Description

J W and J Hay, 1853; addition of vestry and session room, 1878; porch added by William Leiper, 1892; restored (following a fire) by Robert Wemyss, 1924. Squat cruciform-plan Gothic church with ornate crocketted porch to E elevation and 3-stage tower with broach stone spire in re-entrant angle of S transept. Stugged, snecked grey, creamn and red sandstone; cream stugged and snecked sandstone to porch; cream ashlar dressings. Base course; pointed-arch windows breaking eaves with gabled dormerheads, 2-light cusped bar tracery; saw-tooth coped off-set buttresses with cusped gablets; angle finialled and crocketted buttresses to porch; diagonal buttresses to tower.

E (COLQUHOUN STREET/ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: gabled with projecting porch to centre, see below; 5-light pointed-arch window above with curvilinear tracery; narrow windows with cusped tracery flanking porch.

PORCH: heavymoulded cornice (stepped on returns) with floreated eaves course; 2 windows to E face divided by buttress to centre, each with 2-light plate tracery with floreated hollow chamfered releals, hoodmoulds with carved head label-stops. Pointed-arch doorway on return to right and left, each with moulded chamfered reveals, 2-leaf boarded doors, decorative iron hinges, handle and keyholes.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2 dormerheaded aisle windows to right. Gable transept advanced to left with tower in re-entrant angle, see below. 4-light window with curvilinear tracery to transept. Gabled bay recessed to left of transept with tripartite window at ground and 2 lancets with cusped tracery above.

TOWER:

E ELEVATION; pointed-arch doorway with flanking colonnettes, moulded reveals with floreate moulding, 2-leaf boarded doors, decorative iron hinges. 4-centred-arch window above with cusped 2-light bar tracery. S elevation; similar detailed 4-centred-arch window at ground;l arrowloop window with cusped tracery above; canted stair turret to left with stepped stair lights. Row 3 small windows with cusped tracery to each face at belfry stage. Short angle buttresses to upper stage with octagonal piers above with octagonal caps. Tall narrow louvred 2-light bar tracery gabled lucarnes with clock to each face below windows.

W ELEVATION: canted apse over basement to centre, doorway to far right, bipartite window to outer right with cusped tracery to each light, doorway to far left. Pointed-arch windows breaking eaves with gabled dormerheads to apse, 2-light bar tracery, basement doorway on return to left, bipartite window to basement on return to left. Session house to outer left in re-entrant angle of N transept, see below.

SESSION HOUSE:

N elevation: 2 4-canted-arch windows with 2-light bar tracery; similarly detailed but taller window to gabled W return.

N ELEVATION: gabled transept to right detailed as S transept. 4-centred-arch doorway in re-entrant angle to left, trefoil window to right, taller gabled bay to outer right breaking eaves with small lancet window with cusped tracery. 3 aisle windows detailed as S elevation, divided by buttresses; coped stack with advanced chimney wall abutting side of window to outer left.

Lead-pane glazing, stained glass, see below. Grey/green slate roof, saw-tooth coped skews, finialled and cusped gablet skewputts. Original rainwater goods, dormers to transepts; fleche.

INTERIOR: rich interior panelled throughout; plaster and timber-beamed vaulted roof, beams supported on stone corbels; gallery supported on 2 cast-iron columns to each transept. Stencil and gold leaf decoration (1926) to chancel. Stained glass: apse, 3 windows (12 Apostles), circa 1926. N wall, (L to R), (Christian Act of Mercy) by Gordon MacWurter Webster, 1931; (figurative panel) possibly by Guthrie and Wells, circa 1890. W window, (Christ Blessing the Little Children) circa 1890. Dormer windows in transepts, to right, (Columba, Giles, Francis), to left (Crucifixion) by MacWurter Webster, circa 1954. S transept, commemorative windo w to John Logie Baird, by Arthur D Spiers, 1988. BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: stugged, snecked cream and grey sandstone wall, ashlar coped. Square piers with stop-chamfered angles, low pyramidal caps.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built for the Free Church congregation at a cost of $45,000. Following amalgamation with the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, it become the West United Free Church. Rev Alexander Anderson presented the stained glass window in the west gable. Leiper's porch was erected as a memorial to Mr Anderson. Almost destroyed by fire in 1924, restored by Robert Wemyss. Many of the stained glass windows also restored show the reuse of earlier glass (when earlier glass has been noted above this date has been given rathen than the restored date). The stencil decoration in the chancel dates to the 1926 restoration and was revealed during the recent (1922) redecoration of the church.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• West Kirk, Helensburgh at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7985640

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)