Viewforth United Presbyterian Church, 70 Leamington Terrace, 68, Edinburgh

Viewforth United Presbyterian Church, 70 Leamington Terrace and 68 Edinburgh

Designed by J Russell Walker in 1882-3, this is an Early French Gothic church built in squared and snecked sandstone with polished grey sandstone ashlar dressings. The building is distinguished by a corner tower and octagonal belfry, with a transept-style gable facing Westhall Gardens. Dividing string courses, stepped buttresses, and capped, finialled octagonal turrets articulate the exterior.

The seven-stage buttressed tower on the Leamington Terrace elevation features a single rectangular light to ground with gabled hoodmould, rising to two rectangular lights in the stage above. A pierced oculus with dressed moulding appears in the next stage, followed by two round arch slit windows. The fourth stage carries pointed arch louvred openings with hoodmoulds, and above this runs an arcade of four narrow pointed arch lights with flanking blind pointed arches to the corners. A narrow pointed arch louvre opening to the final stage, topped by a gable attached to the base of the octagonal extinguisher, completes the tower.

On the Westhall Gardens elevation, the tower is accessed by steps to a gabled chamfered doorpiece flanked by three nook shafts with floriated capitals. A stepped cornice and tympanum pierced by three circular motifs, with voussoirs to the mouldings and a hoodmould, frame a finial above. The door itself is boarded with ornamental strap hinges.

The Leamington Terrace entrance elevation features steps leading to a hoodmoulded gabled doorpiece with two timber doors and ornamental strap hinges, flanked by single nook shafts with foliated capitals. Moulded pointed arches frame each door. An oculus and small round motifs appear above, while a quatrefoil with central oculus sits within circular moulding in the tympanum. Three half colonnettes flank this, and "Bruntsfield Evangelical Church" appears in relief on hoodmoulded voussoirs. A decoratively carved trefoil tops the finialled gable, with label-stops to the cill and dentilled moulding to the gable edges. Flanking finialled gables carry single light trefoil head windows with dentilled moulding.

Pairs of wheel lights appear with six oculi around central oculi, below which sit three pointed arch lights with floriated colonnettes. A moulded, chamfered pointed arch forms a triforium with hoodmould. Another wheel light crowns a gable with six oculi, flanking carved rosettes, and a large carved Celtic cross finial. Blind arcading to pinnacles rises above the parapet level on the buttresses. A chamfered bay to the outer left contains three narrow lights descending from left to right, with a band course and rectangular lights to the eaves. The tower occupies the outer right.

The Westhall Gardens elevation continues the tower and entrance to the outer left. A pair of hoodmoulded plate tracery windows light the two upper floors to the right. Three-light trefoil-headed windows in two bays of the gabled transept feature continuous flanking colonnettes, dividing moulded square panels, and quatrefoiled plate tracery with central oculus to the head of moulded pointed arches with voussoirs and hoodmoulds. A pointed arch arrow slit window to the gable head, flanked by recessed moulded quatrefoils and a blind oculus in a square panel to the centre, carries a finial with carved foliage.

A timber door flanked by single-light windows in the penultimate bay features dog-tooth mouldings, with three pointed arch windows aligned above descending from left to right. Pointed arch mullioned tripartites appear on both floors of the bay to the outer right, with a moulded oculus to the gable centre. An open belfry with pyramidal roof sits to the ridge behind the gable.

Leaded bars detail the window panes. The roof is grey slate, piended with pantiled ridges and skews. A gablehead stack appears to the outer right of the Westhall Gardens elevation. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.

The interior comprises a hall leading from the entrance to the right of Westhall Gardens, with access to the ground floor of the main church to the left. Timber panelling dominates, with the space formerly galleried but now roofed over and insulated to exclude the high-roofed upper sections. Original planked pews remain, with iron columns breaking through the modern suspended ceiling to support arcades to a timber tunnel roof. Side galleries are carried by timber trusses. A William Burges-style Gothic pulpit and new screen wall at the back of the main church, with a vestibule behind, are significant features. A band of green stained-glass windows is present. Two boarded timber doors open from the entrance hall at the back of the main church to Leamington Terrace, with stairs ascending to the galleries. A stepped gallery at the rear is lit by triforium windows with Corinthian capitals to the arcades. The suspended ceiling is elaborately trussed. An organ loft sits beneath a mincer-plate window at the opposite end, housing a Norman and Beard organ of 1903. Original gold and cream paintwork survives behind the organ loft, which features a pneumatic organ pump. Original fittings to the caretaker's flat include a range and cast-iron fireplaces.

The boundary comprises coped squared and snecked rubble walls, with corniced gatepiers topped by pyramidal caps, iron railings and gates.