St John The Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 35 Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh

St John The Evangelist Roman Catholic Church

This church was designed by J T Walford and built between 1903 and 1906 on Brighton Place in Portobello, Edinburgh. It is a Grade A listed building. The church is constructed in an idiosyncratic Gothic style with an incipient Expressionist tower. A modern single-storey addition was made to the northeast in 1991, which is harled and stone clad. The main structure is built from bull-faced sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, featuring base courses and string courses throughout.

The northwest elevation (Brighton Place) contains the main entrance, positioned centrally in a gabled bay with a pointed-arched two-leaf panelled door and pointed-arch traceried window above. Above this sits a pointed-arch arcaded band course with a cross finial, now fibreglass. The tower stands at the southwest corner, a square-plan steeple with octagonal clasping buttresses breaking the wallhead in an arcaded lantern. The tower features louvered pointed-arched paired openings to each elevation (louvers now fibreglass) and an arcaded band course. Octagonal pinnacle towers flank the central feature, each with a polished ashlar open blunt lantern at the top. The baptistery projects to the northeast as a single-storey semi-octagonal bay with offset buttresses dividing each face and traceried windows. Pyramidally capped polygonal dies top the parapet. A two-storey addition to the outer right features pointed-arch windows to the upper section on each elevation.

The southwest elevation faces Sandford Gardens and contains seven bays. A lean-to single-storey aisle projection runs across all except the outer bays, with two traceried windows to each bay at ground level and a single pointed-arch window above to each bay except the penultimate and ultimate bays (which form the chancel). A semi-octagonal piended projection terminates the aisle with buttresses and pointed-arched windows. The chancel terminates in a two-storey semi-octagonal and buttressed structure with pointed-arched traceried windows to each elevation. A two-storey semi-octagonal projection on the west side has matching features.

The northeast elevation features the baptistery at the outer right and a four-bay aisle with windows at ground and large pointed-arched clearstorey windows with loop tracery above. An advanced M-gabled sacristy has bipartite windows to each gablehead and a door to the left. A modern three-bay addition including a garage stands to the outer left.

The southeast elevation contains a polygonal apse with dividing capped buttresses and polygonal capped dies. Pointed-arch traceried windows sit in gablets with fleur-de-lys finials. Throughout, the church features cusped and curvilinear traceried windows, a slate roof, and wrought-iron finials to gableheads and roof apexes.

Interior

The interior displays fine craftsmanship and material quality. The vestibule partition features diamond-shaped leaded glazed panels to the fanlight and upper section, with boarded panelling below. A panelled balcony sits above with organ pipes beyond. Pointed-arched octagonal piered arcading with carved angels corbels at the springing points runs through the interior. Identical corbels appear at the chancel arch. All stonework is Grange stone from Burntisland. Clearstorey windows are set in pitch pine vaulted ceilings with pendants at the apex of each. Three confessionals stand to the left of the left aisle. Terracotta-colour encaustic tiles with black and white herring-bone boarding cover the passages, while timber parquet flooring covers the pew areas.

The chancel is raised four steps and features a carved alabaster and marble chancel fence with marble flooring. The baptistery, to the left of the main door, contains a wrought-iron screen and gates, marble flooring, and a marble font with a brass Art Nouveau cover. Side chapels flank the chancel on both sides. Each has marble flooring and an alabaster and gilt altar; the south chapel now serves as a Lady chapel with an altar depicting the Madonna taking the sacrament.

Furnishings include an altar designed by Walford with a painting of the Last Supper above it. A 15-foot-tall traceried reredos of polished alabaster stands behind. A pulpit originally featured four carved Evangelists, now removed and relocated as decoration to the sacristy corridor. Pine pews fill the nave. The organ was built by Rushworth and Dreaper and moved to the church from Hawick in 1961. Carved timber and coloured bas-relief Stations of the Cross in Gothic frames decorate the walls. A stone carved statuette of St John, possibly Portland stone and styled after Hew Lorimer, stands to the left of the chancel arch. Wrought-iron with gilded finials flanks the chancel sides.

The chancel windows contain stained glass by Edward Frampton depicting the Nativity, Crucifixion and Resurrection, with bordered colouring to other windows throughout the church.