Hall And Beadle's House, North Leith Parish Church, Madeira Street, Edinburgh

Hall and Beadle's House, North Leith Parish Church, Madeira Street, Edinburgh

This is a Greek Revival church designed by William Burn between 1813 and 1816. The building comprises a five-bay church with a tetrastyle Ionic portico and a three-stage tower with spire, alongside a rectangular galleried hall with a canted end. The structure is constructed in cream ashlar sandstone, with the side and rear elevations finished with stugged rendering and ashlar dressings throughout. A base course runs around the building, with depressed-headed windows at ground level, a band course above, and a full entablature with blocking course completing the composition.

The front elevation features three central bays slightly advanced with giant corner pilasters. A pedimented Ionic portico sits on a plinth of four steps, with fluted columns flanking a two-leaf panelled door at the centre. The door is topped with a traceried depressed-arch fanlight and a roll-moulded frame. Similar round-headed niches occupy the flanking bays. The upper windows are rectangular with cornices and architraves extending to the band course, framing sunken panelled aprons with balustrades to the outer windows.

The tower comprises three diminishing stages. The first and second stages are square with freestanding corner columns and corner pilasters; the first stage features a round-headed window and pediment to each face, while the second stage displays a clock, bucranium, and swag cresting. The octagonal third stage is ringed by freestanding columns with louvred round-headed openings to each face. The Orders ascend from Doric with full entablatures. A fluted spire with oculi lucarnes to alternate faces is capped with a gilded Greek cross finial.

The north and south elevations are five-bay with round-headed gallery windows. The eastern bay is slightly advanced with ashlar and corner pilasters, with fenestration matching the front end bays. The west elevation features a canted end with angle pilasters and a Venetian window to the gallery at the centre, now blocked, set on an ashlar plinth with a punched tripartite window below. The flanking bays have three semi-circular steps leading to depressed-arch doorways at ground level, matching those at the front, with round-headed windows above in pilastered frames set within round-arched recesses.

Windows throughout are timber sash and case, with 16-panes to the front and 24-panes with Y-tracery to the gallery. Stained glass appears at ground level. The roof is piended with grey slate covering.

The interior contains a vaulted vestibule with three niches housing busts of former Ministers and other memorials. Side doors lead to flanking barrel-vaulted stairwells with cantilevered stone stairs. Windows and doors feature corniced architraves. The hall itself has a coved ceiling with a dentilled cornice and a pilastered gallery supported on fluted Ionic columns with panelled window soffits. A raised dais carries a simple classical pulpit approached by a straight flight of steps with a hexagonal sounding board and gilded eagle finial. A classical five-bay organ case occupies the west gallery. Fitted timber benches and 1950s light fittings complete the furnishings, with the interior painted and gilded throughout. An arcaded undercroft beneath the floor is supported by timber posts and beams with some brick vaulting.

To the south is a burial enclosure of ten bays in ashlar with Greek detailing. Each bay contains an opening with a cast-iron diamond-patterned grille; alternate bays are advanced with pedimented Grecian battered aedicules and laurel wreath friezes. A wrought-iron trellised canopy covers the enclosure, with some monuments remaining on the inner boundary wall.

The Hall and Beadle's House is a single-storey L-plan structure adjoining the enclosure to the west, built in dressed stone. It comprises three bays with the entrance to the hall from Madeira Place and the house door to the left. Windows are 12-pane timber sash and case. The roof is piended and pitched with grey slates.

The boundary is formed by a rubble wall with ashlar coping and ashlar setts to the front, with plain iron gates and railings providing access.