Queen's Gallery (Former Holyrood Free Church And Former Free Church School), Holyroodhouse

The Queen's Gallery, formerly known as the Holyrood Free Church and the Free Church School, is located at Holyroodhouse. Designed by Archibald Simpson in 1846 and John Henderson in 1850, the buildings were converted into an art gallery in 2002 by Benjamin Tindall Architects. The structure consists of a three-storey, six-bay Neo-Jacobean former Free School and a four-bay, T-plan gabletted Gothic former Free Church, positioned at the corner of Horses Wynd and Abbey Strand, with gable elevations facing Horses Wynd. The former school features squared and coursed sandstone with raised margins, while the former church is made of squared and snecked sandstone. Around 2000, an entrance was created between the church and school, featuring a central round arch with the inscription 'THE QUEEN'S GALLERY' above.

The principal elevation faces west, with the former church on the left. It has a slightly advanced gabled porch with a hoodmoulded doorway and a two-leaf timber door. Above this is a blocked two-light tracery window and a prominent gabled bellcote with two recessed openings and a cross finial. The north side has two-light openings with stone mullions. A single-bay gabled entrance opening is adjacent to the Abbey Courthouse.

To the right is the former school, which has an off-centre round-arched doorway with boarded timber entrance doors. Above this are window openings adorned with strapwork ornament, and a recessed section to the left features a tall round-arched window. The south elevation includes segmental-arched openings on the ground floor, strapwork ornament on the first-floor openings, and a cornice course at the top storey, which is pedimented over the windows.

The buildings predominantly feature 12-pane timber sash and case windows, with six-pane fixed windows above in the former school, and diamond lead pane windows with top hoppers in the former church. There are multi-pane glass and timber two-leaf doors at the ground level on the south side. The roofs are covered with grey slates, featuring roll-ended skews and scroll skew-putts, along with a coped gable stack that has three square-plan flues.

Inside, as seen in 2007, the interiors have been comprehensively modernised, with both buildings incorporated into a large gallery on the first floor. The space features an open timber roof, with shops and offices located on the ground floor. A curved imperial stair with curved timber balusters and a timber banister was constructed in 2002.