New North Free Church, Forrest Road, Edinburgh

The New North Free Church, located on Forrest Road, Edinburgh, was built between 1846 and 1848 by Thomas Hamilton. Later alterations and additions were made in 1903 by J A Scott and A Lorne Campbell. This rectangular, prominently situated church is built in a Gothic style with a pitched roof, featuring a five-bay nave, a polygonal apse, and a projecting porch flanked by stair towers facing the roadway at a Y-junction. The church is constructed from polished grey ashlar, with a moulded base course. Decorative hoppers and downpipes are made of square-section cast iron. The roof is covered in graded grey slates.

The north-west (entrance) elevation has semi-octagonal, flat-roofed stair towers with gabletted buttresses at ground level, framing a hoodmoulded, pointed-arched entrance with a two-leaf timber boarded door featuring decorative cast-iron hinges. A cross-finialled open gablet sits above the entrance and is continued as blind tracery that enfolds the upper sections of the stair towers. A large, hoodmoulded two-light window with geometric tracery is set within the gable above, with a decorative pinnacle and niche at the apex. Octagonal turrets with gabletted pinnacles are positioned at the corners.

The north-east (Bristo Place) elevation is arranged over two storeys, separated by moulded courses and linked by a parapet. It incorporates paired lancet windows at ground floor level, and above, cusped tracery in hoodmoulded two-light windows, flanked by gabletted buttresses with semi-octagonal bases. A single-storey, flat-roofed, asymmetrical vestibule adjoins the first and second bays to the south-east, featuring a glazed timber door in the link, and canted windows with small leaded panes and chamfered mullions to the north-west and north-east.

The south-west (Forrest Road) elevation also has two storeys, separated by moulded courses and a linking parapet. It contains paired lancet windows to the ground floor, and above, cusped tracery in hoodmoulded two-light windows, flanked by gabletted buttresses with semi-octagonal bases. A shallow, finialled, gabletted porch is located in the second bay from the right, with a two-leaf timber boarded door within a pointed-arched, hoodmoulded surround.

The interior, viewed in 2001, includes a porch with stairs leading to a gallery; a two-leaf timber panelled door with small pane glazing to the five-bay nave; and a single-span arch-braced roof. A U-plan gallery is supported by cast-iron columns. Gothic windows have hoodmoulds and carved headstops. A polygonal apse, located at the south-west, is closed off from the nave at ground level and is lit by small lancets with small-pane diamond glazing. An organ loft is set within a pointed-arched recess, featuring a gothic timber screen with a decorative niche.

Low, coursed sandstone boundary walls are topped with saddle-backed ashlar coping.