St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church, St Olaf Street, Lerwick, Lerwick, Shetland Islands

Entry Name: St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church, St Olaf Street, Lerwick

Listing Name: St Olaf Street and Harbour Street, Parish Church of St Margaret (Roman Catholic), Including 87 St Olaf Street, Boundary Walls, Gate and Gatepiers

Listing Date: 12 August 1996

Category: C

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 390203

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB43635

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200390203

Location: Lerwick

County: Shetland Islands

Town: Lerwick

Electoral Ward: Lerwick North

Traditional County: Shetland

Tagged with: Church building

Description

James Malcolm Baikie of Kirkwall, 1911. 5 x 1-bay gothic church of rectangular plan with gabled entrance porches projecting in outer left bays of N and S elevations, and apsed chancel projecting from W elevation. Bull-faced squared and snecked Bressay freestone with polished Eday sandstone ashlar dressings and details. Base and eaves courses, angle buttresses at corners.

N (HARBOUR STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay asymmetrical elevation with bays divided by buttresses; gabled porch projecting in bay to outer left comprising pointed-arched hoodmoulded door in gable, arcaded 2-light window with pointed arch-heads in E side. 2-light trefoil-headed plate traceried windows with hoodmoulded pointed-arched surrounds in bays to right.

E (ST OLAF STREET) ELEVATION: stepped, arcaded, and hoodmoulded 3-light window centring gable with blind trefoil in gablehead.

S ELEVATION: mirrored image of N elevation except for 2-light window also in E side of porch.

W ELEVATION: apsidal chancel projecting with lancets in side elevations; semicircular end buttressed at poles; deep moulded eaves course. Blind trefoil centred in gablehead above.

Purple-grey slate roofs to main pitches, porches and apse; fishscale pattern to latter. Profiled cast-iron gutters and octagonal downpipes with hoppers and decorative brackets. Triangular ashlar skew copes with stone crosses at apexes of principal and porch gables.

INTERIOR: 2-leaf inner entrance door with vertically-boarded panelling. Marble memorial slab to Margaret Cruickshanks (benefactress of the church who died in 1910) on E window cill. Timber floor, pews, and vertically-boarded wainscoting to nave. Diamond pattern glazing with coloured glass to windows; stained glass by C R Sinclair of 1986 in E window depicting modern and historic Shetland industry. Open timber roof over 4 pointed-arched trusses bearing on plain ashlar corbels. Large pointed-arched hoodmoulded opening to sanctuary; ornate timber screen fronted by altar with carved relief of Last Supper; niche containing cross centring screen with carved cross above, smaller flanking niches containing religious figures.

87 ST OLAF STREET (PRESBYTERY): circa 1910. 2-storey, 3-bay symmetrical house of rectangular plan. Bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone principal front, rubble side and rear elevations, all with droved ashlar dressings. 4-panel timber entrance door with plate glass fanlight above at ground in centre bay. Single storey, 3-light canted bays in flanking bays, each with cill course, cornice and blocking course. Regular fenestration at 1st floor with bipartite windows in outer bays. Blank S gable; 2 closely spaced windows at 1st floor to right of centre in N gable. Modern lean-to additions at ground to rear elevation; tall stair window centred at 1st floor; irregular fenestration in flanking bays.

Timber sash and case windows; predominantly plate glass, 4-pane centring canted bays, 21-pane border-glazed fixed-light to stair window. Purple-grey slate roof with cast-iron gutters and downpipes with hopper at right. Bull-faced sandstone apex stacks, coped with octagonal cans.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES, AND GATEPIERS: bull-faced sandstone dwarf wall with droved ashlar cope surmounted by Art Nouveau influenced cast-iron railing to Harbour and St Olaf Streets. Bull-faced sandstone square gatepiers to church with droved ashlar pyramidal caps and 2-leaf cast-iron gates matching railing. Random rubble boundary wall to W. Cast-iron gate matching railing to presbytery.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building, in use as such. The church is of good quality design and construction and, with the presbytery, forms and interesting group at this corner.

External Links

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.