Description

Archibald MacPherson, 1878. Classical/Renaissance church offices on corner site, with adjoining hall behind facing Gayfield Street. 5-bay, 2-storey and attic elevation to East Broughton Place; 3-bay, single-storey hall elevation to Gayfield Street. Polished ashlar (banded rustication to ground floor East Broughton Place elevation; squared snecked rubble to rear elevations). Advanced base course with moulded chamfer; eaves cornice; corniced parapet. Rustic quoins; urns surmounting parapet to corners. Regular fenestration; hoodmoulded round-arched windows to 1st floor; triangular pedimented dormers flanked by small scrolls.

SW (EAST BROUGHTON PLACE) ELEVATION: timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight to centre bay, framed by architraved doorpiece surmounted by consoled pediment. Dividing band between ground and 1st floor; cill course and impost course to 1st floor. 3 dormer windows to roof, bipartite to left and right.

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: single bay to left of elevation; small bipartite window to ground floor; corbelled moulded voussoirs to 1st floor window, surmounted by raised spandrel-panels with horizontal drip-mould. Single dormer breaking parapet to roof. To right of elevation, inscribed date panel (see Notes) with scrolled shoulders above supporting segmental pediment. Eaves course.

HALL (GAYFIELD STREET) ELEVATION: 3-bay, single storey elevation to the left of the 2-storey offices elevation. Timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight to left; window above with architrave descending to meet cill course; pilaster above cill course to left. Pedimented dormerheaded Serlian window breaking eaves cornice and parapet to slightly advanced centre bay, with flanking scrolls above cornice. Architraved window to right.

GLAZING etc: predominantly 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; additional semicircular pane to 1st floor windows; plate glass timber sash and case windows to bipartite dormers; to hall, multi-pane etched glazing in timber windows with top hoppers. Stone fascias, lead haffits and pitched slate roofs to dormers. Platform roof with graded grey slates to both hall and offices. Corniced, polished ashlar stack with curved and scrolled shoulders to NW and SW wallheads; corniced, squared rubble stack with polished ashlar quoins to hall roof; circular cans to all stacks.

Statement of Interest

7 East Broughton Place is a good example of later 19th century Renaissance style architecture, and also makes a valuable contribution to the streetscape and character of the surrounding area.

The carved stone plaque on the side elevation reads 'OFFICES OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BROUGHTON PLACE' with the date 1878 above.

Built as a mission hall and offices for the congregation of Broughton Place Church (see separate List description), the foundation stone of 7 East Broughton Place was laid on the 8th of March 1878. Plans for the building were originally prepared by John Paterson, the architect who had remodelled the interior of Broughton Place Church in 1870, to design the building. However, Paterson died in the summer of 1877, and the congregation brought in Archibald MacPherson as the replacement architect. MacPherson produced his own design which laid out the building in two sections. The 2-storey and attic section housed the ladies' room, class rooms, session room and a dwelling house for the church officer; to the rear, the single-storey hall, designed to accommodate about 350, was to be used for meetings and classes. The cost of the building was estimated to be £3000.

Worship at Broughton Place Church ceased in 1991, and 7 East Broughton Place is currently used as a church centre by the Church of Scotland.

Change of statutory address following partial conversion to residential use (2011).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17810697

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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