Coates Hall (Scottish Episcopal Church Theological College), Rosebery Crescent, Edinburgh

Coates Hall, Scottish Episcopal Church Theological College

This Grade B listed building comprises a substantial Gothic Revival complex on Rosebery Crescent, Edinburgh. The principal structure originated as a mansion designed by David Bryce in 1850. It was subsequently transformed into a theological college through successive major interventions: Sydney Mitchell added a spired octagon to the north-east turret, expanded the building to the north, introduced a chapel, and relocated Bryce's porch from the east to the south elevation in 1892. Sir Robert Lorimer further enlarged the building in 1913 by adding an extra storey and bell roofs to raised pepperpots, and extended the chapel in 1922.

The main building consists of a 2-storey basement and attic with an essentially rectangular plan. It is constructed of squared and snecked rubble, with the southern block built in darker stone than the later northern additions. Long and short surrounds and chamfered jambs feature throughout, with quoins applied to all elevations except the south. Crowstepped gables and ogee roofs to 2-storey corbelled angle turrets characterise the 4-storey south elevation. The east elevation displays pedimented dormers and a turret, octagonal at upper storeys, topped with a polygonal roof.

The south (entrance) elevation presents a 3-bay design with a double gable and string courses between the basement, ground, and first floors. A corbelled, conical-roofed turret engaged to the centre bay rises two floors from ground level, with narrow centred lights serving each floor of the turret and gablehead. A single-storey double-pitch chapel adjoins to the right at ground floor, featuring an advanced portal with a skewed gable to its outer left, lugged and moulded margins to the doorway, and a square plaque above bearing a bishop's mitre and crozier. A narrow light opens to the portal's return at the left. The chapel roof extends to form a 2-bay lean-to addition to the right of the portal, with a buttress to the left and a pair of ogee windows to the right. A large bipartite window with cusped and ogee tracery appears to the left of the main chapel body, with a small ogee light to the right.

The east (side) elevation is notably complex. A gabled chapel end bay features a hood-mould to a four-centred arch window with ogee tracery. An advanced gabled bay with a gablehead stack appears at the outer left above the chapel's far end, with a single light to the advanced bay's basement and a large leaded, transomed and mullioned 6-pane light above. Centred lights serve the first floor and gable above. To the right, a screen wall with a large rectangular opening at basement level is followed by a timber door with flanking windows serving bays behind. Centred windows occupy two floors above, with the uppermost displaying a triangular, finialled pediment and a tripartite dormer behind it. A turret at the right, with narrow lights and an octagonal top featuring round-arched openings, is crowned with a ball and cross finial to the polygonal roof.

An advanced 4-bay central section, marked in lighter stone to denote a distinct phase of building, includes a string course raised above windows at first-floor level. A piend-roofed 2-storey advanced bay to the penultimate bay at the left carries a bipartite window and small light to the basement and a tripartite to the floor above, with a single window visible above the roof of the advanced bay and a large dormer window with a semicircular pediment topped by an ogee tip. Two bays at the right lack basements; windows to the ground and first floors are surmounted by a large dormer with a semicircular pediment and ogee tip. An advanced single-storey piend-roofed bay at ground to the right features a cill course and tripartite window, with a bipartite window above and a single window with semicircular pediment to the gable.

A recessed double-gabled section at the outer right includes an advanced single-storey L-plan section at ground to the left, with a narrow light to the outer left and a window to the left, a bipartite window to the first floor above, and a centred window to the gable. An arrow-slit appears to the gable with a gablehead stack to the return. Steps lead to a 2-leaf timber door with a shouldered fanlight at the base course to the outer right bay, with a small light at the right and a window to the left on the floor above.

The north elevation displays two entrance doors with flanking windows at basement level, irregular fenestration to the upper floors at the left, and a centred window to the gable of the bay to the left. A broken triangular pediment crowns a dormer at centre, with a shouldered wallhead stack to the right.

The west elevation features advanced gabled bays at the left, including a piend-roofed advanced 2-storey bay with bipartite windows at each floor to its return and a window to the gablehead. A 6-bay recessed central section follows, with two gabled bays at the left, three irregularly fenestrated bays at the centre with dormers, and a gabled bay at the outer right. An advanced 3-bay section at the right, in darker stone marking a different stage of building, features tall windows to each bay at ground floor with regular fenestration above, a gabled bay at the left with a gablehead stack, and dormers with finialled triangular pediments to the bays at the right.

Throughout the main building, windows are small-paned timber-framed sash and case units. The roof is covered in grey slate with coped stacks bearing no cans to the southern block and squat cylindrical cans to most remaining stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the detailing.

A separate gate house, designed by Sydney Mitchell in 1892, stands on the site. This single-storey T-plan lodge features a swept piended roof and squared and snecked sandstone construction with a base course and bargeboards. Long and short surrounds frame the windows. A timber door with a multi-pane rectangular fanlight occupies the centre of the north elevation, with a small light to the section at the left and a canted oriel window on each side elevation. Two small lights appear to the rear. Windows throughout are small-paned timber-framed units. A coped sandstone stack with a pair of cylindrical cans completes the lodge.

Wrought-iron railings, set in coping, line the frontages to Grosvenor Gardens and Rosebery Crescent.