Description

Frank Worthington Simon, 1889. 5-bay, buttressed, rectangular-plan, Arts and Crafts style former chapel with large circular window to gable, curved stair tower to S and pitched and piended vestry to rear. Squared and snecked whinstone rubble with smooth red sandstone quoins and windows margins. Tall base plinth to principal elevation. Paired pointed arched windows punctuating buttresses and pointed arch doorpiece with quatrefoil moulding to tympanum.

Square-pane leaded windows; 4-pane timber sash and case to rear. Graded grey slate roofs with timber-bracketed overhanging eaves. Stone skews with gablet skewputts and fleur de lys finial at apex. Terracotta ridge tiles with finial to stair. Rectangular stack to rear. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: converted to retail premises. Curved timber roof trusses and pointed sandstone chancel arch above 20th century false ceiling. Timber panelling to dado height.

Statement of Interest

The former congregational chapel is a good example of a later 19th century chapel with some fine early Arts and Crafts style stone detailing making a strong contribution to the streetscape. The architect Frank Worthington Simon (1862-1933) had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before setting up practice in Edinburgh. The Innerleithen chapel is one of his very early works before he went on to collaborate with other high profile architects including Rowand Anderson.

The chapel is believed to have been built to replace the earlier congregational chapel of 1847 on Chapel Street, which is now in use as the Masonic Lodge (2007).

It had plain low walls and railings to the front in photographs from the earlier 20th century.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780738

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

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