Greyfriars Church, Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh

A Grade A listed building, Greyfriars Church is a substantial rectangular church begun in 1601 and opened in 1620, possibly incorporating earlier fabric. It represents a fusion of Baroque and gothic revival styles developed through a complex architectural history.

The building was originally conceived as an 8-bay structure with an aisled nave, doors to the north, south and east, and a 4-stage square-plan tower at the west. This was dramatically altered in 1718 when the tower and two western bays were destroyed. The four surviving eastern bays were then divided off by a wall and converted into Old Greyfriars, while two western bays were repaired and two new bays added to the west by Alexander McGill to form a mirror-image church, New Greyfriars, opened in 1722. Fire in 1845 gutted Old Greyfriars and damaged New Greyfriars. New Greyfriars reopened in 1846 with furnishings by David Bryce.

Major internal reconstruction followed. The arcades of Old Greyfriars were replaced with a single-span open timber roof by David Cousin between 1856 and 1857, while windows were filled with ashlar pierced by lancets. A more comprehensive reworking by Henry Kerr from 1931 to 1938 removed the dividing wall and galleries, rebuilt the arcades, constructed a timber ceiling over the 6 original bays, and restored the east gable.

The exterior is constructed of harled rubble with ashlar dressings. The nave has a pitched roof and lean-to roofs to the aisles, with no clerestorey. The design features obelisk-topped buttresses between bays and at corners, a base course and moulded eaves course. Windows have pointed-arched chamfered surrounds.

The north elevation features a prominent 2-storey pedimented channelled ashlar porch with ground-floor arcade by McGill (1722). The porch has a blind arch in the centre bay with a blind window above, flanked by 2-leaf timber panelled doors with sunburst fanlights. A bell is hung in a bracketed timber shelter above (added 1991), with a decorative cast-iron bracket lamp on the east return. Windows in pointed-arched surrounds flank the porch: leaded windows to the right and plate tracery lancets to the left.

The east elevation displays a large round-arched window to the centre with 5 plate tracery lancets, topped by a carved panel dated 1614 and an oculus in the pediment above, flanked by obelisks. A blocked round-arched door opening to the right of centre contains wall monuments. Straight skews and pointed-arched 3-light windows with plate tracery lancets occupy the flanking bays.

The west elevation has a pedimented centre bay with a low piend-roofed semi-octagonal porch (originally the principal entrance), featuring a 2-leaf timber boarded door in roll-moulded surround to the north and a window to the west. A pointed-arched 3-light window with Y-tracery rises above, topped by an oculus in the pediment. Flanking bays have scrolled curvilinear skews and 2-light windows with Y-tracery above and 12-pane glazing below.

The south elevation contains 8 bays with wall monuments in the outer left bay. Pointed-arched windows occupy the 6 inner bays: plate tracery lancets to the three right windows, small-pane glazing (lattice above, 12-pane below) to the outer left, and Y-tracery to the left.

The interior, rebuilt by Henry Kerr from 1931 to 1938, comprises a 6-bay nave to the east with arcaded aisles featuring octagonal piers and a compartmented timber ceiling of Californian redwood with decorative gilded medallions. Two bays to the east have a timber gallery built under an arch to accommodate the organ by Peter Collins (1988), housed in a fine decorative case, with rooms in the aisles. A communion table and panelling behind were added by Honeyman in 1912, as was an octagonal 17th century-style pulpit with sounding-board, now positioned against the third south pier.

A mid-17th century memorial tablet to Lady Yester in the south aisle features emblems of mortality and inscription within an Artisan Mannerist aedicule, painted and gilded. Wall monuments appear throughout, notably in the south aisle.