New North Free Church, Forrest Road, Edinburgh

Thomas Hamilton, 1846-8; later alterations and additions by J A Scott and A Lorne Campbell, 1903. Prominently sited rectangular-plan Gothic style church with pitch-roofed 5-bay nave, polygonal apse and projecting porch flanked by stair towers to principal elevation facing Y-junction at roadway. Polished grey ashlar. Moulded base course. Square-section cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers. Graded grey slates.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: semi-octagonal flat-roofed stair towers with gabletted buttresses at ground level flanking hoodmoulded pointed-arched entrance; 2-leaf timber boarded door with decorative cast-iron hinges; cross-finialled open gablet above continued as blind tracery enfolding upper sections of stair towers. Large hoodmoulded 2-light window with geometric tracery in gable above; decorative pinnacle and niche to apex; octagonal turrets with gabletted pinnacles to corners.

NE (BRISTO PLACE) ELEVATION: 2 storeys separated by moulded courses and linked by parapet above: paired lancets at ground floor, cusped tracery in hoodmoulded 2-light windows above, flanked by gabletted buttresses with semi-octagonal bases. Single storey flat-roofed asymmetrical vestibule adjoining 1st and 2nd bays to SE, with glazed timber door in link, canted windows with small leaded panes and chamfered mullions to NW and NE.

SW (FORREST ROAD) ELEVATION: 2 storeys separated by moulded courses and linked by parapet above: paired lancet windows to ground floor, cusped tracery in hoodmoulded 2-light windows above, flanked by gabletted buttresses with semi-octagonal bases. Shallow finialled, gabletted porch in 2nd bay from right, with 2-leaf timber boarded door in pointed-arched hoodmoulded surround.

INTERIOR (seen 2001): porch with stairs to gallery; 2-leaf timber panelled door with small pane glazing to 5-bay nave; single-span arch-braced roof. U-plan gallery supported by cast-iron columns; hoodmoulded gothic windows with carved headstops. Polygonal apse at SW, closed off at ground floor from nave, lit by small lancets with small-pane diamond glazing; organ loft in pointed-arched recess above: gothic timber screen with decorative niche.

BOUNDARY WALLS: saddle-backed ashlar coping to low coursed sandstone boundary walls.