St Michael's Church Hall, William Street, Helensburgh, Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute

Entry Name: St Michael's Church Hall, William Street, Helensburgh

Listing Name: William Street, St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church and Church Hall

Listing Date: 14 May 1971

Category: A

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 379313

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB34896

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: St Michael's and All Saints Church, Hall

ID on this website: 200379313

Location: Helensburgh

County: Argyll and Bute

Town: Helensburgh

Electoral Ward: Helensburgh Central

Traditional County: Dunbartonshire

Tagged with: Hall

Description

Robert Rowand Anderson, 1866-1868; tower added 1930; church hall, 1912, see below. Rectangular-plan early French Gothic church with nave, side aisles and deep chancel, tower to NE re-entrant angle, 5-bay to side elevations, gabled W elevation with rose window. Snecked red sandstone rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings and cream Caen stone to tympanum of W door, rose windowand eaves course. Base, cill, hoodmould and eaves courses; pointed-arch doorcases; bipartite windows to side elevations with pointed-arch lights, ashlar mullions; tripartite window to chancel, single windows elsewhere; dragon gargoyles to side elevations; buttresses with saw tooth coping.

WEST (WILLIAM STREET/ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3 bays; taller gabled nave framed by buttresses to centre, lower aisles flanking with angle buttresses. Deeply chamfered doorcase to centre with moulded and colonnette surround, trumeau flanked by boarded doors with decorative iron hinges, carved panels of 4 evangelists to tympanum with vesica above with figure of Christ. Multifoil rose window with decorated label stops to hoodmould. Single windows to aisles.

N (PRINCES STREET WEST/SIDE) ELEVATION: 5 symmetrical bays divided by buttresses; 4 bipartite windows at ground with doorcase 2nd bay from right, moulded pointed-arch and colonnette surround, boarded door with decorative iron hinges. 5 single windows to clerestory.

CHANCEL:

E elevation: tripartite window, vesica window above. Clasping buttresses to angles. Bipartite window on right return, side chapel on left return.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: detail as N elevation without doorcase.

TOWER: set in re-entrant of nave and chancel. 3 stages with stepped battlemented parapet, angle buttresses. Tall 1st stage with semi-circular stair turret with conical stone roof to E elevation; louvred windows with plate tracery to belfry.

Steeply pitched grey slate roof with cream ridge cresting, ashlar coped skews, stone cross to apex at E and W elevations.

INTERIOR: richly decorated. 5-bay arcade to nave with scrolled acanthus leaf capitals to columns. Carved oak porch screen to W with ogee-arches and diaper work decoration, figure of St Michael to centre niche.

Finely carved ogee-arched rood screen. Chancel with choir stalls and mosaic reredos with haloed Roman centurion.

Alabaster pulpit on ashlar plinth. Organ to left of chancel.

Stained glass: to chancel, (central window, The Garden of Gethsemane, Ascension, Pentecost, flanked by windows with scenes from the old and new testament) by Stephen Adam, 1881; N window in chancel (St Michael and St John) Stephen Adam, 1881. N aisle (L to R), (Noli Me Tangere) by Charles Eamer Kempe, 1888; (St Luke and St Matthew) by Kempe 1893; (Noli-Me-Tangere) by Shrigley and Hunt, 1876; (Charity and Good Samaritan), Glasgow School after Cottier possibly by Alex Walker, 1884. S aisle (L to R), (God in Glory and Lord is my Shepherd) by Clayton and Bell, c.1870; (Mary Magdalen washing feet of Christ) by Kempe, 1882; (The Annunciation and The Manager) by Clayton and Bell, 1889. Side chapel, (The Visitation) by Kempe. W rose window by Kempe, window to right (Christ and the little Children) by Stephen Adam, window to left, (Christ walking on the Water) by Stephen Adam.

HALL: single storey over basement, rectangular-plan hall en-suite joined to S side of church by 2-bay link. Snecked stugged red sandstone rubble, ashlar dressings. Base course; hoodmoulds, block label stops; chamfered arrises; long and short quoins; pointed-arch doorpiece and windows.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: advanced gabled porch to centre; doorpiece with 2-leaf boarded doors with glazed inset panels; door on return to right; window to left. 2 closely spaced windows to recessed link to left. Piended grey slate roof.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. See also rectory listed separately. The church is situated on the corner of William Street and Princes Street West. The church was completed (except for the tower) and consecrated on May 7th 1868. James McKinnon of 74 East Clyde Street Helensburgh was the builder. The cost of the building which still had a relatively plain interior was somewhat over $2,500. Most of the interior decoration was completed in the later 19th - early 20th century; the mosaic reredos in 1872 and the porch screenin 1915. It has a wonderfull collection of late 19th century stained glass windows. Information on stained glass artists courtesy of Sally Joyce Rush.

In 1930 the church as originally planned by Rowand Anderson was completed with the building of the tower. In 1958 the last addition was made to the church with the building of the side chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

External Links

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