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St Philip's Parish Church, 14 Abercorn Terrace, Edinburgh

A Category B Listed Building in Edinburgh, Edinburgh

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Coordinates

Latitude: 55.9503 / 55°57'0"N

Longitude: -3.1027 / 3°6'9"W

OS Eastings: 331237

OS Northings: 673573

OS Grid: NT312735

Mapcode National: GBR 2C.Y4X4

Mapcode Global: WH6SN.9PST

Plus Code: 9C7RXV2W+4W

Entry Name: St Philip's Parish Church, 14 Abercorn Terrace, Edinburgh

Listing Name: 14 Abercorn Terrace St Philip's Parish Church, Including Boundary Walls and Lamp Standards

Listing Date: 12 December 1974

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 363442

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB26724

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200363442

Location: Edinburgh

County: Edinburgh

Town: Edinburgh

Electoral Ward: Portobello/Craigmillar

Traditional County: Midlothian

Tagged with: Church building

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Description

John Honeyman, 1875-1877; later addition of hall by J Graham Fairley, 1924-1925. Early English Gothic church set on prominent corner site. Stugged ashlar with droved ashlar dressings. Battered base course, moulded cill course to ground floor windows, houldmoulds to pointed-arch windows.

SW (ABERCORN TERRACE) ELEVATION: 3-bay. 2-leaf boarded door to centre in moulded and columned doorpiece within gablet. Large traceried window above, small niche set in gablehead. Buttress to left of bay to centre. Window to outer left, single storey aisle. Square-section tower to outer right with set-back buttresses; variety of pointed-arched openings, with largest beneath eaves course, louvered and traceried; tall lucarned broach-spire with cast-iron finial (steeple 175 ft tall).

SE (BRUNSTANE ROAD NORTH) ELEVATION: 6-bay with later (1926) 4-bay single storey addition to NE. Tower to outer left, as on SW elevation. Windows to each bay of aisle, with buttresses between each bay; bipartite windows at 1st floor. Porch in bay to outer right; blank at 1st floor. ADDITION: moulded string course above ground floor with coped parapet. 3rd, slightly advanced bay raised at eaves level to parapet wall and carved stone to centre; 2-leaf boarded door with segmental-arch 3-pane fanlight above. Bipartite leaded windows to 2 bay left of centre with single window between. Narrow windows to ground and 1st floor of bay to outer right; half-round-arched doorpiece with boarded door.

Plate tracery to windows on SE elevation and smaller windows of SW elevation; geometric tracery to larger windows and to louvered openings to tower. Grey slated lucarned roof; flat roof to later addition to NE.

INTERIOR: panelled and boarded ceiling to vestibule, with 3 bipartite leaded stained glass windows. Clustered columns with foliate capitals to pointed-arch arcade to nave. Timber boarded dado to aisles; fine stained glass windows to aisles, some showing figures from Biblical stories, some with geometric patterns. Large window at the NE end, designed by Messrs Adam and Small of Glasgow (subscription by members of Young Men's Morning Fellowship Association; window above entrance to SW dedicated to Captain Shephard and Andrew Wanchope. Gallery to SW with stop-chamfered panelling and boarded dado. Timber pews in situ. Large window to SW dated 1877. Caen stone (carved with quatrefoil panels and Gothic writing to rim) font with red marble stand. Timber communion table. Modern lectern. Octagonal, finely carved Caen stone (with red marble columns) pulpit with figures, John Honeyman, 1885.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND LAMP STANDARDS: sandstone with droved ashlar coping. 2 original cast-iron lamp-standards lighting front.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Originally Free Church, now Church of Scotland. The site on which the church was built was bought in 1875 from the Benhar Coal Company, according to W Baird (1889) in his account of St Philips. John Honeyman had the plans ready by March 1875 (P 195). The church took 2 years to build and the move from the burnt out shell of the Regent Street church (which had been used as a temporary place of worship) took place in September 1877. The memorial stone was laid in July 1877 and the inauguration was on October 4th, 1877. Baird describes the building as being "a model of architectural beauty, and reflects the greatest credit on Mr John Honeyman, its architect. Constructed after the style of 12th century Gothic/ Early English, it consists of a nave and aisles, with a lofty circular central panelled roof of wood..." (P 204). In April 1923 the church bought No 1 Hamilton Street (now Brunstane Road North). A building trust was set up to raise money for the building of a hall, which now links the church to the house and was designed by J Graham Fairley of 47 Abercorn Terrace. The plans for this addition are in the Dean of Guild Archive and are dated 6 June 1924 (with later minor deviations, May and September 1925). The hall was finished and in use by October 1926. The hall was formally dedicated (to Mr William Baird who had died on February 6th 1926) and opened on 31st October, 1926.

External Links

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