Baptist Church, North Street, Leslie

The Baptist Church on North Street in Leslie was built in 1885 to a design by John Lister. It is a box-shaped church with a classical facade featuring a pedimented gable and Italianate corner towers that conceal the roof pitch. The church is linked to the Lister Memorial Hall at the rear. The exterior is constructed of Aberdeen bond whinstone with polished ashlar sandstone dressings, including a base course, eaves course, and hoodmolds with decorative label stops depicting bunches of grapes. The windows have stone mullions and keystones, and the doors are boarded with wrought-iron hinges. Round-arched openings are found throughout.

The south (entrance) elevation features a pedimented bay with a pair of round-headed doors, a plate glass fanlight, and a double arched hoodmold. Above the doors is a four-light tripartite window with twin taller centre lights featuring plate tracery, all under a hoodmold with block label stops. An ornate wrought-iron finial and a date plaque are centered in the tympanum. Steps with railings lead to the entrance, and a narrow staircase provides access to a basement. Lower, slightly advanced corner towers flank the southeast and southwest corners, each with a keystoned round-headed window at ground and gallery level, topped with a low pierced parapet and corner dies. The return faces of the towers are identical. The west elevation features four bays with tall windows, three paired lights to the right and a single light to the outer left. The east elevation is a mirror image of the west. The north elevation is a gable end with the Lister Memorial Hall attached; a blinded oculus is at eaves height.

The windows throughout are fitted with frosted glass in metal frames. The roof is covered with grey slates, accented by ashlar coped skewes, skewputts, and a stack. Cast-iron downpipes and rainwater hoppers are also present.

Inside, a small vestibule opens onto a store to the right and a staircase to the left, featuring a wooden rail and decorative cast-iron balusters. Simple cornicing and an ornate ceiling rose are found within. Access to the main body of the church is provided by segmental arched, boarded doors. The floor is gently raked towards a raised pulpit at the north, complete with ornate cast-iron railings and a triumphal arch sounding board. A baptistry with a sliding cover is set into a platform below the pulpit. A full-width raked gallery, one bay deep and supported by two cast columns, runs along the south side. The gallery features ornate plasterwork friezes linking the windows with hoodmolds and scrolled label stops, and a decorated ceiling rose. Doors flanking the pulpit provide access to an area with large, hinged timber divisions allowing for future expansion and offices. The doors, pulpit, gallery, and boarded dado are all made of natural wood.

Low saddle-back coped ashlar boundary walls are present to the south, with rubble walls to the east and west. Pyramid-capped ashlar gatepiers with chamfered arrises mark the boundaries, and wrought-iron gates and cast-iron railings, dating to the 1940s, add to the enclosure.