St Columba's Free Church Of Scotland, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh

St Columba’s Free Church of Scotland, built between 1843 and 1845 by Thomas Hamilton, with later work in 1908 by John Burnet, is an Early English Gothic church. It has a lower-level hall, originally Dr Guthrie's School, which functions as a basement along Johnston Terrace but is full-height along Victoria Terrace. The church is constructed with polished ashlar on the Johnston Terrace front, and coursed sandstone on Upper Bow and Victoria Terrace.

The building is five bays wide, with a pitched roof over the nave and three-bay pitched roofs over the north and south aisles, which contain galleries. The exterior features gabletted, chamfered angle buttresses and slim, finialled octagonal pinnacles at the corners. Pointed-arched windows are hoodmoulded throughout.

The north (Johnston Terrace) elevation has a projecting, pitched-roof porch at the left, angled to follow Upper Bow, with a studded timber door and decorative cast-iron hinges set within a pointed arch. Above the door are paired lancet windows, and a circular quatrefoil window sits in the gable. A circular window, with a finialled pointed hoodmould, is above a blind arcade in the re-entrant angle. A projecting three-bay block in the centre features circular windows with finialled pointed hoodmoulds above a blind arcade to the ground floor, and lancets lighting the galleries above. A single-storey porch, skewed to Johnston Terrace, is on the right, also with a studded timber door and decorative hinges in a pointed arch, with circular windows above it.

The east (Upper Bow) elevation has an advanced, gabled centre bay with a tall, stepped triple lancet window and a small circular window in the gable. A timber-boarded door with a small-pane glazed fanlight is on the ground floor, flanked by small windows which served as the Church Officer’s House. An angled bay to the right has a small lancet window lighting a porch, and a recessed bay to the left has three small windows lighting a stair.

The south (Johnston Terrace) elevation is dominated by an advanced three-bay block in the centre: paired, flat-headed windows are separated by colonnettes with trefoils under pointed hoodmoulds on the ground floor; a circular window under a finialled pointed hoodmould is on the first floor; and lancets light the galleries above. A flat-roofed two-storey bay to the right has a studded timber door with decorative cast-iron hinges in a finialled pointed hoodmould, with two small lancets above. A single bay to the left features a two-storey round-arched recess containing a three-light, flat-headed window on the ground floor and a three-light pointed-arched window above, and paired lancets on the second floor. The interior includes slim, clustered cast-iron columns with stiff-leaf capitals that support open-spandrelled timber arches, and a double hammerbeam roof with gilded pendant arches. Decorative carving adorns the fronts of the galleries on the south, east, and west sides. Original pews remain at the rear and within the south, east, and west galleries, and are accompanied by benches with horsehair seats and backs, which are likely from 1908. An ornate pulpit, featuring a pinnacled canopy, is also present. The interior features small-pane glazing and stained glass in geometric leaded frames. The roof is covered in grey slates, with stone skews. Decorative cast-iron railings, set on an ashlar coped low wall, surround the basement areas along Johnston Terrace and Upper Bow.