Description

Mid 19th century, with later additions. Single storey, 5-bay flat-roofed, gothic church hall, on original plan. Tooled, squared and snecked sandstone rubble, with droved ashlar dressings. Pointed-arch openings with hoodmoulds, to principal elevation. Chamfered reveals to openings. Strip quoins to outer left and right of principal elevation. Wallhead stepped up at centre to principal elevation. Coped.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 4-light window at centre with intersecting tracery, flanked by pair of 5-panel, 2-leaf timber doors with gothic decoration; tall 5-pane lancet windows with blind upper panes, to outer left and right.

E ELEVATION: window centred at ground; 4-bay flat-roofed addition to left, comprising 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber door in penultimate bay from right, windows in remaining bays.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: 2-bay angled elevation to left, with infilled windows in each bay with relieving arches, lower modern 5-bay flat-roofed addition obscuring elevation to right.

W ELEVATION: blank.

Replacement glazing in principal elevation windows; remainder plate glass timber sash and case and casement windows. Grey slate roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1999.

Statement of Interest

B Group formed with former South Church Manse, 32 West Street (see separate listing) for their juxtaposition and inter-relationship on a strategic site, and for their historical interest. West Street Hall's unusual plan comes from the triangular-shaped piece of land that was given by Charles Cowan MP to the Free Church to build upon. West Street Hall was the first church of Penicuik's Free Church congregation, formed in 1843. When the growing congregation deemed the site too small, Sir George Clerk of Penicuik gave land to the south of the River North Esk on the Peebles Road for a new church designed by F T Pilkington (Penicuik South Church, see separate listing). Sir George Clerk also gave land adjacent to the church in West Street for the building of a manse, and 32 West Street was used as such until the building of a larger manse on Bog Road in 1896.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77776782

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)