West Kirk, Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh

West Kirk, Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh

A squat cruciform-plan Gothic church designed by J W and J Hay in 1853, with a vestry and session room added in 1878, a porch added by William Leiper in 1892, and restoration following a fire carried out by Robert Wemyss in 1924. The building is constructed of stugged, snecked grey, cream and red sandstone with cream ashlar dressings. It is distinguished by an ornate crocketted porch on the east elevation and a 3-stage tower with broach stone spire positioned in the re-entrant angle of the south transept.

The architectural detailing is consistently elaborate throughout. The main facades feature pointed-arch windows that break the eaves, framed by gabled dormerheads with 2-light cusped bar tracery. The walls are articulated by saw-tooth coped off-set buttresses with cusped gablets, whilst angle buttresses to the porch and diagonal buttresses to the tower are finialled and crocketted.

The east elevation on Colquhoun Street presents a gabled frontage with a projecting porch at the centre. Above the porch sits a 5-light pointed-arch window with curvilinear tracery, flanked by narrow windows with cusped tracery. The porch itself features a heavy moulded cornice with stepped returns and floreated eaves course. Its east face contains two windows divided by a central buttress, each with 2-light plate tracery and floreated hollow chamfered reveals with hoodmoulds bearing carved head label-stops. On both the right and left returns, pointed-arch doorways with moulded chamfered reveals open to 2-leaf boarded doors fitted with decorative iron hinges, handles and keyholes.

The south elevation displays two dormerheaded aisle windows to the right. The gabled transept projects to the left with the tower positioned in the re-entrant angle. The transept itself contains a 4-light window with curvilinear tracery. A gabled bay recessed to the left of the transept includes a tripartite window at ground level and two lancets with cusped tracery above.

The tower rises in three distinct stages. At its base on the east elevation stands a pointed-arch doorway flanked by colonnettes with moulded reveals featuring floreate moulding; this doorway is fitted with 2-leaf boarded doors and decorative iron hinges. Above it sits a 4-centred-arch window with cusped 2-light bar tracery. The south elevation features a similar detailed 4-centred-arch window at ground level, an arrowloop window with cusped tracery above, and a canted stair turret to the left with stepped stair lights. At the belfry stage, each face displays a row of three small windows with cusped tracery. Short angle buttresses to the upper stage rise into octagonal piers topped with octagonal caps. Below each face's windows stand tall narrow louvred 2-light bar tracery gabled lucarnes with clock faces.

The west elevation is dominated by a canted apse over a basement at its centre, with pointed-arch windows breaking the eaves and gabled dormerheads containing 2-light bar tracery. A doorway flanks the far right, and a bipartite window with cusped tracery stands to the outer right. The far left contains another doorway, with a basement doorway on the return to the left and a bipartite basement window similarly to the outer left. The session house occupies the re-entrant angle of the north transept in this corner. Its north elevation displays two 4-centred-arch windows with 2-light bar tracery, and the west return features a similarly detailed but taller gabled window.

The north elevation shows a gabled transept to the right detailed as its southern counterpart. In the re-entrant angle to the left stands a 4-centred-arch doorway, with a trefoil window to its right. A taller gabled bay breaking the eaves stands to the outer right with a small lancet window with cusped tracery. Three aisle windows detailed as those on the south elevation are divided by buttresses. A coped chimney stack with an advanced chimney wall abuts the side of the outer left window.

The roof is of grey-green slate with saw-tooth coped skews and finialled cusped gablet skewputts. Original rainwater goods remain, and the building features dormers to the transepts and a fleche.

The interior is richly finished with panelling throughout. A plaster and timber-beamed vaulted roof is supported on stone corbels, with galleries in each transept supported on two cast-iron columns. Stencil and gold leaf decoration dating to 1926 decorates the chancel. The stained glass is extensive and notable. The apse contains three windows depicting the Twelve Apostles, dating circa 1926. The north wall contains three windows: one depicting Christian Acts of Mercy by Gordon MacWurter Webster (1931), one figurative panel possibly by Guthrie and Wells (circa 1890), and a window of Christ Blessing the Little Children (circa 1890). Dormer windows in the transepts show figures of Columba, Giles and Francis to the right, and a Crucifixion to the left by MacWurter Webster (circa 1954). The south transept contains a commemorative window to John Logie Baird by Arthur D Spiers (1988).

The boundary wall and gatepiers are constructed of stugged, snecked cream and grey sandstone with ashlar coping. The square piers feature stop-chamfered angles and low pyramidal caps.