Gilmore Place Free Presbyterian Church, 63 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh

Gilmore Place Free Presbyterian Church

A Grade B listed building designed by architects Thornton Shiells and Thomson in 1880, this is a two-storey rectangular-plan Gothic church with transepts and a prominent rose window, prominently sited on Gilmore Place in Edinburgh.

The building is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone with polished sandstone ashlar dressings. Architectural detailing includes a base course and string course below cill level to the ground and first floors of the front elevation, stepped buttresses to the front gable and transepts, quoins, pointed arch openings with long and short surrounds, and a grey slate piended roof with pantiled ridging.

The north elevation, fronting Gilmore Place, features an advanced gabled entrance porch approached by steps. The porch contains a recessed two-leaf timber door set in a gabled surround with decorative strap hinges and a moulded rosette motif to the pointed arch above. Flanking nook shafts with foliate capitals flank the entrance, with a moulded trefoil detail set in the gablehead and a carved finial to the apex. Single pointed arch windows flank the entrance at ground level. Above is a recessed rose window set in a hoodmoulded pointed arch with a stepped apron and nook shafts with foliate capitals. Three pointed arch louvre slits occupy the head of the finialled gable. Single oculi appear above the string course in the flanking transepts, with three pointed arch windows to the ground and two pointed arch windows aligned above.

The east elevation, facing Upper Gilmore Place, is an eight-bay composition. A gabled entrance porch in the transept bay to the outer right is accessed by steps and contains a recessed two-leaf boarded door with colonnettes supporting a moulded pointed arch, recessed trefoil, hoodmould, and ornamental label stops. Two pointed arch windows are aligned above, with a louvred pointed oculus at the gable and a pyramidal pinnacle to the flanking buttress. The central three-bay intermediate section features tripartite pointed arch windows at ground level and bipartite pointed arch windows above with a pierced quatrefoil. An advanced two-bay gabled transept to the left contains bipartite pointed arch windows at both levels with pierced quatrefoils and an arrow slit to the gable head; flanking buttresses have pyramidal pinnacles. To the outer left, a link section has a single window at both ground and first floor levels, with an advanced two-stage gabled bay to the lower storeys, a bipartite mullioned window at ground, and a segmental-arched single window above, topped by three narrow pointed arch windows to the upper floor.

The south elevation, facing Upper Gilmore Place at the rear, has a boarded lean-to wooden structure to the right at ground level. A round recessed moulding marks the centre of the gable where a former rose window has been infilled with masonry.

The interior contains an eight-arch leaded window to the narthex flanked by timber doors. Decorative iron stairs at the outer left and right of the narthex lead to a timber gallery with carved decorative timber pews. A hood-moulded rose window dominates the north wall. The roof is timber couple construction with decorative gilded wall posts. Double columns support a roll-moulded reredos arch inscribed "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out". A decorative timber pulpit and seating occupy the central space, with an arcaded decorative timber ambulatory and reredos featuring a central timber pulpit.

The variety of glazing includes stained glass, leaded lights, and geometric-shaped plate glass. Coped rendered gablehead stacks with cast-iron rainwater goods sit to the outer right of the Gilmore Place elevation and to the rear Upper Gilmore Place elevation.

A low coped rubble boundary wall fronts the street, with corniced octagonal gatepiers with corniced caps. Iron gates and fence enclose the rear Upper Gilmore Place elevation.