Mission Hall, 63-67 High Street, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Entry Name: Mission Hall, 63-67 High Street, Edinburgh

Listing Name: 63-67 (Odd Nos) High Street and 1 Chalmer's Close, Carrubber's Close Mission

Listing Date: 13 August 1987

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 368216

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB29036

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: Edinburgh, 63 - 67 High Street, Mission Hall

ID on this website: 200368216

Location: Edinburgh

County: Edinburgh

Town: Edinburgh

Electoral Ward: City Centre

Traditional County: Midlothian

Tagged with: Church building

Description

John Armstrong, 1883. 4-storey 5-bay L-plan Palladian Mission building with 2-storey Mission Hall to rear. Shops at ground; entablature above forms base for giant engaged Corinthian order over 1st and 2nd floors; 3rd floor above main dentilled entablature treated as attic storey. Regular fenestration. Polished yellow ashlar facade, bull-faced in pend; red brick (common bond) to rear.

S (HIGH STREET) ELEVATION: central round-arched 2-leaf timber panelled door with plate glass fanlight in pilastered round-arched surround; 3-bay shops in advanced flanking bays; carved festoons to flanking pilasters. 1st floor windows in moulded round-arched surrounds with flanking pilasters. 2nd floor windows aediculed with fluted corinthian pilasters; alternating segmental and triangular pediments; balustraded aprons. Panelled pilasters dividing attic bays; round-arched windows with linked hoodmoulds. Central segmental pediment containing circular panel.

W (CHALMER'S CLOSE) ELEVATION: 4-bay 2-storey red brick range to N of pend on sloping site. Off-centre timber 2-leaf panelled entrance door; similar single-leaf side door. Segmental-arched windows at doorhead level; 1st floor round-arched windows with red ashlar cills; flanking brick pilasters; dentilled eaves course.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: meets coped rubble curtilage wall of Trinity College Church Apse (separately listed); 2 storeys above. Central pedimented bay containing large oculus between brick pilasters; further 2-bay 2-storey wing to W.

E (TRUNK'S CLOSE) ELEVATION: 2-storey red brick on rubble base course; irregular fenestration; red ashlar cills.

Plate glass timber casement windows to 1st and 2nd floors (front) with fixed upper pane; timber sash and case to upper rear. Mission Hall cupolas secondary glazed internally with frosted glass (or plastic?); geometric astragals. Plain leaded glass 3-pane arched casement windows; geometric pattern with narrow yellow and green border. Large modern stained glass oculus depicting crucifix and other religious symbols. All decorative glazing to rear protected externally by wire mesh. Mission Hall flat felt roof; central grey slate pitched roof; pyramidal slate roof to E with cupola; coped brick stack; clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: entrance vestibule (modern inner glazed doors) and central stair all with dentilled and modillioned cornicing; moulded arched doorheads; dado and heavily corniced picture rail. Symmetrical Mission Hall is divided horizontally (see Notes); modern floor and staging; centrally raised and curved ceiling with 6 rectangular cupolas; 4 further cupolas to each aisle; 4 arched leaded windows to each aisle; structural Corinthian columns with plain shafts; modillions above; oculus at N. 1st floor S-facing drawing room full 5 bays in length; ceiling divided accordingly by consoled corniced beams; 3 ceiling roses with masks, birds and foliage; 3 later cut-glass electroliers (see Notes); dado rail. Timber panelled doors in upper floors.

Statement of Interest

Carrubber's Close Mission, now Carrubber's Christian Centre, is an imposing architectural presence on the Royal Mile. Monteith Close is to the E, Chalmer's to the W and the Mission is built over Sandilands Close. The brick Hall extends to the rear towards Trinity College Church Apse. The foundation stone was laid in 1884 by American evangelist Dwight Moody who raised £10 000 for the project. Inside the hall, a fixed bronze tablet by the sculptor Henry Snell Gamley depicts Sir Alexander Russell Simpson, president of the Mission from 1895 until his death in 1916. Internal alterations to the Hall carried out between 1990 and 1995 involved the installation of a mezzanine floor which cuts through the original double-height U-shaped space, and the removal of the surrounding stepped pews. The alterations enabled a cafe to be housed in the ground floor. The high quality stained glass in the oculus was commissioned from a company in Alva at this time. The ceiling in the 1st floor small 'upper hall', now a lecture theatre, has been lowered but the cupola survives on the pyramidal roof. The exterior remains unaltered. The electroliers in the well-preserved 1st floor drawing room came relatively recently from the German Embassy in Washington D C.

Category changed from C(S) to B, 24 January 2003.

External Links

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