Craigsbank Parish Church And Halls, 19 Craigs Bank, Edinburgh

Craigsbank Parish Church and Halls at 19 Craigs Bank, Edinburgh is an outstanding Grade A listed building comprising two distinct phases of church architecture.

The principal church was designed by Sir William Kininmonth of Rowand Anderson, Kininmonth & Paul and built between 1964 and 1966. It is a near-windowless structure with a square plan and flat roof, distinguished by a semicircular entrance and bell tower. The building is constructed of brick, concrete and painted drydash. The site formerly contained a moat, now largely integrated into the design. The building's most innovative feature is its inverted clerestorey and floating ceiling effect, created by a sunk nave to the interior.

The western entrance and bell tower are open and semicircular, clasping the outer corner to the left. Within the bell tower hangs an inscribed bell (from 1954, incorporated from the former church) suspended on parallel beams. A screened entrance at the foot of the tower leads through a flat-roofed porch with large heavy timber doors. A sloping screen wall shields a short flight of steps running parallel with the elevation, accompanied by a late 20th-century disabled ramp and stone Celtic cross, with a further screen wall to the right.

The south elevation features a bowed cloakroom to the outer right linked to a projecting aisle overhanging the former moat, with the nave's recessed wallhead behind. A solitary window appears to the outer left, and a solitary buttress or flange rises from the moat to the wallhead, left of centre. The north elevation similarly shows a projecting aisle overhanging the former moat with the nave's recessed wallhead behind. The east elevation links to the projecting hall and former church.

The flat roof is finished with Nuraply roofing (a fibre-reinforced, bituminous waterproofing membrane) hidden behind screening wallheads. Drainage from the roof is internal to the wall structure.

The interior features a sunk nave with tiered seating to three sides encircling a communion table on the fourth side, reflecting principles of the Liturgical Movement. This arrangement is surrounded on all four sides by columned or screened aisles and passageways at a higher level. Lighting is provided largely by a hidden clerestorey, formed by a lowered central ceiling with a square grid of 16 square recessed lights. A bowed cloakroom to the southeast is lit by circular rooflights. The narthex, within the semicircular bell tower, has a glazed roof. Organ pipes occupy a screened passageway with a simple crucifix to the screen at the back of the communion table. A stained glass window from 1954, incorporated from the former church, is retained. Heating pipes run under the tiered seating. The furnishings include en suite timber font, lectern and elders' chairs, a white communion table, and a raised white pulpit behind, each decorated with a common border motif of a string of squares.

The adjacent hall to the east is the former church, originally built in 1937 and extended in 1954, then converted to hall use in 1966. It is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone rubble with stugged dressings and base course. The rectangular-plan building features projecting porches and offices.

The south elevation displays gabled porches off-centre and to the outer right, each with two-leaf timber doors to the west return and additional south doors to the off-centre porch (1954). Above the off-centre porch is an original inscribed stone dedicating the 1937 foundation. Intermediate bays and bays to the left are pierced by tall narrow windows breaking the eaves in swept dormers (three to four in number). The west return of the hall features a vertical panel of window (formerly stained glass) with a heavily corbelled cill and a louvred ventilator above. A recessed link corridor with offices, doors and windows adjoins to the left.

The north elevation displays gabled projections to the outer left (youth fellowship room) and to the left of the corridor and office link. Swept dormers light tall windows on the former church's left side. A canted projection (session room) projects from the centre of the corridor and office link. A boiler house and wallhead stack occupy the right end. Small single and bipartite windows with stone mullions intervene throughout.

Windows throughout employ square-pane leaded glazing in sash and case, pivot and fixed windows, with lead lattice applied to mottled glass on occasion. The roof is finished in grey slate with stone ridges.

The interior of the main hall, formerly the church, retains a pulpit and organ. A secondary hall features parquet or gymnasium flooring with a steeply pitched ceiling supported by additional rafters at a lower pitch. A panelled dado to the stage has a shouldered proscenium arch, and a decorative plaster ceiling rose (masking a ventilator) surmounts the space. The youth fellowship room has a dado and coombed ceiling. Additional spaces include toilets, vestry and kitchen.