St Mark's Episcopal Church, St Mark's Place, Edinburgh

This is a Neo-Classical church built in 1826, with later alterations made in 1892 by Hay and Henderson. It occupies a rectangular plot with an associated churchyard. The northeast elevation is faced with polished ashlar, while the original side elevations are of squared and snecked sandstone with droved ashlar dressings. A later chancel to the rear is constructed of bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone.

The northeast elevation, facing Portobello High Street, features a semicircular bowed bay in the centre, supported by four engaged Roman Doric columns and accessed by four stone steps with wrought-iron handrails. A panelled door with an ovoid-paned fanlight sits centrally beneath, flanked by blinded windows. The outer bays are distinguished by consoled and pedimented windows with balustraded aprons and round-arched lights set in timber panels. Doric pilasters clasp the corners.

The southeast elevation, facing St Mark's Place, is a four-bay design, with a later two-bay addition. It contains round-arched windows at ground level, and segmental-arched windows above with round, leaded openings. A gabled porch with a boarded door and semicircular plate glass fanlight is located in the bay to the right of the addition. A window at the first floor, with a rusticated architrave and leaded glass, is set within a segmental-arched opening. A further first-floor window is located on the outer left.

The southwest elevation features a Venetian window with a rusticated architrave. The northwest elevation mirrors the southeast, with blank bays corresponding to the later chancel.

The original sections of the building have a grey slate piend and platformed roof, with a flat-headed dome above the semicircular bay of the principal elevation. The later chancel has a piended slate roof.

Inside, original brass fittings are visible on three glazed doors. A multi-paned cupola illuminates the stairwell, while decorative plasterwork adorns the dome. Stone stairs have an original cast-iron balustrade. Deep-set doors provide access to the gallery at first floor level, with reeded architraves. A Grecian plaster cornice is complemented by later panelling to the ceiling. A gallery is positioned on the northeast side, supported by a boarded dado and a timber balustraded rail. Most pews have been removed, and a modern vestibule has been installed. Marble plaques are located between the third and fourth bay. Stained glass windows dated 1892 depict David and Jonathan on the southeast side and the Good Samaritan by Ballantine and Son on the northwest side. The chancel is raised and features a depressed arch with carved corbels. A panelled stone font and modern timber lecterns flank the chancel arch. A marble reredos incorporating a gravestone from 1843 and 1847 is set against a stained glass window depicting the crucifixion and saints, dating from 1919. The organ, originally by D and T Hamilton in 1872, was rebuilt in 1899 by Ingram and later in 1972 by Ronald L Smith.

Iron gates, now reduced in size, are set within corniced pedestrian gateways on either side of the High Street, with quadrant walls leading to a central carriage gateway. The churchyard is enclosed by coped rubble walls to the sides and rear. The churchyard itself is well-planted with gravestones and is bounded by cast-iron railings on the southwest side.