Morningside South United Free Church, 15 Braid Road, Edinburgh

Morningside South United Free Church, 15 Braid Road, Edinburgh

A late Gothic church designed by R Rowand Anderson, built 1891-2, with interior redefinition by R D Cameron and Gibb in 1976-7.

The building is constructed of red sandstone, square and snecked rubble with polished dressings. It comprises a main body with side aisles, a south transept, a north-west tower, a south entrance porch with adjoining hall, and a rectangular plan hall positioned at right angles to the east. The design features a base course with pointed-arch windows topped by hoodmoulds and foliate label stops. Windows display curvilinear tracery with ashlar mullions. The buttresses are offset and gablet-capped. The aisle and clerestory windows are rectangular. Gables are lugged, and the eaves cornice is moulded.

The north-west tower rises in four stages with diagonal buttresses. An octagonal stair turret occupies the north-west corner, lit by arrow slit windows and a continuous row of small cusped windows above the parapet. The stairhead terminates in a cusped and finialled pinnacled roof. The pointed-arch moulded entrance door faces west, with foliate carving to the spandrels and a rectangular hoodmould rising from a string course; the timber door features decorative cast-iron hinges. The first stage displays a single 3-light window on the north return with a moulded string course above. The second stage has two lancets with cusped heads on the west, north and east faces. The third stage contains two 2-light windows on the west and north faces. The top stage has large louvred traceried 2-light windows on the west, north and east faces, with a ball flower studded eaves cornice, moulded crenellated parapet, and an octagonal leaded needle spire featuring a herringbone pattern.

The west elevation displays a cross-finialled gable with two rectangular 3-light windows with cusped heads, divided by blind ashlar panels above a base course. Moulded cill courses support two tall 3-light windows above. A moulded and cusped vesica occupies the gablehead.

The aisles have lean-to roofs. The north aisle is blank except for a projecting flat-roofed vestry with two 4-light north windows in the easternmost bay. The south aisle spans three bays with rectangular tripartite windows. A gabled entrance porch at the westernmost bay features a moulded pointed-arch doorway with foliate carving to the spandrels, a rectangular hoodmould, and a timber door with decorative cast-iron hinges. A small rectangular window with a traceried head flanks to the right. The porch has a moulded eaves course terminating in floral label stops on returns above, with a 3-light window having cusped heads over a panel of blind arcading in the gablehead. A lancet with a cusped head appears on the west return. A flat-roofed projecting chapel with a 4-light window and ashlar parapet occupies the easternmost bay. The clerestory features paired 3-light windows divided by buttresses.

The east elevation is gabled and cross-finialled, with a tall 3-light window and louvred oculi flanking. A narrow rectangular window with a traceried head sits in the gablehead. The south transept is gabled with a rectangular secondary entrance door and a tall 4-light transomed window above.

The hall is rectangular in plan, positioned at right angles to the east with a parapeted porch link to the south transept. It has a hoodmoulded entrance door with a traceried rectangular window flanking to the right. A 3-light window with intersecting tracery occupies the south gable. Rectangular bipartite windows line the east wall. A small louvred and finialled gabled ventilator sits above, with an apex stack to the north gable.

Throughout the building, glazing consists of small square leaded panes. The roof is steeply pitched green slate with red crested ridge tiles. Ashlar coped skews feature gablet skewputts to the major gables. Moulded eaves gutters and gutterheads complete the external fabric.

The interior was substantially modified in 1976-7 when a floor was inserted below the clerestory, creating rooms at ground level with a hall above. The hall retains a timber wagon roof with moulded transverse beams rising from carved stone corbels. The former west gallery now serves as a stage. The east window contains stained glass.

The boundary wall is a low stepped rubble wall with saddlebank coping. Cast-iron railings with a decorative lamp post mark the west entrance, and a cast-iron arch details the south porch.