Description

John Lister, 1885. Box church with classical facade of pedimented gable and Italianate corner towers masking roof pitch: 4-bay aisleless nave linked at rear to The Lister Memorial Hall. Aberdeen bond whinstone with polished ashlar sandstone dressings, base course, eaves course, hoodmoulds with label stops, chamfered reveals, stone mullions and keystones. Boarded doors with wrought-iron hinges. Round-arched openings.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: pedimented entrance bay with pair of round-headed doors at centre with plate glass fanlights and double arched hoodmould with bunches of grapes as label stops; 4-light, tripartite window above with twin centre lights taller and plate-traceried all under hoodmould with block label stops; ornate wrought-iron finial and date plaque at centre of tympanum. Entrance approached by straight flight of 5 steps with railings and narrow stair to basement with partly obscured door immediately to right. Slightly advanced lower flanking towers clasping SE and SW corners, with keystoned round-headed window at ground and gallery height surmounted by low pierced parapet with corner dies, return faces identical.

W ELEVATION: 4-bay with tall windows, 3 paired lights to right and single light to outer left.

E ELEVATION: mirror of W elevation.

N ELEVATION: gable end with Lister Memorial Hall adjoining at left, blinded oculus at eaves height.

Frosted glass in metal frames throughout. Grey slates, ashlar coped skews, skewputts and stack, cast-iron downpipes and rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: small vestibule with store to right and staircase to left with wooden rail and decorative cast-iron balusters, plain cornicing and ornate ceiling rose. Access to body of church at sides, all doors segmental arched and boarded. Gently raked floor to raised pulpit at N with ornate cast-iron railings (matching staircase) and triumphal arch sounding board, baptistry with sliding cover set in platform below pulpit. Full width raked gallery 1 bay deep to S on 2 cast columns, ornate plasterwork frieze linking windows with hoodmoulds and S scroll label stops, decorated ceiling rose. All doors segmental arched and boarded; doors, pulpit, gallery and boarded dado of natural wood. Doors flanking pulpit give access to area with large hinged timber divisions allowing for future expansion and offices.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: low saddle-back coped ashlar boundary walls to S, coped rubble to E and W; pyramid-capped ashlar gatepiers with chamfered arrises. Wrought-iron gates and cast-iron railings of later date (1940s?).

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. John Lister was not a professional architect, but was brother of the first minister. The church was leased to members when first built and this lease is due to expire at the end of the 1990's. The Lister Memorial Hall extension was added in 1956.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17809894

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)