Colinton Parish Church, Dell Road, Edinburgh

Colinton Parish Church is a square-plan Italianate church designed by G Sydney Mitchell in 1907, with a square-plan four-stage tower attributed to David Bryce from 1837. A church hall by Page and Park was added to the southeast corner in 1998.

The church is constructed of droved ashlar with polished dressings. The pitched-roof nave is flanked by lower side aisles with advanced gables to the west and triple gables to the north and south. A polygonal apse with flanking swept bays projects to the east. The building sits on a basecourse and features predominantly key-blocked, round-arched windows with moulded architraves. Square lights with raised margins appear at ground level on the north and south elevations, with arrow-slit vents to the gables.

The north and south elevations each have three slightly advanced gabled bays with square windows at ground level and round-arched windows above, set within rectangular droved aprons. A two-leaf timber boarded door with a decorative carved surround (dated 1907) is located to the outer right of the north elevation.

The tower features a two-leaf timber boarded door in a roll-moulded recessed porch (by Sydney Mitchell, 1907). Above this is a corniced section with scrolls to the corners and an inscribed panel with a carved foliate border and angel head, reading "SAINT CUTHBERTS PARISH CHURCH COLINTON REBUILT TO THE GLORY AND DEDICATED TO THE WORSHIP OF GOD MCMVIII". Square lights appear on each elevation above, with a cornice above the third stage. The upper stage contains a belfry with paired round-arched windows and a cill course on each elevation, topped with a bracketed pavilion roof and weather vane finial.

The west elevation features a cross-finialied nave at the centre, with an inscribed panel below a large round-arched window reading "REBUILT MDCCLXXI". Three small round-arched windows appear below. Advanced gable aisles flank this central feature, each with a wide semicircular-arched recess at ground level and a wide round-arched window above.

The east elevation shows a semi-octagonal apse with nine round-arched lights advanced from a central gable with cross finial. A cill cornice and eaves cornice run along the apse. Swept-roofed bays flank the apse; the right bay has three windows with a cill band, whilst the modern church hall is attached to the left bay.

The windows throughout have leaded lights within timber frames, with glazing bars in the larger windows. The building is topped with ashlar coped skews and finished with graded grey slate and stone ridge tiles.

The interior, completed in 1907 to Sydney Mitchell's design, displays a Neo-Byzantine style. The roughly square-shaped main space features a barrel-vaulted nave with a chancel apse and three barrel-vaulted bays to the north and south at right-angles to the nave. These side bays are supported by columns and contain continuous balconies. An organ balcony to the west contains paired organs flanking a central stained glass window. The free-standing columns supporting the nave have capitals decorated with putti heads, whilst engaged columns at the east and west ends display foliate and floriate decoration. A foliate frieze continues behind the organs at the west end. Plaster moulded angels appear in the nave spandrels, with four central ones bearing the symbols of the evangelists and four corner ones with pouring urns.

The chancel apse features grey marble dressings to the arch, with timber boarded panelling to the dado, frame panelling above, and a timber entablature. Nine small arched windows above the entablature contain stained glass by James Ballantine II depicting angels representing Love, Joy, Peace, Long Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness and Faith. Two windows to the right are boarded over, formerly representing Kindness and Self Control. An oak chancel screen is inscribed "O WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS". The chancel also contains an oak lectern with a carved eagle relief, an oak pulpit with carved reliefs of saints inscribed "THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING AND POWERFUL", and an oak communion table with a St Andrews cross to the centre. A war memorial stands to the right of the chancel. Plain oak pews in four rows have stencilled numbers on their ends. A half-glazed two-leaf timber boarded door with star-glazed fanlight is positioned at the centre of the rear, with single similar doors to the rear of the aisles. An entrance corridor runs behind the width of the church, containing three arched stained glass windows by William Wilson (1960) representing King David and pairs of angels, dedicated to the memory of Isabel Helen Smith. Stone stairs with plain cast iron and timber banisters rise to the balconies from each end of the corridor.

The Offertory House, a mid-18th century single-storey, one-bay gabled structure, stands nearby with a coped stack to the northeast. Constructed of random rubble with ashlar coped skews and grey slate, it features a timber boarded door to the northwest and an eight-pane glazing in a timber sash and case window to the southwest. An adjacent arched gateway of random rubble with ashlar coping stands nearby, with a modern cast-iron gate added in 1995. A coped rubble boundary wall surrounds the churchyard, punctuated by two pairs of cast-iron gates.

The churchyard, considerably older than the church itself, contains numerous important gravestones and monuments predominantly from the 18th and 19th centuries, with some earlier examples. A pedimented mausoleum to James Gillespie of Spylaw, dated 1797, features channelled ashlar to the south and droved ashlar elsewhere. An arched entrance to the south contains a cast-iron gate, with a dedicatory inscription in the tympaneum. The mausoleum has ashlar coped skews and a stone slab roof, with a decorative tiled floor to the interior. A row of three unroofed Georgian family mausoleums with ashlar stonework and classical detailing also stands in the churchyard. Several large Victorian monuments are present, including one in red sandstone with gothic detailing to George Porteous (builder), created by his son George M. Porteous. Phoebe Traquair and her husband are buried in the churchyard.