St Margaret's School (Buchanan House), East Suffolk Road, Edinburgh

St Margaret's School, East Suffolk Road, Edinburgh

This is a cruciform-plan church designed in Perpendicular Gothic style by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson in 1898 and converted for secular use as a school by R D Cameron in 1976. The building is constructed of squared and snecked cream rubble sandstone with red sandstone dressings.

The main structure comprises a dominant nave with low side aisles, a polygonal apse, and shallow transepts. An incomplete two-stage tower rises to the north-west of the building. A single-storey octagonal church hall adjoins to the north.

The west entrance elevation features a tower with a raised base course and trefoil-headed blind traceried panels to a carved frieze between the stages. The second stage has a plate tracery window. Tall stylised buttresses flank the entrance at ground level, which has a multiple-moulded and dentilled pointed arched doorway with stylised crockets to the hoodmould and flanking blind traceried quatrefoil panels. A carved frieze sits above, with a round-arched recessed window to the second stage. The chancel section displays a base course and cill course, with a dividing band course and plate tracery to the dominant chancel window. Stylised pedimented buttresses flank the window, with an additional substantial buttress to the outer right. Three tripartite trefoil-headed windows are slightly recessed at ground level, above which sits a carved frieze of trefoil-headed blind traceried panels with flanking taller panels of the same design. A pointed-arched chancel window with finial crowns this elevation.

The south elevation has a base course and buttresses flanking side aisle window openings and to the outer left. Plate tracery appears in the clerestory and transept windows, with a string course incorporating clerestory hoodmoulds. The polygonal apse projects to the east. A transept and four-bay linking block adjoin to the west. The transept features a bipartite window at ground floor and a pointed-arched window above with a cill course. A porch with a pointed-arched doorway (fitted with a modern boarded door) projects from the outer left of the side aisle, topped by a trefoil-headed niche and carved stone cross finial. Modern windows occupy bays to the outer left, with pointed-arched clerestory windows above.

The north elevation displays a raised base course, buttresses flanking side aisle and clerestory windows, and plate tracery to the tower, clerestory and transept windows. A string course incorporates clerestory hoodmoulds. The tower to the outer right has a pointed-arched window to the first stage set within a carved panel featuring trefoil and quatrefoil motifs and flanked by tall stylised buttresses. A carved frieze with trefoil-headed panels sits above, with a round-arched window to the second stage. A three-bay linking block adjoins to the left with modern side aisle windows at ground level and pointed-arched clerestory windows above. The transept adjoins to the outer left.

The adjoining church hall to the north has a base course, advanced cills, and pedimented buttresses breaking the eaves at the outer angles. A crenellated parapet crowns the structure. A pointed-arched doorway adjoins the transept, fitted with a two-leaf boarded door. Paired tripartite windows occupy each face, and a carved pinnacle surmounts the roof.

Windows are predominantly small-paned and leaded with stained glass border glazing, though some modern plate glass pivot windows have been introduced. Grey slate roofs retain original rainwater goods.

The interior retains some original features despite modern subdivision. The main church features an impressive hammerbeam roof to the original nave (now containing offices, classrooms at ground level, and a gymnasium at first floor) with carved stone corbels and quatrefoil carving to brackets and dentilled beams. Timber roofs also cover the polygonal apse and transepts. Multiple-moulded pink sandstone pointed arches between the apse, transepts and chancel remain, although the spaces are now subdivided. An original decorative encaustic tiled floor survives in the entrance hall. A floriate plaster ceiling rose is preserved in the former church hall, now used as a music room.

The boundary treatment includes a low coped boundary wall with original iron railings and panelled red sandstone gatepiers to the front and side entrances.