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Summary

Description

Church halls, Thomas Ross, 1909 and adjoining church, Peter MacGregor Chalmers, 1913. 9-bay Scots Gothic aisled former church and buttressed halls with square-plan unfinished tower to NW and distinctive oriel-windowed decorative entrance bay to W (Roxburgh Place). Coursed, tooled rubble with ashlar margins. Base course, cill course, cornice, parapet to church. Hoodmoulding. 3-light simple tracery windows to church at W, single-light clerestory windows to E.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: to W: off-centre, crow-stepped entrance bay with decorative, double, round-arched entrance with clustered colonettes with decorative capitals. Pair of 2-leaf boarded timber doors with decorative cast iron hinges and multi-pane semi-circular fanlights above. 3-light oriel window above.

Predominantly Gothic and round-arched simple tracery and lancet windows with multi-pane leaded windows. Green graded slates. Cast iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

INTERIOR: (seen 2007). Fine, ashlar and rubble interior to church. Entrance hall with stone balustraded staircase. Boarded, ribbed timber barrel vaulted ceiling with carved bosses. 5-bay round-arched arcades with mostly octagonal piers with decorative carved capitals. Round-arched chancel arch with carved corbels. Some stained glass to apse. Timber-fronted straight gallery to rear.

Statement of Special Interest

This is a well-detailed former church and hall with a distinctive entrance bay which adds significantly to the streetscape of the surrounding area. The impressive interior, typical of MacGregor Chalmers with its unpainted stonework has an interesting timber barrel vaulted ceiling and decoratively carved stonework.

Lady Glenorchy, an 18th century figure, was a keen patron of church building in areas of poverty, mostly in Edinburgh. Having lost their former church building in the development of Waverley Station, the Trustees purchased an old chapel in Roxburgh Place in 1856 which became the Lady Glenorchy Parish Church. This church was a dark, oddly-shaped building which served the poor of the locality. In 1904, the then minister, Rev Thomas Burns, decided to take down the old church and build a new one which would better meet the needs of the people. The church was erected in 2 stages ' the hall in 1908-10 and the church, designed by a different architect, in 1912-13. The cost was £21000. It opened in December 1913 and became one of the busiest churches in Edinburgh. With the widespread demolition of the surrounding tenements in the mid 20th century, the church was sold to the University of Edinburgh in 1969 and became an examination hall. It became an Arts centre in 2003 and it is currently unused (2007).

Thomas Ross (1839-1930) was a celebrated Scottish architect, and one of the partners in the well-known MacGibbon and Ross practice. Perhaps best known for their books, The Domestic and Castellated Architecture of Scotland, which is a comprehensive survey of Scottish architecture before the Restoration, the practice also had an extensive and varied output.

Peter MacGregor Chalmers (circa 1859-1922) studied at the Glasgow School of Art. A master of the Romanesque style, he designed a number of fine churches including Cardonald Parish Church, Glasgow, and St Anne's in Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

List description revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey 2007-08.

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