17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 10 April 1986. Church. 5 related planning applications.

17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
winding-niche-lichen
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
10 April 1986
Type
Church
Address
17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1NB
OS grid reference
NT 260 736
Coordinates
55.94996, -3.18574
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street in Edinburgh is a church designed by Robert Morham and dated 1871. It features an unusual, freestyle design with double gables and a small, four-stage square belfry tower. The exterior is constructed from coursed, rock-faced ashlar with stugged dressings.

On the left side, there is a narrow entrance bay that includes a recessed timber door topped with a pointed gablehead, which has the inscription 'BLACKFRIARS STREET 1871'. Above this entrance, small windows are positioned at the upper storeys, leading up to the two-stage belfry that has nook shafts at the corners and louvred openings. To the right, there are two tall and narrow identical gabled bays, each featuring pointed-arch double-leaf timber doors with moulded architraves. Above these doors, tall bipartite lancet windows are present, with a small rose window in the center.

The church has a steeply pitched roof that includes continuous glazed rooflights along the ridge. The predominant glazing consists of multi-pane timber astragalled fixed-pane windows. The south gable has a broad end stack, and there are clay cans and cast-iron rainwater goods. The rear elevation mirrors the paired gable configuration, with an additional smaller bay on the right.

Local climate

17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 5 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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