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Summary

Description

Dunn and Findlay, 1902-3. Cruciform Gothic church with shallow chancel and narrow side aisles. Spired tower to NE, slated wooden lantern at crossing and piend roofed church hall to W. Bull-faced squared and snecked pink sandstone with droved red sandstone dressings. Prominent stepped buttresses to corners. Hoodmoulded windows and doors with carved label stops (except in W elevation of hall), some paired windows. Y-traceried windows with chamfered margins. Moulded corniced eaves. Significant organ to interior.

E (DEAN PATH) ELEVATION: roughly 4 bay gable with entrance and base of tower to right (N), flanked by gabletted buttresses. Paired lancet windows at ground floor. Moulded cill course beneath tall triple lancet windows above. Louvered mandorla in gable with decorative margin. Stone crucifix at gable apex. TOWER: entrance in shallow porch at base of tower; steps up to 2 leaf timber panelled door with cast-iron handles, set in deeply chamfered surround. Quatrefoil panel in tympanum. Paired lancets at 1st stage of tower with arrowslits above. Louvered lancets to belfry. Corner buttresses of tower terminating in decorative pinnacles. 4 louvered lucarnes to stone spire.

S (RAVELSTON TERRACE) ELEVATION: roughly 8 bays, with large transept gable end projecting to left (W) with prominent corner buttresses; flanked by porch to far left (W) and polygonal porch to right (E) with further gabled porch to far right (E). Small paired lancet windows to nave gable; lean-to aisle and porch to left (W). Tall paired lancet windows to transept gable; Y-traceried windows with deep chamfered surrounds to nave wall, separated by plain piers. Tall polygonal porch, with polygonal roof to E of transept gable with small rectangular windows high up on each face. 2 leaf timber panelled door in chamfered surround to E face of porch. Gabled porch to far right (E) with corner buttresses and single lancet to W; timber 2-leaf door in deeply chamfered surround, inscription above (see notes). Carved panel with burning bush motif on transept gable reads 'OLD CHURCH OPENED 1836. NEW CHURCH OPENED 30TH MAY 1903. NEC TAMEN CONSUMEBATUR'.

N ELEVATION: roughly 8 bays, large transept gable with buttressed corners projecting to right (W) with further gable of church hall to far right (W). Lean-to aisle to left (E). Paired lancet windows with taller lancets above to transept gable (similar to S elevation). 3 paired lancet windows to aisle (E) separated by buttresses. Y traceried clerestory windows to nave.

INTERIOR: Early Gothic interior scheme with well proportioned nave and transepts; minimal interior decoration characterised by carved stone capitals and stained glass (see notes). Entrance to rear (E) with two small vestibules ensuite to reception area to rear of church; later glass screen. Large interior volume: 4 bay aisles flanking central nave composed of arcaded pointed arches on octagonal aisle piers. Galleries set into transepts at 1st floor, behind tall paired arches with foliate capitals to piers. Large timber barrel vaulted roof with rose pattern ventilators. Organ set on gallery to rear (E) of nave. Access to church hall and offices to SW of plan underneath S gallery. Stairs to galleries accessed in each aisle.

CHURCH HALL: adjoining W end of Church. S ELEVATION: arcade of lancet windows with hoodmoulded doorway surround, stop chamfered. Timber panelled door with cast-iron handles and Y traceried fanlight.

N ELEVATION: large gablehead breaking eaves to centre with Y traceried window, chamfered margins. Tall wallhead stack set against gable to left (E). Link to hall set to left (E) with doorway set in hoodmoulded stop-chamfered surround; tripartite rectangular window above. Bi-partite stone mullioned window to far left (W).

W ELEVATION: 3 small bi-partite windows to right; tall banded chimney to far right.

INTERIOR: large open plan hall with later partition to rear forming separate kitchen. Doorway to far right corner leads to stairs with further rooms in attic space with plain cornicing, some later partitions. Timber wagon-vaulted roof to main hall with internal timber buttresses set on stone corbels and large skylights.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES AND RAILINGS: squared and snecked sandstone walls with red sandstone ashlar copes. Decorative cast-iron railings and gates.

Small pane leaded glazing to all windows; some stained glass (see notes). Piend roofs; grey slates. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative iron hoppers.

Statement of Special Interest

Significant Gothic church on prominent site set against the Dean Cemetery (see separate listing). This building is the second church to be built on this site, the first of which was opened in 1836. The original building was demolished to make way for a large church to cope with the increased congregation after the suburbs of Edinburgh expanded towards Comely Bank. The enlarged new building also allowed the congregation to include pupils from the Dean Orphanage and John Watson¿s College. The organ is a rare survival of the work of Charles and Frederick Hamilton, and was partly funded by the Andrew Carnegie Trust, and is one of only 8 other organs in Scotland with a Historic Organs Certificate. The most striking stained glass in the church is the work by William Wilson consisting of 2 lancet windows in the S aisle dating from 1949 and 4 lancets in the N transept which date from 1962. A further lancet in the S aisle serves as the war memorial and is by R Douglas McLundie of the Abbey Studio, dating from 1947-8. There is also a war memorial tablet in the S aisle by Reginald Fairlie, from 1922. Dunn and Findlay were a successful Edinburgh practice who designed a large number of residential buildings throughout the city. The practice completed a number of works in the Dean village and surrounding areas usually characterised by their use of red sandstone, something which can be clearly seen in their design for Dean Parish Church. The Dean Parish church is one of only 2 churches by Dunn and Findlay, who concentrated mainly on residential work in Edinburgh. The glass screen to the rear of the church was inserted in the early 2001 and the archway to the SE corner leading through from the entrance vestibule into this area was also created at this point. This more open design for the back of the church, giving the congregation more space to enter the church, was part of the original concept for the design by Dunn and Findlay. List description revised as part of resurvey (2009).

The Dean Parish Church closed as a place of worship in 2016. It is now being used by Stewarts Melville School (2023). Supplementary information updated in 2023.

References

Bibliography

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