Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Description

George Washington Browne, 1886. Octagonal church with central bellcote and Italian Renaissance details, set diagonally to street corner, church halls to N. Squared and snecked red sandstone rubble, cream ashlar dressings. Principal ground floor windows with chamfered or rounded arrises; corniced 1st floor windows (some architraved); eaves cornice. SW (FRONT) ELEVATION: pedimented ashlar front with semi-circular portico on coupled red sandstone Roman Ionic columns, dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet, architraved entrance surround with pilasters dividing 3 panelled doors. Large moulded Venetian window with egg and dart cornice above framed by flat pilasters; heavily coped pediment with louvred and pedimented arrowslit window. Stair towers and ashlar bell towers flanking. Bell towers with large round-arched and keystoned ashlar birdcage bellcotes with finialled pyramidal stone roofs. Small semi-circular stair towers flanking with rubble base, single windows to ashlar stairhead and half-conical finialled roofs.

SE ELEVATION: 3 faces of octagon; cill course at 1st floor; centre face breaking eaves and pedimented over corniced Venetian window flanked by pilasters of banded rubble; tripartite windows to flanking faces; bipartite window at ground floor to left.

NW ELEVATION: as SE elevation.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: blank rectangular organ chamber.

CHURCH HALLS: 2 halls set obliquely to N and linked to church through passage to NW; small single storey rubble hall with ashlar gable to W and piend roof; 2 bipartite windows divided by flat pilasters; tall pedimented centre bay with angle pilasters; decorative galleried ventilator to ridge with ogee cupola. Further large rubble hall adjoining to N with black slate piend roof, 2 single windows and entrance door to E. Mostly small-pane timber casements with leaded glazing, sash and case windows to hall with small-pane upper sashes and 2-pane lower sashes. Green slate pyramidal roof, red ridge tiles; wallhead stack to organ chamber, ridge stacks to chruch halls. Moulded eaves gutters and gutterheads.

INTERIOR: raked auditorium with curved raked timber gallery on square wooden columns; corniced angle pilasters leading to panelled ribs of shallow octagonal dome with central ornamental ventilation grille; entablature clerestory windows framed by plain cornices; plain timber pews with umbrella stands; timber dado; organ in keystoned round arch behind pulipt over panelled aedicule with dentilled cornice and pediment and decorative cast-iron grille to opening. Plain timber pulipt, lectern and communion table. Vestibule with compartmentalised barrel vault with on short marbled wooden columns dividing stair openings to each side. Smaller church hall with open timber roof on stone corbels. Low rubble boundary wall with plain cast-iron railings, gates with small thistle finials, inset fish and dove motifs to main gate.

Statement of Special Interest

Group with 1-10 Hermitage Terrace, 4, 6 Nile Grove, 25, 27 Nile grove, 8 Nile Grove, 9-23 Nile Grove, 29-39 Nile Grove and 41-53 Nile Grove. Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Braid Church (built for United Presbyterian) replaced an iron church of 1883 (corner of Braid Road and Comiston Road) as the congregation outgrew its capacity. The present church was commissioned in 1886 and built in under a year for $5500. Part of the church halls and the organ chamber date from 1989 and 1911. The plan form of the church recalls an Italian baptistery and in 1893 the church was decorated with extensive marbelling continuing this theme, but only the columns in the vestibule have survived in this form. Browne designed a further Italianate church, the Maison Dieu at Brechin, 1891, and added several organs to existing churches such as Broughton Macdonald Church, Edinburgh. The baptistry form was a very innovative choice for church design in this period.

References

Bibliography

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.