Description

Henry Higgins, 1887-9; N hall 1906; traceried window 1923. Irregular cruciform-plan gothic church on corner site with attached 2-stage bell tower, 4-bay aisless nave, transepts and steeply-pitched roof. Squared and snecked bull-faced rubble with ashlar dressings. Raised base course and moulded string course. 2-stage coped buttresses; traceried roundel; round-headed, pointed-arch and trefoil-headed windows; hoodmoulds with label stops. Raked cills and chamfered reveals.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: broad gabled elevation with buttressed gabled porch to centre, steps up to broad moulded doorway, narrow lights to returns and deep-

set 2-leaf timber door with multi-pane leaded fanlight, flanking bays each with 2 small trefoil-headed lights; cross-finialled gablehead with large raised-centre triple lancet, glazed oculi over outer lights and hoodmould over centre light giving way to further small square-headed light.

S (THORN ROAD) ELEVATION: bay to left of centre with advanced gable with flanking buttresses, row of 5 lancets at 1st stage and stepped string course above giving way to large raised-centre triple lancet; tower (see below) in re-entrant angle to right and single lancet to set-back bay at outer right.

SE TOWER: tall 1st stage engaged to N and W, with single light close to ground and 2 further lights high up to E, 2 lights to S; string course over giving way to slightly reduced 2nd stage with tall timber-louvered opening to each face and chamfered angles

corbelled to diminutive open-arcaded turrets with polygonal caps breaking into main polygonal roof with decorative cast-iron weathervane.

N ELEVATION: gabled transept with 2 lights to each return projecting in bay to right of centre and 2 further small lights to outer right; 3 tall narrow lights to left and 5 trefoil-headed lights to small polygonal-roofed canted stair tower at outer left.

W ELEVATION: broad gable to left with smaller gable projecting from centre with cross- and quatrefoil-traceried circular window, low extension projecting at ground. Set-back bay to right with 2 small lights.

Multi-pane leaded, margined glazing. Coloured glass to circular window and figurative memorial window depicting 'FIDES' (Faith) and 'PATIENTIA' (Endurance). Red tiles. Ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts.

INTERIOR: galleried with fixed timber pews, boarded dadoes, decorative plasterwork cornice and ribbed vaulted roof. Original part-glazed screen to E; polygonal cast-iron columns supporting gallery with carved blind-arcaded front; pipe organ in panelled timber housing to N transept. Timber-panelled chancel with carved detail of trefoil-headed blind arcade, choir stalls, fretwork-carved Communion Table and polygonal pulpit.

CHURCH HALL: piend-roofed, rectangular-plan church hall to NW. Stugged, squared and snecked rubble with stugged ashlar dressings. Pointed-arch windows. Red tiles.

GATEPIERS: coped, circular bull-faced rubble gatepiers (2 pairs).

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built for the Free Church congregation of Bearsden at a cost of ?3000. The foundation stone was laid on the 10th August 1888, and the church was opened on the 28 February 1889. The gallery, organ and chancel were added later, probably in 1923 as this date would coincide with the traceried window. It became the North Parish Church in 1929.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793986

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)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)