Description

1834; rebuilt 1937; 1988 internal alterations (to form care home accommodation). 2-storey with basement, rectangular-plan, corner sited former church with 3-bay Perpendicular Gothic SE elevation of 1834, in the manner of James Gillespie Graham and later 11-bay rebuilt elevation to side (SW). Ashlar to principal elevations and coursed rubble with droved sandstone window margins to rear.

SE (LOTHIAN STREET) ELEVATION: cross-finialled gable to slightly

advanced bay to centre, flanked by angle buttresses with crocketed

pinnacles; Gothic 2-leaf timber panelled door with timber crenellation and gothic fanlight above in crocketed hood-mould; window above with

perpendicular tracery. Crenellated flanking bays: windows with perpendicular tracery, flanked by octagonal pinnacled buttresses. Hoodmoulded pointed-arched openings with carved head label stops. Spear-headed cast iron railings and gate.

SW (BRISTO PLACE) ELEVATION: 2 storeys, 11 irregular spaced bays. Windows in splayed, recessed surrounds. 2-leaf timber panelled door with small-pane glazed fanlight in Tudor-arched surround to centre; 2-leaf timber panelled door in moulded surround in 2nd bay from left; further door to outer right and low door to far side right leading to basement. Pitched roof behind parapet wall.

Border-glazed metal casement windows to SW elevation, diamond pane glazing to traceried windows to SE and 16-pane glazing pattern to timber sash and case windows to rear. Pitched slate roof.

INTERIOR (seen 2011): later 20th century alterations to form individual room accommodation for care home residents. 2 staircases dating to 1937 conversion; one to SE gable entrance with trio of statues and one T-plan to rear with plain timber panelled walls. Glazed brick detailing to pavement lights in basement. Exposed riveted cast iron I-beams to basement supporting ground floor.

Statement of Interest

A good early 19th century former church with halls prominently corner sited, with a finely detailed Gothic entrance elevation and characterful heavy massed elevation to the SW side forming a large part of the street elevation.

Jericho House was originally built as St Patrick's Roman Catholic Chapel and School in 1834 to seat 700. It is marked as St Mary's RC School on the 1877 Edinburgh Town Plan. From 1926 to 1988 it was used as St Francis Roman Catholic Church.

The church was converted in 1937 to form halls to the lower floor with a church above at which point the stairs to the upper floors we rearranged. The original paired stairs to the main entrance (SE) were replaced by the current single turned stairwell incorporating figurative statues and a new T-plan stair to the E rear section of the building. The building stayed in this form until 1988 when it was converted to become Jericho House, a residential care home for men. At this point the church to the upper floor was subdivided into 16 individual rooms for residents. The church is linked internally at half landings to the stairwell of the adjacent tenement, 49-53 Lothian Street (see separate listing), which is used as offices.

The planned street triangle of Forrest Road, Bristo Place and Teviot Row was conceived as part of Thomas Hamilton's (1784-1858) vision for the new Southern Approach Road linking Princes Street to George Square and the Meadows (via the Mound, Bank Street and a the new George IV Bridge). The City Improvement Act brought in by Lord Provost Chambers in 1867 was to implement better housing standards and to replace the medieval slum areas in Edinburgh's Old Town.

List Description updated at resurvey (2011-12.)

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793453

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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