Hall, Braid Church, 1, 1A Nile Grove, Morningside, Edinburgh

Braid Church, built in 1886 to the designs of George Washington Browne, is an octagonal church with Italian Renaissance detailing, situated diagonally at a street corner in Edinburgh. It is accompanied by church halls to the north. The church is constructed of squared and snecked red sandstone rubble with cream ashlar dressings. The prominent southwest front features a pedimented ashlar façade with a semi-circular portico supported by coupled red sandstone Roman Ionic columns, a dentilled cornice, and a balustraded parapet. The entrance is framed by pilasters dividing three panelled doors, topped by a large moulded Venetian window with an egg and dart cornice, all within a heavily coped pediment featuring a louvred and pedimented arrowslit window. Ashlar bell towers flank the front, each with a large round-arched, keystoned bellcote and a finialled pyramidal stone roof. Smaller semi-circular stair towers are positioned on either side of the main towers, with rubble bases, single windows to the ashlar stairhead, and half-conical finialled roofs.

The southeast elevation displays three faces of the octagon, incorporating a cill course at the first-floor level. The central face breaks the eaves and is pedimented above a corniced Venetian window, flanked by pilasters of banded rubble. Tripartite windows are present on the flanking faces, with a bipartite window at ground floor level to the left. The northwest elevation mirrors the southeast. The northeast rear elevation features a blank rectangular organ chamber.

The two church halls to the north are set obliquely and linked to the church via a passage to the northwest. One is a single-storey rubble hall with an ashlar gable and piend roof, featuring bipartite windows divided by flat pilasters, and a tall, pedimented centre bay with angle pilasters. A decorative galleried ventilator with an ogee cupola is located on the ridge. A larger rubble hall is adjoining to the north, with a black slate piend roof, two single windows, and an entrance door to the east.

Most windows are small-pane timber casements with leaded glazing, while the halls have sash and case windows with small-pane upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes. The church has a green slate pyramidal roof with red ridge tiles, and the halls have wallhead and ridge stacks. Moulded eaves gutters and gutterheads are present throughout.

Inside, the raked auditorium includes a curved, raked timber gallery supported by square wooden columns. Corniced angle pilasters lead to the panelled ribs of a shallow octagonal dome with a central ornamental ventilation grille. The clerestory windows are framed by plain cornices. Plain timber pews are fitted with umbrella stands, and a timber dado runs along the walls. The organ is housed within a keystoned round arch behind the pulpit, which sits over a panelled aedicule with a dentilled cornice, pediment, and decorative cast-iron grille. A plain timber lectern and communion table are also present. A vestibule features a compartmentalised barrel vault with short marbled wooden columns, dividing stair openings on either side. A smaller church hall has an open timber roof supported by stone corbels. The site is enclosed by a low rubble boundary wall with plain cast-iron railings and gates, the main gate featuring small thistle finials and inset fish and dove motifs.