New College And Assembly Hall, Mound Place, Edinburgh

New College and Assembly Hall, Mound Place, Edinburgh

A Grade A listed building comprising a substantial theological college complex designed over several phases: William H Playfair, 1845–50; David Bryce, 1858–59; Sydney Mitchell, 1899; and JM Dick Peddie, 1885 and 1901–3.

The main college building is a 2-storey and attic Tudor Collegiate structure built round a quadrangle. It features tall square-plan towers with crocketed pinnacles, crenellated parapets and angle buttresses flanking the gatehouse. A lower tower at the north-east corner conceals the gable of the library (the former High Church). The quadrangle includes octagonal towers. Corbelled octagonal apex chimney stalks crown the gables. The Assembly Hall presents a 2-storey crenellated elevation with Tudor gothic detailing to Castlehill. Rainy Hall forms a 2-storey wing to the west, with Tudor gothic detailing to its north elevation.

The college walls are rendered in lightly stugged ashlar with polished dressings. There is a tall base course moulded to its upper edge, moulded string courses between floors, crenellated parapets, and hoodmoulded tripartite mullioned and transomed segmental-arched windows. Bipartite dormers with carved decoration in pediments break the eaves, supported by finialled details. Corbelled octagonal apex chimney stalks crown the gables.

The north elevation displays a recessed single-bay gatehouse to the centre with a hoodmoulded Tudor-arched entrance featuring a 2-leaf metal gate and grille leading to a groin-vaulted pend to the quadrangle. Above sits a crenellated parapet bearing the date 1845. A 2-storey oriel with crenellated parapet and a small bipartite window sit above, topped by a further crenellated parapet. Flanking 6-stage towers have bipartite windows to the 1st and 2nd stages and single windows above. Three-bay outer wings have corner pinnacles. A recessed 4-stage tower to the outer left contains a studded timber boarded door with plate glass fanlight in a moulded Tudor-arched surround, a bipartite window to the 2nd stage, and circular blind openings to the 3rd stage with a single window above.

The east elevation features a 4-stage tower to the outer right, containing a studded timber boarded door with plate glass fanlight in a moulded Tudor-arched surround, with a hoodmould stepping up over a date panel (1846) above. A bipartite window sits to the 2nd stage with a circular blind opening to the 3rd and single window above. A projecting slated single-storey porch in the 3rd bay from the right has kneelered skews and a hoodmoulded Tudor-arched bipartite window (formerly a door). Small bipartite windows flank the outer right and left. Five hoodmoulded pointed-arched windows with Y-tracery and stained leaded glass at 1st floor level light the library.

The quadrangle contains two recessed studded timber boarded doors in Tudor-arched surrounds on either side of the pend. The 7-bay south-facing elevation has two octagonal 4-stage towers with crenellated parapets and narrow hoodmoulded windows at each stage flanking a single-bay gatehouse. A Tudor-arched entrance to the pend sits at the centre, with a tripartite window at 1st floor, small single windows to the 2nd, bipartite windows to the 3rd, and a single bay to the outer right accessed through a crenellated Tudor arch. Two bays sit to the left. The 6-bay east-facing elevation is regularly fenestrated with a glazed door in a hoodmoulded Tudor-arched surround in the 2nd bay from the left. The north-facing elevation contains two finialled, leaded ogee-roofed 5-stage octagonal towers with small louvred openings to the top stage to the south-east. Studded timber boarded doors in hoodmoulded Tudor-arched surrounds sit at the base of the towers, with a flight of steps leading to two timber boarded doors in crocketed depressed-arched surrounds (forming the entrance to the Assembly Hall) under a crenellated parapet between the towers. A narrow bay to the outer right has a door in a crenellated porch. The 6-bay west-facing elevation contains a timber-studded door with plate glass fanlight in a hoodmoulded Tudor-arched surround to the outer right, and five hoodmoulded pointed-arched windows with Y-tracery and stained leaded glass at 1st floor level lighting the library.

The west elevation displays mullioned and transomed windows to ground and 1st floors, with two gabled bays to the right and a bowed stair bay with crenellated parapet to the left.

The library features a top-lit Jacobean roof with pendants at the tie-beams. Stained glass by Douglas Strachan dates to circa 1911. Later timber library fittings and panelling were added by A Lorne Campbell, 1934–6.

Martin Hall (the former library) contains a geometric plasterwork ceiling with cavetto cornice, a timber panelled dais, and a stained glass window (War Memorial by Douglas Strachan) to the west.

The Assembly Hall's south elevation facing Castlehill is an asymmetrical crenellated screen wall following the street line. It is built of squared and snecked stugged sandstone with polished dressings. A stepped string course runs over ground floor openings. Later timber boarded doors in hoodmoulded Tudor-arched surrounds sit at the outer right and left and 4th bay from the left. A tripartite window with cusped tracery and small-pane leaded glass appears in the 2nd bay from the right, with a tripartite window with Y-tracery in a crocketed Tudor-arched surround between the 1st and 2nd bays from the right to 1st floor level, flanked by bipartite windows with cusped tracery. Other 1st floor windows are tripartite with cusped tracery. Ground floor windows feature 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case, while 1st floor windows have small-pane leaded glass.

The interior of the Assembly Hall is accessed by steps from the quadrangle leading into an Assembly Corridor with a glazed timber roof featuring kingpost trusses. The floor is laid with black and white diamond-pattern Minton tiles. Trefoiled, stone-mullioned windows light the north side. Timber screens and 2-leaf timber doors with linenfold panels and leaded small-pane glazing in roll-moulded depressed-arched surrounds lead to the Assembly Hall to the south. Two 16th century lintels from Sempill House are incorporated into this space. The Assembly Hall itself features a glazed timber roof with trusses carried by cantilever brackets on square-plan cast-iron columns (painted to resemble timber) with pendants to the centre. Galleries with panelled fronts run to all four sides. Three-light mullioned windows with stained glass by David Strachan sit behind the Moderator's dais to the north. A small stained glass panel to the roof depicts a burning bush with the motto "NEC TAMEN CONSUMEBATUR".

Rainy Hall is a 2-storey and basement building with a finialled ogee-roofed ventilator or lantern crowning the pitched roof. A rectangular gothic refectory hall occupies the 2nd floor, lit by five Tudor-arched windows with perpendicular tracery and small-pane leaded glass on the north elevation, beneath a crenellated parapet.

The interior of Rainy Hall contains a shallow painted and gilded hammerbeam roof with painted shields to the corbels. Cusped light oak panelling to door frame height displays painted and gilded crests and a foliate frieze. Two-leaf timber panelled doors with cusped panelling sit in roll-moulded Tudor-arched stone surrounds. Fine bronze pendant light fittings with gilded fleur-de-lys motifs are a notable feature. A bronze relief of Principal Robert Rainy, sculpted by David Wissaert in 1915, is set within a timber aedicule to the west.

Roofing is of grey slates. Tall octagonal chimney stalks with octagonal cans project above.

Cast-iron railings, gates, decorative cast-iron gatepiers and lamp standards line Mound Place.