St Cuthbert's Church, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

St Cuthbert's Church, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

St Cuthbert's Church is a major ecclesiastical building designed by Hippolyte J Blanc between 1892 and 1895, incorporating substantial earlier fabric and retaining significant 18th-century elements. The church combines Renaissance and Baroque detailing with a wide pitch-roofed nave, shallow pedimented transepts, paired Baroque east cupolas, and a semi-domed apse. The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked bull-faced cream sandstone (coursed rubble in the 18th-century section) with polished ashlar dressings. A broad moulded band runs between the ground and first floors, with a panelled parapet above. Windows sit within moulded architraves, corniced at ground floor level, and feature round arches with Corinthian pilasters at first floor. Half-fluted Corinthian pilasters clasp the corners at the transepts and advanced western bays. Long and short quoins articulate the exterior.

The western elevation features a tall, narrow two-storey pedimented advanced centre bay, a remnant of the 1775 church by James Weir, which contains a memorial sculpture in a channelled blind arch (inserted 1844) at ground floor, a Serliana at first floor, and a dated sundial above. Above this rises a three-stage square tower (1789) with circular windows at the first stage, round-arched windows with latticed glazing at the second stage, and clocks in consoled and pedimented frames at the third. Moulded bands separate each stage, with corner urns at the second and third stages. An octagonal stone belfry and spire (designed and built by Alexander Stevens, 1789–90) surmount the tower, featuring round-arched louvred openings flanked by Doric pilasters to the belfry, circular openings, and a weathervane to the spire. Flanking bays (added by Blanc) display wall tablets at ground floor and single round-arched windows flanked by half-fluted Corinthian pilasters at first floor.

The northern elevation shows the north side of the 1775 tower to the outer right, with the apse of a War Memorial chapel projecting at ground floor; a small circular window sits above with a small Diocletian window at second floor level. A slightly advanced bay to the right contains stone steps with cast-iron railings leading to a two-leaf timber panelled door in a corniced moulded surround, flanked to the right by a small window, with a round-arched window above. Three central bays display single windows to the ground floor and round-arched windows above. An advanced pedimented penultimate bay to the left (the transept) has stone steps with cast-iron railings accessing a timber panelled door in a Doric pilastered frame, flanked by small windows at ground level; above rises a tripartite arcaded window with Corinthian columns and pilasters. Stone steps descend to a round-arched key-blocked entrance to the Nisbet of Dean vault (1692) in the west re-entrant angle, which bears an inscribed tablet and coat of arms above. A three-storey recessed bay to the outer left contains stone steps with a stone balustrade leading to a timber panelled door in a moulded surround, with small windows at the second and third stages.

The eastern elevation features a cross finial to a pedimented gable and a lead half dome to the apsed bay at the centre. A tall base course contains a small door, above which three single windows at the upper level are decorated with carved panels and flanked by half-fluted Corinthian pilasters. Narrow flanking bays, corniced and scrolled, display small windows at ground level. Small windows appear at the first and second floors in the outer bays. Square-plan key-blocked arcaded first stages of cupolas feature half-fluted paired Ionic pilasters to angled buttresses, surmounted by decorative scrolls, with key-blocked circular openings leading to octagonal bases of domed lanterns.

The southern elevation contains a three-storey recessed bay to the outer right with stone steps and cast-iron railings accessing a timber panelled door in a moulded surround at ground floor, and small windows at the first and second floors. An advanced penultimate bay to the right has stone steps with cast-iron railings leading to a timber panelled door in a corniced surround with Doric pilasters, flanked by small windows; above rises a tripartite arcaded window with Corinthian columns and pilasters. Three central bays display single windows at ground level and round-arched windows above. A slightly advanced penultimate bay to the left contains a two-leaf panelled door (the principal entrance) in a corniced moulded surround flanked by small windows, with a round-arched window above. The south elevation of the 1775 tower appears to the outer left, featuring a segmental-arched window at ground floor, a small circular window above, and a small Diocletian window at second floor level.

The roof is slated, with ribbed stone roofs to the east belfries. Cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers complete the exterior.

Interior

The interior contains a wide nave with U-plan galleries supported on marbled Corinthian columns, shortened in 1990. The chancel arch features painted vaulting by Gerald E Moira depicting the four Evangelists, with spandrels painted by John Duncan (1931) showing two angels. The chancel floor is laid in mosaic with carved elders' seats displaying Renaissance details. The apse spandrels are painted by Robert Hope with Christ in Glory and angels. An alabaster wall frieze by Bridgeman of Lichfield (1906–8), a high relief version of Leonardo's Last Supper, is divided by orange marble-clad pilasters. A central white marble communion table with semi-precious inserts sits centrally. A lectern with a carved angel by D W Stevenson (1895) stands to one side, while a marble-clad pulpit designed by Blanc (1897–8) with carved angel details and supported on red marble columns with white Ionic capitals sits to the left of the chancel arch. A font by Thomas Armstrong (1908) featuring a white marble bowl with a bronze profile portrait by MacGill supports a bronze copy of Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna. A compartmented ceiling and scrolled pew ends (by Blanc) complete the nave furnishings. An organ sits in the north transept arch, with a decorative glazed screen in the south transept arch. A wood-panelled War Memorial screen and doors by Ian G Lindsay (1950) at the west end are framed by Corinthian pilasters.

The principal entrance at the southwest opens into a full-width vestibule (featuring a Napier wall tablet) with two sets of curved stairs leading to an upper meeting room (formerly the rear of the gallery) containing a large mural by Moira depicting St Cuthbert on Lindisfarne.

The War Memorial Chapel (designed by P MacGregor Chalmers, 1921) occupies the ground floor of the 1775 tower and features a vaulted roof with compartmented low relief plasterwork. A gold mosaic and small round-headed window sit in the apse to the south; a segmental-arched window with leaded glass appears to the south. The chapel floor is laid in marble, with marble panels to the walls bearing the names of the fallen inlaid in lead. A session room sits above, with a cantilevered wooden stair leading to a wood-panelled choir room at second floor level.

Most windows retain leaded glass throughout the building.

Churchyard and Monuments

The churchyard contains numerous important monuments, many predating the present building, including memorials to John Grant of Kilgraston (1795), a cast-iron tombstone (an obelisk on four lions couchant with angels in roundels) to Janet Crawford, wife of Alexander Barker, Edinburgh iron founder, a Greek Doric Hamilton enclosure, a wall monument to George Winton, architect (1823), the three-bay gothic mausoleum of the Gordons of Cluny by Bryce, and burial places of Thomas de Quincey, Alexander Nasmyth, and George Meikle Kemp. The graveyard is divided by ashlar-coped rubble walls of varying ages. Cast-iron railings are mounted on low arch-coped boundary walls. Tall pyramidally-capped and corniced octagonal ashlar gatepiers with quatrefoil decoration support cast-iron gates.