Leith School Of Art, 25, 27 North Junction Street, Edinburgh

The Leith School of Art, located at 25-27 North Junction Street, Edinburgh, is an early Gothic former church dating from 1868-9. The design was originally by Johan Schroder of Copenhagen and adapted by James Simpson of Leith. The building comprises the church itself, offices to the rear, and associated boundary features.

The church is constructed of squared and snecked stugged cream sandstone with ashlar dressings. Chamfered arrises accentuate the pointed-arch openings. The north elevation, facing North Junction Street, features a gabled front with steps leading to a gabled porch at the centre, which incorporates a heavily roll-moulded doorcase with colonnetes and a hoodmould. A pair of chevron-boarded leaves form the door, fitted with decorative hinges. Flanking the porch are hoodmoulded windows, with a pair above united under a single hoodmould. A louvred vesica sits at the apex of the gable, topped with a cross finial. To the right of the porch is a two-stage diminishing, gabled tower with a spire. Set back to the left is a single-storey lobby with a door and window. The tower has a window at ground level with a hoodmould, diagonal buttresses, and rectangular windows on its outer faces. The date 1868 is inscribed at the front left corner. The belfry features louvred lancets, steep gables on each face, and bestial waterspouts at the corners. A slender pyramidal spire rises from the belfry, with alternating bands of fishscale slating, a ball finial, and small, louvred keel lucarnes.

The north elevation further along features four bays; the third and fourth have been blocked and obscured by a modern brick addition. The lower apsidal end is set back to the right. The west elevation showcases a bowed apsidal chancel with a pair of windows projecting from the gable end of the church, featuring a vesica at the apex. The south elevation presents four bays of the church, with the gable of the lobby visible at the far left.

Fixed multi-pane timber windows are seen throughout. The roof is covered with grey slates and lead flashing, incorporating a large number of Velux skylights. The building features ashlar coped skews with bracketed skewputts, cast-iron bracketed gutters and downpipes, along with decorative rainwaterheads.

The interior of the church is characterised by an open scissor-braced timber roof. A new floor has been inserted to create attic studio space. Stained glass windows adorn the chancel, and the narthex is accessed via a pair of fielded-panel doors.

Adjoining the west side (rear) of the church are single-storey, pitched-roof offices. A skewed gable to the north has a vesica in the gablehead. A lean-to porch to the south incorporates a boarded door within a shouldered surround and a matching two-pane fanlight. Windows are positioned to the east.

The front of the building is defined by a pair of stop-chamfered gatepiers, featuring bases, pyramidal caps, and ball-finials. Modern cast-iron railings sit upon an ashlar base. A rubble boundary wall extends to the north, topped with semi-circular coping.