St Peter's Mccheyne Church, St Peter Street, Dundee

St Peter’s McCheyne Church is a building of the 1830s, constructed in 1836 by Hean Brothers. It is a simple classical building with a rectangular plan, featuring a prominent tower and spire. The church is constructed of snecked and stugged ashlar with polished dressings.

The north and south elevations have five bays. The ground floor windows are 24-pane segmental sash and case windows, while the first-floor windows are 16-pane round-headed sash and case. There are two tall round-arched windows in each gable, an oculus in the west gable, and a flat-topped finial. An east gable band course runs along the top. The tower is five-stage, featuring round-arched multi-paned windows at the ground and first stages and a louvred second stage. A cornice sits above the first stage, and the third stage features blind key-blocked oculi between paired pilasters. The top stage of the tower has a pilastered and pedimented clock face on each elevation. The octagonal, facetted spire is pierced by oculus and topped with a weather vane finial. The roof is slate, with skewputts.

A hall, originally a school, is a two-storey, two-by-three-bay building that was extended to five bays around 1870. A 20th-century addition at the east links the hall to the church. The hall has skewputts and a stack on its south gable, and a slate roof. A church officer’s house, with a pend, was added north of the church around 1880. It is a two-storey, two-bay building with bipartite ground floor and single first-floor windows, and a pyramid slate roof with a wrought-iron finial.

The church interior features a large gallery supported on slender cast-iron columns. A Romanesque reredos was replaced in 1913 by an organ; a timber pulpit and wrought-iron altar rails are also present. Two good stained glass windows from the early 20th century are located within. Side windows have double glazing; externally, they are sash and case, while internally they are leaded casements with coloured panes. The hall’s interior is plain, with a first-floor cornice and an original timber Romanesque pulpit at ground floor.

The building is a place of worship and, due to the significance of the Reverend Robert McCheyne (1813-43), a major figure in the Scottish evangelical revival and whose life, work, and writings are of interest internationally, it holds particular interest to America and Ulster. Much McCheyne memorabilia remains within the church. The spire is a landmark.