United Free Church, Drymen Road, Bearsden

The United Free Church, located on Drymen Road in Bearsden, was built between 1887 and 1889 by Henry Higgins, with a north hall added in 1906 and a traceried window inserted in 1923. It is an irregular cruciform-plan gothic church situated on a corner site, and includes an attached two-stage bell tower. The main body of the church consists of a four-bay aisless nave, transepts, and a steeply-pitched roof. The church is constructed of squared and snecked bull-faced rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring a raised base course and moulded string course. Architectural details include two-stage coped buttresses, a traceried roundel, round-headed, pointed-arch, and trefoil-headed windows, and hoodmoulds with label stops. The reveals are chamfered, and cills are raked.

The east (entrance) elevation is the broadest gabled face, centred by a buttressed gabled porch with steps leading to a broad moulded doorway. Narrow lights flank the returns, and a deep-set two-leaf timber door has a multi-pane leaded fanlight. The gablehead is cross-finialled and features a large raised-centre triple lancet window, glazed oculi above the outer lights, and a hoodmould over the central light, which gives way to a small square-headed light above.

The south (Thorn Road) elevation has an advanced gable with flanking buttresses, holding a row of five lancets at the first stage, with a stepped string course giving way to a large raised-centre triple lancet. The tower is located in a re-entrant angle to the right, with a single lancet to the outer right.

The southeast tower is tall, with its first stage engaged to the north and west, featuring a single light near ground level and two further lights high up. A string course runs above, leading to a slightly reduced second stage, which has tall timber-louvered openings on each face. The corners are chamfered and corbelled to diminutive open-arcaded turrets, topped with polygonal caps that break into the main polygonal roof, which is finished with a decorative cast-iron weathervane.

The north elevation presents a gabled transept, projecting on the right, with two lights to each return. A further two small lights are found to the outer right. To the left are three tall narrow lights, and at the outer left, a small polygonal-roofed canted stair tower has five trefoil-headed lights.

The west elevation consists of a broad gable to the left, with a smaller gable projecting from the centre, displaying a cross- and quatrefoil-traceried circular window. A low extension projects at ground level, and a set-back bay to the right has two small lights.

The windows are fitted with multi-pane leaded, margined glazing. Coloured glass is present in the circular window, and a figurative memorial window depicts ‘FIDES’ (Faith) and ‘PATIENTIA’ (Endurance). The roof is covered in red tiles, and the ashlar-coped skews have moulded skewputts.

The interior is galleried and contains fixed timber pews, boarded dadoes, decorative plasterwork cornices, and a ribbed vaulted roof. An original part-glazed screen is located at the east. Polygonal cast-iron columns support the gallery, which has a carved blind-arcaded front. A pipe organ is housed in a panelled timber enclosure in the north transept. The timber-panelled chancel features carved detail of a trefoil-headed blind arcade, choir stalls, fretwork-carved Communion Table, and a polygonal pulpit.

A piend-roofed, rectangular-plan church hall is attached to the northwest. It’s constructed of stugged, squared and snecked rubble with stugged ashlar dressings and pointed-arch windows, and covered with red tiles.

Finally, a pair of coped, circular bull-faced rubble gatepiers mark the entrance.