Beechgrove Church, Mid Stocket Road, Aberdeen

Beechgrove Church, Mid Stocket Road, Aberdeen

A Norman-gothic T-plan church designed by architects Brown and Watt between 1896 and 1900. The building is constructed of tooled coursed grey granite with finely worked margins, featuring a clerestory, transepts and a tall open tower. The design employs pointed-arched openings, buttressed angles, an eaves cornice, and decorative stone finials at the gable apexes. A base course and band course run around the walls.

The west entrance elevation is asymmetrical with three bays. The central bay is gabled and contains three pairs of small bipartite windows beneath a tripartite tall lancet window with chamfered and moulded decoration and decorative hoodmoulds. A deeply chamfered vesica is set in the gable head. An oversized buttress flanks the right side with gabled form and tooled blind basket tracery.

Adjoining to the left is a square-plan four-stage entrance tower. The ground floor has a pointed-arched doorway, deeply chamfered with hoodmould, accessed by six stone steps with railings leading to a two-leaf boarded timber door with small-pane decorative glazed upper panels and a vertically glazed fanlight with dentil-moulded cill. A tripartite four-centred-arched window is set in the left return. The second stage has three small lancets above the doorway, with single lancets on other elevations. The third stage features a pair of lancets on each face. The fourth stage is open with pairs of bipartite windows surmounted by tall open lancets with cusped heads. A balustraded section with pointed-arched openings is flanked at the angles by octagonal pinnaces rising from buttresses. Octagonal granite spires with small pointed-arched lucarnes flanked by pinnaces face north, south, east and west, each topped with a decorative iron finial. A single-storey bay adjoins to the left with crenellated parapet, containing a pointed-arched doorway, deeply chamfered with hoodmould, accessed by seven stone steps with railings to a two-leaf boarded timber door with small-pane decorative glazed upper panels and vertically glazed fanlight with dentil-moulded cill.

The south elevation is five bays and asymmetrical. The penultimate bay to the right is gabled with three tripartite windows to the ground floor and a lancet tripartite window above. A lean-to bay adjoins to the left with three small lancets stepped up to light the internal stair. A doorway to the left return is reached by four stone steps leading to a two-leaf boarded timber door with four-pane upper panels and vertically glazed fanlight with dentil-moulded cill. The ground floor of the flanking bay to the left is advanced with a lean-to roof, containing a single lancet to the centre and a pair of tripartite lancets above. The bay to the outer left is advanced with a small window to the left of the ground floor and a tripartite window above. An octagonal baptistery adjoins to the outer left, with pointed-arched windows in hoodmoulds on each face, a pointed roof with decorative iron finial, and bays adjoining to the right. A boarded timber door with ramp and steps is set in the left return.

The east elevation has a vesica set in the gable head of the church; the remainder is obscured by an adjoining seven-bay hall. Five bays to the right feature bipartite windows. The penultimate bay to the left is stepped down with a convex-shouldered tripartite window to the centre. The bay to the outer left is stepped down with a single window.

The north elevation is asymmetrical with seven bays. The third bay from the left is gabled with three pairs of bipartite windows to the ground floor and tripartite lancet windows above, with a trefoil-headed window to the centre. A lean-to bay flanks to the right with three small lancets stepped up to light the internal stair. A four-centred chamfered doorway is set in the right return, accessed by four stone steps to a boarded timber door with glazed upper panels and vertically glazed fanlight. Three recessed bays occupy the right side with two small windows to the advanced ground floor and three tripartite windows above. The tower adjoins to the outer right. A doorway is advanced to the ground floor of the penultimate bay to the left with a two-leaf boarded timber door with glazed upper panels and vertically glazed fanlight with dentil-moulded cill, beneath a crenellated parapet. Two small windows occupy the recessed upper storeys. A gabled bay of the hall adjoins to the outer left with a four-light canted window with piended roof to the centre.

Throughout the building, windows are predominantly small-pane leaded and stained glass. The roofs are grey slate with pierced terracotta ridges. Coped ridge and gable head stacks on the south side have circular cans. Coped stone skews are present. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external fabric.

The interior comprises a decoratively panelled timber porch leading to a nave with side aisles, divided by pink granite pointed-arched arcades on squat polished granite columns. Galleries occupy the north and south transepts and the western nave, with decoratively panelled fronts and raked seating. Bipartite arches span two storeys fronting the transepts, supported centrally by a polished granite column. Pine pews feature decorative pew ends. A panelled octagonal gothic pulpit, gothic communion table and lectern are set throughout. A round arch opens to the chancel, which contains the organ. Very fine stained glass is present throughout, including a Fleming memorial window to the east by John M Aiken, dated 1929. Gothic boarded timber doors with decoratively leaded and glazed upper panels provide access. The roof comprises a ribbed timber barrel-vaulted form.

The gatepiers and boundary walls consist of low coped granite walls to the north and west, with a rubble wall to the remainder. A convex-shouldered doorway is set in a stepped-up wall to the north-east, with a boarded timber door. The wall is stepped up at the north-west corner with a tooled datestone reading "1900". Two square-plan gatepiers with chamfered angles and pyramidal caps occupy the west side, flanking stepped-up walls. Railings and gates have been removed.