Polwarth Parish Church And Hall, Polwarth Terrace, Edinburgh

Polwarth Parish Church and Hall

This decorated Gothic church was built in two phases: the main church designed by Sydney Mitchell & Wilson in 1900, with the chancel added in 1903. The top stages of the tower and the hall were completed by James Jerdan & Son in 1913. The building is constructed in red sandstone, with squared and coursed rubble walls and ashlar dressings. It follows a cruciform plan with an aisled nave, clerestory, transepts, and a dominating south-east tower. The church hall sits to the north-west.

The Tower

The south-east tower rises in four massive stages with diagonal buttresses. The first stage contains the main entrance, a deeply chamfered segmental-arched door with six heavy blank rectangular panels designed for carving within the arch. A roll-moulded string course runs across, with a matching design repeated on the north-east side door. Three arrowslit stair windows pierce the south-west face. The second stage has a cill course and three 2-light pointed-arch mullioned and transomed windows, one on each of the south-west, south-east and north-east elevations. Each window comprises two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil tracery above. The third stage features oculi with deeply chamfered reveals and cusped tracery on all three visible sides. The fourth stage, added in 1913, has a 3-light pointed-arch window to each side with trefoiled louvred lights and perpendicular tracery above. An eaves course with fleurons supports a moulded crenellated parapet with crocketted corner and centre pinnacles, while gargoyles sit at the corners.

The Nave

The nave gable faces south-west and is buttressed by an angle buttress with an octagonal moulded pinnacle to the south-east. At the base, ashlar panelling contains flat ogee-arched blind arcading inset with narrow rectangular windows every second panel, divided by two short buttresses with moulded upper panels. The centrepiece is a large 5-light pointed-arch window with flowing tracery and an ogee hoodmould rising to a Greek cross in the gablehead. Block label-stops frame the window, with blind ashlar arcading in the arch spandrels framed by keel-moulded shafts and finials. An ornate cross finial crowns the gable, with another cross finial on the north-east gable.

The Aisles and Clerestory

The north-west and south-east elevations feature projecting single-storey side aisles with lean-to roofs. The south-east aisle is four bays, while the north-west is five bays. Small bipartite windows with cusped heads light each bay. An outbuilding with a half-piended roof adjoins the right of the north-west aisle. Above these, the clerestory runs continuously with paired 2-light pointed-arch windows with flowing tracery. Hood moulds crown each pair, sharing block label-stops, with pairs divided by keeled shafts bearing block capitals.

The Transepts and Chancel

The transepts and chancel are lit by 4-light windows with flowing tracery and block label-stops in their end gable walls. The south-east gable window is transomed, with a carved decorative tablet below. Single lancet windows with flowing tracery light the south-west return of each transept. The chancel's north-east wall contains a 5-light window with tracery to the sidelights and apex. Gablet-capped angle buttresses bearing octagonal turrets flank the chancel, crowned by a St Andrew's cross gable finial.

The Halls and Offices (1913)

A two-storey entrance porch for the offices and chancel sits in the south-east re-entrant angle. It features a pointed-arch doorway with a lancet window above and a string course at eaves level rising to a hoodmould over the lancet. An oculus with tracery sits in the gablehead.

A single-storey flat-roofed sacristy, with a parapet encasing the chancel, adjoins to the south-east. Its south-east elevation has three single rectangular windows to the left and two 2-light windows to the right. The north-east elevation contains a central 3-light rectangular window flanked by two 2-light windows. The Drennan Hall entrance features a pointed-arch deeply chamfered door with an ashlar tympanum inscribed 'Drennan Hall 1913', and a coped ashlar parapet peaks above.

The rectangular single-storey church hall adjoins the chancel to the north-west, with diagonal buttresses and a central segmental-arched 3-light window with perpendicular tracery in the north-east gable, flanked by rectangular 2-light transomed windows with cusped heads. A small rectangular window sits in the gablehead between two bands of ashlar. Four large rectangular 2-light transomed windows with cusped heads light the north-west wall, separated by two short buttresses. A single-storey outbuilding north-west of the north transept has a half-piended roof to the south-west and three rectangular 2-light windows, with one 3-light window to the south-west.

Glazing and Roofing

Square-pane leaded glazing appears throughout. The roof is of green slate with red ridge tiles. An ornamental chimney serves the south transept and east entrance porch valley.

Interior

The interior is aisled with whitewashed walls and a dark-stained timber barrel-vaulted roof with carved stone corbels (steel construction above) and a fleuron course. Red sandstone dressings and pointed-arch nave arcades with carved head-stops at the crossing mark the main vessel. The east end features blind arcading timber panelling and carved timber choir stalls, with a 5-light figurative stained glass window in the east wall. A large organ by Foster & Andrews (1903) sits in the south wall of the chancel. The bottom lights of the south transept window contain stained glass allegedly from the now-demolished John Ker Memorial Church.

A raked timber gallery spans the west wall with a blind arcaded balustrade over brackets and a fleuron course. A timber screen to the vestibule features blind arcading and stained glass panels below. An octagonal sandstone pulpit with variegated marble insets occupies the north-east corner of the crossing, with red colonnettes and carved statues of John Knox and Dr Candlish, topped by a timber sounding board. Original timber pews remain throughout. A tiled floor paves the vestibule. An open staircase (altered) provides access to the tower and gallery.

Boundary

A low boundary rubble wall is interrupted by square coped gatepiers with blind arcaded panels and decorative cast-iron railings and gates.