Description

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18-APR-06 CHURCH OF ST ANDREW
Church of Scotland

II
Garrison church of the Church of Scotland. Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864-1929). St Andrew's was opened in 1927; it was later extended and reopened in 1939. Brown brick in English Bond with red brick dressings to the arches and corners. The church consists of a wide nave with narrow side aisles and two shallow transepts. The east end has a shallow but full-height apse; the west end has a porch.

EXTERIOR:
St Andrew's Church is designed in a spare, modern interpretation of the Romanesque style. The use of the double arch in the main windows is evocative of the work of the early-C19 romantic neo-classicist Sir John Soane, and is most effectively done. At the west end is a tall gable with one of these double arches forming the west window, with three rounded lancets within it, and a lower porch replicating the gable's roof line and arched opening with recessed door. To each side are narrow aisles, expressed externally and these with two of the tall double arches with lancet windows; the most western bay of each end is lower with a steeply pitched hipped roof. There are two shallow transepts, lit by similar windows in their gable ends. these with an area of subtle diaper work to west and circular window to east. The east end has a bold canted apse, full-height, and with a stepped coping to it and the east gable. There is a low vestry to south side of east end. Attached to the north east is the single storey church hall of 1959, which is of a very different style and not of special interest.

INTERIOR: A wide nave with shallow aisles, joined by a tall arcade of 3 arches flanked by two small arches at east and west ends. A tall arch at the east end to the full-height, shallow apse, which contains the altar set against wood panelling below a single narrow stained glass window. Both nave and transepts have coffered timber ceilings, a wagon roof with flat panels on both sides and tie beams. Other features of note include doors in the transepts with decorative carved stone surrounds, and several stained glass windows. That in the apse, unveiled in 1934, commemorates Field Marshall Earl Haig, and was designed and executed by Mr Walker and J.R. Cook of Edinburgh. They were also responsible for the central window of the west end trio, a memorial to the Great War, unveiled in 1935. The seating is not of special interest, and instead the strengths of the interior are the roof and arcade, and the overall spatial and light qualities. The interior has formal similarities with Lorimer's St Peter's Roman Catholic church in Edinburgh (listed Grade A).

HISTORY: The present brick built St Andrew's replaced an earlier church built entirely of corrugated iron. This was initially shared by the Churches of England and Scotland, until in 1893 when a garrison church was built solely for the use of the Church of England. In 1908 the Iron Church, as it was known, was dedicated to St Andrew. By the 1920s the fabric of the church was falling into a state of decay, and in 1926 it was demolished. The Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer was commissioned to design a new church, intended as a memorial to those in the Presbyterian communion throughout the Empire who died in the Great War. Lorimer appears to have modelled St Andrew's closely on his St Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh (listed Grade A), as they are very similar in design, especially in the interior. Although the design could not be fully completed due to lack of funds, the new St Andrew's was opened in 1927. It soon became clear that the church was not large enough for the size of its congregation, and in the 1930s money was raised to extend the church, and to complete Lorimer's original plan. The nave was lengthened by 30 feet, the inside walls plastered, and the slender Celtic style bell tower was removed. The enlarged church was reopened in 1939 in the presence of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The attached church hall was opened in 1959 as a memorial to all Presbyterians who were killed in WWII.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The church of St. Andrew, opened 1927 and extended 1939 to the original design by Sir Robert Lorimer, has special architectural interest as an early-C20 church of exceptional design quality by a leading Scottish architect, as well as historic interest as a Presbyterian garrison church associated with the Scottish regiments garrisoned in Aldershot.

SOURCES: Reid, David, 1967, St Andrew's Garrison Church of Scotland, A Short History.
St Andrew's church website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jmwest/standrews/standrew.htm
Savage, Peter, 1980, Lorimer and the Edinburgh Craft Designers

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Andrew's Garrison Church, Aldershot at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7592388

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.

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