St Thomas' Church, 9 Mill Lane, Leith, Edinburgh

This is a rectangular-plan, 5-bay manse, dating from 1840-3, designed by John Henderson. It is located at 9 Mill Lane, Leith, Edinburgh, and forms a courtyard with a former hospital and asylum, which share similar detailing. The manse is situated alongside a preaching-box and was intended to serve St Thomas’ Church.

The building is constructed from cream sandstone, with ashlar facing and polished and droved dressings. A continuous cill course runs along the building, and there is an eaves cornice and a tall ashlar parapet. Coped skews and tall, round-arched bipartite windows with heavy, quasi-stylised mullions and roundels in the spandrels are noteworthy features.

The east elevation, facing Sheriff Brae, is 3-bayed. A round-arched doorway is set within a shallow projection, featuring three orders of chevron and zig-zag carving, nook-shafts with carved cushion capitals, and a hoodmould with masque stops. A two-leaf door with blind tracery provides access. A tall window is positioned above the doorway in the base of the central tower. Windows are flanking the outer bays. The tower rises above the gable, incorporating angle buttresses and louvred windows on each face. Above, a corbel table supports a tall, octagonal ashlar spire, displaying two corbel tables and clock faces at its base, framed by octagonal pinnacles with sawtooth facetted caps.

The south elevation, facing Mill Lane, is 5-bayed, with tall windows in each bay. A small, round-arched bipartite secondary doorway, now partly blocked, is located to the outer left, its cill course acting as a hoodmould. A small opening is situated to the outer right.

The west elevation is gabled, with a shallow rectangular projection at the centre, covered by a lean-to ashlar roof and framed by buttresses. A round-arched bipartite window is present, and an oculus tops the gablehead.

The north (rear) elevation also has 5 bays. Tall windows are largely obscured by a brick-built, shallow-roofed hall that was added in the re-entrant angle with the manse.

The manse is set at a right angle to the west elevation, creating a courtyard. It is 3-bayed with a central doorway and regular fenestration. At ground floor, the window to the left is a bipartite window with a timber mullion, while the window to the right has been altered to French doors. Continuous hoodmoulds extend over both the ground and first floors. The eaves line rises above each bay into a lugged gable, featuring a blind roundel. The rear of the manse is faced with coursed rubble, revealing earlier pediments with carved datestones inset into the east gable.

Modern glazing is present in the church, while the manse has 6- or 16-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is slate, and the manse features shafted gablehead stacks on the east and west elevations.

The interior of the church has been subdivided horizontally, and the original interior is largely lost. A rib-vaulted vestibule remains, showcasing chevron carving and a commemorative cartouche inscribed ‘St Thomas Church and the adjoining schools were built and endowed AD 1840 by Sir John Gladstone of Fasque a native of Leith’.

Arrowhead railings are present in the manse courtyard and along the east front of the church, having been restored in the 1980s.