Description

Thomas Baird, 1930-32. Romanesque cathedral church with canted apse and tower-flanked narthex. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked with ashlar dressings, stone mullions. Sawtooth coped buttresses, nookshafts and scalloped corbel tables. Round-arched openings. Eaves course.

S ELEVATION (INCLE STREET): Gabled end to nave stepped 3-light window, cushioned-capitalled nookshafts, corbel table to

gablehead and cross finial, flanked by advanced, panelled corner shafts. Nave spanned at ground by 7-bay narthex of single storey 5-bay centre with single bay 2-stage, square section corner towers; 3 centre bays each with door, nookshafts to jambs, flanked by penultimate bays by small windows; squat towers with buttressed angles, square-headed bipartite windows to outer faces at ground and round-arched bipartites to upper stage, under scalloped corbel table, crenellated parapet and pyramidal slate roof.

E AND W ELEVATIONS: almost identical, 7-bay with corner towers as outer 8th bay to S and apse/sacristy corridor beyond to N. Each with 5-bay lean-to aisles at ground to centre with paired round-arched windows, broken by projecting, lean-to confessionals in penultimate bays to S and N, paired windows to clerestorey above. Outer bays gabled with tall paired windows in round-arched panels, further lean-to projections at ground to S, and gabled porches to N.

N ELEVATION: canted 2-stage apse encircled at ground by piended sacristy/offices/corridor, 3-light round-arched windows to upper stage at clerestorey. Cross finial to apex of nave gable behind.

Square-pane, leaded glazing, stained glass to apse. Grey slate roof, stone finials, ashlar coped skews.

INTERIOR: not seen 1999.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND PIERS: coped sandstone dwarf walls to boundary with intermittent stone piers with battered coping; later railings.

Statement of Interest

The current cathedral appears to have replaced an earlier church by the same name, built in 1808 to seat 1008, as described by Groome. St Mirin/Mirren or Mirinus was a confessor who spent much of his life in Paisley and who, according to the Aberdeen Breviary, is Buried in the town. The former school to the W of the Cathedral, an associated convent school, now serves as Priest's House and offices, and the parish halls (see separate listing in East Buchanan Street). The cathedral follows the monumental form adopted in the later 19th century by Pugin and Pugin, for suburban Catholic churches, although the choice of Romanesque style over gothic sets St Mirin's apart from these.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• St Mirin's Cathedral at Wikipedia
• St Mirin's Cathedral official website
• Wikidata IDs Q17845014 Q2086804

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)