St Andrew's Parish Church, 1 St Andrew's Square, Glasgow

St Andrew's Parish Church, Glasgow

A rectangular galleried church designed by architect Alan Dreghorn and constructed between 1739 and 1756. The design draws largely upon James Gibbs's London masterpiece of St Martin-in-the-Fields (1722), heralding a new style for large-scale classical church design in Scotland.

The building is strictly symmetrical, measuring 5 by 7 bays, constructed in polished ashlar that has been stone-cleaned. It features a 5-stage steeple. Giant Corinthian pilasters and angle pilasters mark the bays. All openings are in Gibbsian rusticated surrounds with keystones and bracketed cills; those at ground level have depressed arches, whilst those at first-floor level are round-arched. The west elevation features a flight of steps leading to a giant unfluted Corinthian hexastyle portico, 1 bay deep. The outer and centre bays at ground level contain round-arched doorways with semi-circular fanlights and double-leaf panelled doors. The inner bays at ground and first-floor levels contain niches. Elsewhere the elevations are punctuated by sash and case windows with small-pane glazing. A dentilled pediment with a cartouche in the tympanum crowns the composition. The east elevation features a Venetian window to the centre bay and square-headed doorways with triangular pediments to the outer bays. The flanks are regularly detailed across their 7 bays as described above. A polished band course runs over the ground level, with a dentilled cornice above. A balustraded parapet with die pedestals supporting urn finials runs around the building, with similar finials to the gable apexes.

The steeple is of square section in its lower two stages. The lowest stage contains oculi; the second stage features rusticated quoins and round-arched windows to each face, with a cornice and angle urn finials above. Above this rises an octagonal colonnaded drum supporting a dome surmounted by a pinnacle with ball finial. Clockfaces appear at the third stage.

The interior is exceptionally lavish, largely unaltered in its finest features of plasterwork and woodwork, although alterations were carried out in 1874 by John Carrick and in 1921 by Peter MacGregor Chalmers. The interior rises through 5 bays, galleried to three sides with giant fluted Corinthian columns that support the galleries and rise to support a barrel vaulted roof. The west gallery is supported by smaller fluted Ionic columns, all with gilded capitals. An shallow chancel occupies the east end, formerly the site of the organ.

The plasterwork is by Thomas Clayton and the timberwork is of the highest quality. The stained glass, mainly by Stephen Adam, is also exceptional. The pews date from 1874 and were designed by John Carrick; they are of pine and arranged with aisles below the galleries. The gallery fronts are original, carved in mahogany with swagged and diapered panels. A fine mahogany octagonal pulpit rises from an elaborately carved baluster shaft also supported by a Corinthian pillar terminating in a gilded crown.

The rococo plasterwork of the vaulted ceiling is the work of Thomas Clayton, begun in 1753, as is presumably the elaborate gilded plaster surround to the clock in the west wall. The stained glass dates from circa 1874 and is signed by Stephen Adam, replacing the original clear glazed sash and case windows. The Robert Anderson memorial window to the north gallery is particularly notable in its Pre-Raphaelite design.

Nine fine mid-18th-century chairs, originally positioned in the west gallery as seating for the Provost and magistrates, are now housed in the chancel. The Willis organ of 1874 is now positioned in the upper north chamber, with organ pipes to the rear of the chancel. The walls throughout are stencilled and gilded, repainted in the 1920s but following a much earlier design.