St Mary's Church Hall, St Mary's Street, Dumfries

St Mary’s Church Hall, built in 1886-8 by A B Crombie, is a T-plan church hall of Tudor Gothic style, located on St Mary's Street in Dumfries. The building is six bays long and includes gabled end sections flanked by decorative finial turrets, with semi-octagonal, piend-roofed entrance bays on either side. It features transomed and mullioned windows and a contemporary service wing to the rear.

The hall is constructed from squared, snecked, and droved red sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Architectural details include a base course, cill course, eaves course, trefoil-headed bipartite windows, and buttresses dividing the bays on the side elevations.

The principal, or southern, elevation has a gable flanked by pinnacles and corner buttresses. A five-light window is at the centre, with a roll-moulded pointed arch above, containing blind traceried stonework. The elevation also features a three-light window above, with a traceried ogee arch hoodmould above the central light, complete with a carved finial.

The eastern and western side elevations are divided into six bays, with semi-octagonal entrance turrets on the southern-most bays. Stone steps lead to two-leaf, timber-panelled doors on the east side, behind stop-chamfered, depressed-arch doorways. These doorways are topped with ogee-arched hoodmoulds featuring carved finials and shield stops, with rondels flanking the hoodmould. Above the doorways are pointed-arch tripartite windows, all recessed within roll-moulded panels. Regular fenestration is present in the other bays, with a finialled gable above the central window, displaying a carved rose motif.

The service wing, lower in height, adjoins the north gable of the main hall and faces south. It includes a four-light window with taller central lights. A recessed half-gabled lean-to section is located to the left, with a single pointed-arch window. A further recessed, piend-roofed section is to the outer left, incorporating a timber-boarded door. The windows throughout the hall feature square-pane, leaded lights.

The hall's eastern entrance turret is topped by a tall, decorative clay chimney can, featuring a chevron pattern and a crested top, while the service wing has a plain coped stack. Ashlar copes are present on gables and pediments. The roofing is of graded grey slate with terracotta ridge tiles, and a truncated leaded apron remains from a former ventilator on the main ridge.

Inside, the entrance hall features red and yellow clay-tiled flooring and a stone staircase with barley-twist, cast-iron balusters. The main hall has five bays and incorporates decorative Tudor-arched beams supported by consoled corbels. A timber stage is located at the north end, with a finialled, ogee-arched hoodmould. A first-floor gallery is situated at the south end, featuring a pierced timber balcony supported by brackets, with ten-leaf, timber-panelled folding doors below. Timber-panelled exit doors with fanlights are positioned at each corner of the hall, and timber-boarded panelling extends to the dado height.

An associated retaining and boundary wall, constructed from coped, snecked sandstone, encloses the property. Ashlar gatepiers are positioned at the eastern entrance, topped with triangular caps. Stone steps lead to entrances on both the east and west sides.