History in Structure

Elder Memorial Free Church, Casselbank Street, Edinburgh

A Category B Listed Building in Leith, Edinburgh

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Coordinates

Latitude: 55.97 / 55°58'11"N

Longitude: -3.1735 / 3°10'24"W

OS Eastings: 326853

OS Northings: 675838

OS Grid: NT268758

Mapcode National: GBR 8S7.PF

Mapcode Global: WH6SM.762P

Plus Code: 9C7RXR9G+XJ

Entry Name: Elder Memorial Free Church, Casselbank Street, Edinburgh

Listing Name: Casselbank Street, Elder Memorial Church, Free Church of Scotland

Listing Date: 29 April 1977

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 364055

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB27088

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200364055

Location: Edinburgh

County: Edinburgh

Town: Edinburgh

Electoral Ward: Leith

Traditional County: Midlothian

Tagged with: Church building

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Description

Sydney Mitchell and Wilson, 1899-1900. Low, late Scottish Gothic aisled church with transeptal W porch, belfry and ogival fleche, brick-built church hall to rear. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked stugged rubble with stugged and polished ashlar dressings; hall of variegated red brick with stugged ashlar dressings. Base course; off-set gabletted buttresses with roll-detail to apex; tall crenellated parapet (now cement rendered) with water spouts; roll-detail to coping.

NE (CASSELBANK STREET) ELEVATION: 2-bay gabled entrance porch to outer right with deeply chamfered ogival doorway to left bay, blind cusped tracery to falight and spandrels, crocketted finials to apex and flanking shafts, plain boarded door; small 2-light window with quatrefoil head and hoodmould above; taller window detailed as above to right bay. 5-bay aisle with broad depressed-arched 4-light windows with curvilinear tracery divided by buttresses. Secondary single storey flat-roofed porch to outer left bay, deeply chamfered doorway to left flanked by bipartite window, plain boarded door and fanlight of

3 stepped lancets, coping rising to triangle above door with carved gargoyle; wallhead on return rising in steps to plain gabletted belfry (now mostly cement rendered). Octagonal leaded fleche with ogival dome, pinnacles and weathervane.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: 5-bay; bay to outer left slightly recessed, lean-to projection at ground floor with bipartite window, stepped tripartite stair window above. Remaining bays with broad 4-light windows, square-sectioned mullions and tracery. Brick-built single storey rectangular-plan hall adjoining at angle to outer right, 3 tall stepped windows in NW gable wall.

NW ELEVATION: gabled with tripartite window off-centre to left.

Small leaded panes with yellow border glazing. Green slate roof with red ridge tiles. Ashlar skews, to W porch triangular skews with gabletted skewputts.

INTERIOR: 4-bay nave with arcade of depressed-arches and octagonal ashlar piers; braced timber roof rising from foliate stone corbels, blind arcading to braces, barrel- vaulted aisles (some modern replacements); raked W gallery with plain panelling; organ removed early 20th century, pulpit of plain panelling with blind tracery removed to centre of raised E platform; original pews, ornate ventilation grilles and elaborate wrought-iron hanging and wall lights. Hall 3-sided to SE, braced timber roof with 2 skylights.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The quality of the building has been affected by the poor repair work to the exterior but the interior is impressive.

External Links

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