West End Congregational Church, High Street, Kirkcaldy, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Entry Name: West End Congregational Church, High Street, Kirkcaldy

Listing Name: High Street and Whytehouse Avenue, West End Congregational Church

Listing Date: 27 February 1997

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 390760

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB44066

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200390760

Location: Kirkcaldy

County: Fife

Town: Kirkcaldy

Electoral Ward: Kirkcaldy Central

Traditional County: Fife

Tagged with: Church building

Description

1874. Gothic church with tower, 5-bay aisled nave with angle buttresses. Squared and snecked rubble on stugged ashlar 1st stage, polished ashlar dressings with stugged ashlar quoins. Single and 2-stage sawtooth-coped buttresses; chamfered ashlar base course on rubble bed, moulded stringcourse incorporating hoodmould and architraved cornice. Pointed-arch openings, hoodmoulds, stop-chamfered reveals and stone mullions.

S (PRINCIPAL, HIGH STREET) ELEVATION: 2-stage gabled bay to centre with steps up to deeply moulded doorway with modern glazed doors and flanking adjacent lights, stepped 5-light window at 2nd stage with Celtic cross finial; 3-stage buttress of tower (see below) to right and 2-stage buttress to left; slightly recessed bay beyond to left with paired lancet, and further 2-stage buttress to outer left.

SE TOWER: 2-stage tower with spire: tall 1st stage engaged to N and W; S elevation with string course below paired lancet with hoodmould at 1st batter of flanking 2-stage buttresses, deep glazed quatrefoil at head of stage between buttresses' 2nd batter; E elevation with deep-set 2-leaf boarded timber door and decorative cast-iron hinges, string course extending from hoodmould and quatrefoil at head of stage as at S. Sawtooth-coped batter giving way to polygonal 2nd stage with gablet-coped, crocket-finialled, louvered lancet to each face and polygonal spire with narrow decorative band and cast-iron finial.

N ELEVATION: gabled bay with stepped triple lancet stained glass windows.

E (WHYTEHOUSE AVENUE) ELEVATION: 5-bay nave with dividing single stage buttresses and 2 small louvered dormer gablets above.

W ELEVATION: as above but with blinded door to outer right in gabled bay with flanking buttresses, and lower extension (hall) projecting to outer left.

Leaded glass with coloured margins; stained glass to N window. Grey slates. Coped ashlar skews with square and gablet skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: galleried. Narthex with paired cast-iron columns supporting flanking stone stairs with decorative-cast-iron balusters and timber handrails; shouldered doorways and decorative cornicing. Nave and side aisles with panelled ceiling; polygonal cast-iron columns carrying timber gallery to S, E and W; arcade of pointed arches springing from stiff-leaf capitals. Timber bench pews to nave, tiered pews with panelled fronts to galleries. Pointed-arch, panelled timber doors flanking panelled base of pipe organ at N behind 2 timber balustered flights of steps with ball-finialled newel posts flanking canted pulpit with pointed-arch sounding board; stained glass window over 'framed' by pipe organ. Aediculed War Memorial plaque to NE.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Pipe organ installed circa 1920 at which time a brass lectern was removed. The E wall was rebuilt in 1982 after fabric damage, the side pews were removed at this time. The Congregational Church had a number of meeting places, including an upstairs room in a flax dressers home and Cowan Street Chapel, before moving to this site in 1874.

External Links

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