St Ninians Church, Commercial Street, Leith, Edinburgh

St Ninians Church, located on Commercial Street in Leith, Edinburgh, was designed by John Henderson in 1839. It is a former Gothic chapel-of-ease with an attached school, constructed from coursed cream sandstone ashlar with polished dressings.

The entrance elevation features a central Tudor-arched door with heavily moulded reveals, topped by a tablet that has a carved longboat. Above this is a tall three-light Perpendicular window, all set within a deeply chamfered pointed-arch recess that has a crocketed crest. Flanking the entrance are octagonal towers with three diminishing stages. The first stage has a lancet on the outer face, the second stage is blank with a string course that aligns with the gable, and the third stage has lanterns (belfry) with blind lancets on each face. The spires have been removed, and there is a giant two-stage base course topped with a ball finial.

The north elevation facing Commercial Street has eight bays, featuring full-height Tudor-arched panels with window openings in each bay. The reveals are chamfered, and there is a recessed dividing panel at the center. The left four bays belong to the church and have a coped parapet. The third bay from the left has a broad access that has been added at ground level. The fifth bay from the left has a gabled entrance leading to a hall beyond, with a window above.

The west elevation is three bays wide and gabled, with a rectangular door at the center and high rectangular flanking windows that replace a later slapped opening. Above are Tudor-arched windows, which are blind at the base.

On the south elevation, there are four bays of the church to the right, with windows similar to those on the other elevations. Beyond this is an irregular rubble range, featuring a two-storey, three-bay deep former school building that projects at the center and connects to the Citadel.

The windows have been variously replaced. The church is covered with grey slates, and it has moulded ashlar-coped skews and flat skewputts.

Inside the church, there is a gallery supported by cast-iron columns, a plaster-ribbed ceiling with stencilling, and a hoodmoulded blind Tudor arch within a larger arch on the west wall.