Queen's Cross Free Church, Carden Place, Aberdeen

Queen's Cross Free Church, Carden Place, Aberdeen

This single-storey church with gallery was designed by J B Pirie of Pirie and Clyne and built between 1879 and 1881. Additions were made by J A O Allan in 1939 and A R Whitelaw in 1971. The building is a three-bay T-plan rogue-gothic design with shallow transepts and halls to the east.

The church is constructed of tooled coursed grey granite ashlar with finely finished dressings. It features a rough-faced battered base course and dividing band course throughout. Openings are predominantly pointed-arched, with highly decorative panelled and boarded timber doors, chamfered reveals, and steeply chamfered cills. Principal gables are crowstepped with segmental insets.

The west (principal) elevation is asymmetrical with a gabled centre bay flanked to the left by a buttress terminating in an arcaded pinnacle. The principal doorway features an elaborate doorpiece with an advanced gableted porch supported by squat columns with stiff-leaf capitals. Decorative mouldings include paterae label stops, with a trefoil-headed tooled panel set in the gablehead and a stone finial to the apex. The pointed-arched doorway is supported by colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals and has an inset glazed quatrefoil and two trefoils to the tympanum, with J B Pirie's monogram to the left jamb and a two-leaf door. Two navel-like paterae appear to the wall behind the porch gablet. Pairs of trefoil-headed small windows with multi-foil windows above are set in pointed arches to left and right of the doorway. A large four-light window with early geometric tracery is centred above the doorway, with a row of small trefoil-headed windows along the base beneath a hoodmould with scrolled label stops. A small lancet flanked by two tiny openings is set in the gablehead, dated "1879" above, with a decorative stone finial to the apex.

A recessed bay to the left features a curved outer angle corbelled out to form a right angle below the eaves. A pointed-arched doorway to the ground floor is supported on colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals and a hoodmould with paterae label stops. A pink granite quatrefoil flanked by navel-like paterae is set in the tympanum, with a two-leaf door. Two narrow lancets appear above, with a gableted flat-arched tripartite window above breaking the eaves and a quatrefoil set in the gablehead.

A square-plan five-stage engaged tower occupies the bay to the right, with octagonal clasping buttresses terminating in stone spires with iron navel-like paterae finials. A pointed-arched doorway to the first stage is supported on colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals, with a hoodmould with paterae label stops and a pink granite quatrefoil flanked by navel-like paterae set in the tympanum, with a two-leaf door. Soaring triple lancets with a tiny quatrefoil above occupy the second stage. A bracketed platform with parapet appears at the third stage, featuring three shouldered openings with a multi-foil opening above set in a recessed gablet. The fourth stage is octagonal in plan with an open colonnade on squat columns. Gablets to each side of the fifth stage have quatrefoils inset, with a conical stone spire topped by four stone lucarnes and a decorative iron finial to the apex.

The south elevation is asymmetrical with seven bays. The tower occupies the outer left (as described above). Three bays to the right of the tower each feature a tripartite window with a bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above, with three decorative timber lucarnes to the roof above. Two gabled transept bays to the right are flanked by buttresses, each with a tripartite window with a bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above, three square openings above, two small lancets to the centre of the gablehead with stepped hoodmoulds, and a multi-foil window set in the gablehead. Square-plan arcaded pinnacles enclose the gable to left and right.

A gabled bay to the right features a highly decorative pointed-arched doorway to the ground floor with a scrolled tympanum with wave-like brackets and paterae. A deeply set shouldered doorway is flanked by two small windows with a two-leaf boarded timber door. A curved outer angle to the wall above features six quatrefoil openings with paterae to the centre of each, with decorative openings and a scrolled finial to the apex. A single-storey two-bay block adjoins to the outer right, with a gabled bay to the left featuring a three-light window set in a hoodmould and openings set in the gablehead. Four convex-shouldered flat-arched openings occupy the bay to the right, with a single decorative timber lucarnes to the roof above. A canted five-light addition by J A O Allan (1939) adjoins, with a 1971 addition by A R Whitelaw to the far right.

The east elevation is gabled, with its lower half obscured by later additions. A decorative traceried rose window with hoodmould occupies the centre, with a small lancet with hoodmould set in the gablehead and a stone finial.

The north elevation is asymmetrical with seven bays. A gabled bay is slightly advanced to the right with a curved outer right angle corbelled to form a right angle. Three small trefoil-headed lancets appear at ground level, with a pointed-arched hoodmould above enclosing three broken lancets, the outer two trefoil-headed. A small rectangular opening is set in the gablehead with a stone finial to the apex. Three bays to the centre each feature a tripartite window with a bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above, with three decorative timber lucarnes to the roof above. Two gabled transept bays to the left are flanked by buttresses, each with a tripartite window with a bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above, three square openings above, two small lancets to the centre of the gablehead with stepped hoodmoulds, and a quatrefoil window set in the gablehead. Square-plan arcaded pinnacles enclose the gables to left and right.

A recessed bay to the outer left features a gableted shouldered doorway to the ground floor with a two-leaf boarded timber door with leaded fanlights, and a tripartite window set in the gablehead above. A single-storey gabled bay advanced to the left has a crowstepped gable with a boarded timber door to the centre of the ground floor, flanked by small windows to left and right. A convex-shouldered tripartite window above features a pointed-arched hoodmould enclosing three quatrefoil openings centred in the gablehead, with curved outer walls. Two windows appear to the right return. A single-storey addition by J A O Allan (1939) adjoins to the outer left, with a single window to the right and a flat-roofed block flanking to the left. A doorway to the centre is flanked by windows, with a gabled bay advanced to the outer left featuring a tripartite window.

The roof is grey slate with lead ridges, stone skews with gableted skewputts, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Windows are predominantly stained glass and leaded.

The interior is fine and painted, featuring a nave and aisles with a U-plan gallery supported on elongated cast-iron columns with stiff-leaf capitals supporting pointed-arches of a colonnade at gallery level. Timber boarding appears below the dado. Ground floor pews have been removed, with only stalls behind the communion table surviving, accompanied by a decoratively carved timber panel along the wall behind. The gallery is panelled with original pine pews, painted, featuring unusual decoratively scrolled pew-ends, with an organ to the west. Decorative timber boarded and panelled doors appear throughout the interior. A decoratively moulded cornice runs around the space, with a vaulted panelled timber roof decoratively stencilled with navel-like paterae at crossings.

A porch to the west of the church features a coffered ceiling with four paterae to each crossing. Two-leaf boarded and panelled timber doors are flanked by panels with decorative glazing and flanked by timber colonnettes. Twisted spiral stairs to the northwest and southwest have distinctively turned balusters with decoratively carved and turned newel posts.

Some early 20th-century stained glass survives, including a rose window with nine roundels to the east end and a two-light window to the south gallery, both by Douglas Strachan.

The boundary features two pairs of square-plan gatepiers to the west of the church on Albyn Place and Carden Place, constructed of grey granite with battered bases, sunken fillets forming crosses in the shafts, pink granite necks, coped with pyramidal caps, and spherical finials to the apexes. Low granite walls flank these, with coped granite rubble walls to the remainder of the boundary.