Dunfermline Congregational Church, 6 Canmore Street, Dunfermline

Dunfermline Congregational Church, 6 Canmore Street, Dunfermline

A Gothick church designed by John Baird in 1841, comprising six bays arranged symmetrically around a rectangular plan. The principal south elevation displays polished ashlar masonry with Tudor-arched entrance and crocketed and obelisk pinnacles. The first adjoining bay of each side elevation is also finished in polished ashlar, with stugged coursed sandstone used elsewhere. Polished ashlar dressings throughout. The south elevation features a base course and band course at window cill level, with an eaves band and coped gables. All openings have splayed reveals; windows to the south elevation have hood-moulds, while those to the east and west elevations have droved long and short surrounds.

The principal south elevation is dominated by a central entrance bay flanked by pilasters, each carrying a band of pendant mouldings that overlap the pedestal and a niche with moulded bracket at apex. A band course wraps around the entrance as a hood-mould, with a deep moulded reveal incorporating a pair of columns with foliate heads. A two-leaf panelled timber door with pointed diamond-glazed fanlight sits below. Above is an ogee-arched hood-moulded window with fleur-de-lys finial, flanked by blind arrowslits. A balustraded parapet crowns the gable, cut through at the apex by a circular shaft with bracketed base and crocketed finial. At the base of the balustrade is a bracketed projecting element, flanked by pinnacle pedestals with recessed Tudor-arched panels on each side. Octagonal pinnacles with crocket finials and miniature obelisks at base corners are prominently positioned. An upper band course parallel to the sloping roofline runs across the flanking bays, each with corner pilasters bearing pairs of bracketed projecting bases at apex, the upper surmounted by obelisk pinnacles with miniature obelisks at the base corners.

The east and west side elevations each feature an entrance beneath a truncated window in the southernmost pilastered bay. A band course wraps around each entrance as a hood-mould, with two-leaf panelled timber doors. Flanking pilasters on each side carry pairs of bracketed projecting bases at apex, the upper surmounted by obelisk pinnacles with miniature obelisks at base corners. A later entrance porch with lean-to roof has been added to the northernmost bay of the west side, with entrance to the right return.

The north elevation is adjoined by a later 19th-century coursed stugged sandstone hall at the gable end, with late 19th and early 20th-century coursed stugged sandstone extensions added to the west. An early 20th-century cast iron lamp standard stands to the south of the later extensions.

The boundary wall is probably mainly of later 19th-century date. A pair of droved ashlar gatepiers to the southeast are square-plan with octagonal caps featuring moulded Gothic panels. Adjacent walls of coursed stugged sandstone with ashlar coping run along the boundary; that to the north adjoins a sandstone rubble wall with ridged coping running parallel to the church on the east side, while that to the south curves round to the south. A low coursed sandstone wall with moulded ashlar coping stands to the south of the church, flanked by flights of steps.

The church windows throughout feature diamond-pane border-glazed design with Gothic-style timber mullion and transom glazing bars. The roof is covered in grey slate.

The interior retains its original layout and fittings largely intact. A semi-octagonal gallery is supported on slender cast-iron columns. Slender plaster ribs span the roof with decorative corbels and rosette bosses. Boarded timber dado and plain fixed timber pews, probably original, are installed throughout. A large timber organ with Gothic detailing occupies the rear of the pulpit and is probably of late 19th-century date. Decorative plaster vaulting with Gothick detailing adorns the entrance vestibule, which is flanked by staircases fitted with cast-iron balustrades. Original four-panel timber doors are found throughout the interior.