded segmental arches N and S supported by paired marble shafts with moulded bell capitals on raised plinths and sculpted bases; basket arched timber ceiling; stairs at N gallery with wrought-iron balusters and timber panelled dado, timber screen and doors with stained glass leading to nave. Nave: 4-bayed, moulded Gothic arches on round Shap granite shafts with octagonal bases and moulded capitals, terracotta diaper work spandrels, white painted and plastered clerestorey and aisles; 2 similar larger transeptal arches on Ross of Mull granite piers; gallery at W with timber panelling; timber lined collar braced roof with open-work at crown, braces rising from long wall shafts with variously sculpoted corbels and moulded capitals; original gasoliers (converted to electricity); grained pulpit at crossing, left, lectern at right; 'The Broughty Ferry Harmonium' (see NOTES) in S transept. Moulded Gothic arch to chancel with polished granite shafts with foliate corbels; timber panelled dado; organ at right and in S transept (case similar to dado) by Gray and Davidson, London, 1894; choirstalls, communion table in apse: trefoil headed door with hoodmould and label stops at left; rib vaulted timber ceiling rising from wall shafts as at chancel arch. Windows: mainly clear and stained glass patterned; 5 Burne-Jones and William Morris windows in apse (1884) depicting Bibilica lfigures, memorial to David Ogilvie, manufactureer (and daughter Catherine) gifted by his wife who also donated the land for the church.
Statement of Special Interest
Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Congregation established 1878 as St Luke's Free Church in galvanised building (Francis Morton and Co, Liverpool) to the west of present church (temporary church sold to Barnhill St Margaret's 1884); united with Queen Street Church 1953. Original congregation pioneered the use of instrumental music for Sunday worship in the Free Church of Scotland in 1880 (see 'The Broughty Ferry Harmonium Case' in Free Church Assembly Blue Books 1881, 1882, 1883). The cruciform plan also reflects the ecclesiastical interest of the congregation, and is an extremely early example, to be compared with Robert Rowand Adnerson's Glencorse Parish Church, Midlothian (1883), Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow (1883-8), and J J Burnet and J A Campbell's Barony Church, Glasgow (1886-90). Tradesmen: Alex Scott, Clerk of Works; J and W Steven, carpenters, and J Bremner, carver, Broughty Ferry; J Gentle, mason, D Brown, plumber, A MacRitchie, plasterer, W Brown, painter, all Dundee; J Dobson, slater, J Ritchie, heating, Laidlaw and Son, gasfitters, all Edinburgh.