St Simon's Rc Church, Partick Bridge Street, Glasgow

St Simon’s Roman Catholic Church and presbytery, located on Bridge Street, Partick, Glasgow, was designed by Charles O’Neill in 1858. Minor internal alterations were carried out by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia in 1956-7, with subsequent minor external additions also made at that time. The buildings comprise a 3-bay, 2-storey presbytery and a 3-bay, simple Gothic-style church. They are constructed of coursed sandstone, with chamfered window and door openings; the wing to the east of the presbytery is harled. A part base course to the presbytery accommodates the slope of the site, while a base course is present on the church.

The west (principal) elevation displays the presbytery with an off-centre entrance door, above which is a rounded trefoil empty niche. A bipartite window is positioned to the ground floor right. To the right of the presbytery is a timber-boarded door set within a pointed sandstone archway, featuring a Latin cross above, and connecting the presbytery to the church. The church section of the west elevation is symmetrical with a Celtic cross at the apex of the gable. The central entrance has a 2-leaf timber-boarded door flanked by simple receding mouldings and is topped with an outer hoodmould finished with label stops. Above the entrance is a stepped 4-light lancet window with a cill course; the outer lancets are shorter. Single-light lancet windows are located in the outer bays, flanked by buttresses, the right-hand buttresses being shorter.

The south elevation of the church is 6-bay, with alternating buttresses and lancet windows. A truncated lancet in the second bay accommodates an entrance door. The fifth bay is partially obscured by a small, later, flat-roofed rectangular addition.

The east elevation of the church features a gable with a Celtic cross at the apex, a near full-height central semicircular apse, a smaller semicircular side chapel to the left, attached to the apse, and a low, 1-bay pitched roof sacristy to the right. The presbytery section has an off-centre, 1-bay, two-storey piended harled wing with a long, fixed staircase window-light to the right.

The north elevation displays a low gable of the sacristy to the left, lancets, and buttressing to the right, partially obscured by a later flat-roofed addition with an entrance doorway. The presbytery section has a blank gable elevation, with a 3-bay, slightly recessed, harled wing to the left.

Most windows in the presbytery have been replaced. The church’s lancet windows retain simple coloured glass, with the exception of the stained glass window to the east. The roofs are covered in grey slates with triangular roof vents near the ridge of the church.

The interior of the presbytery is plain, with cornices on the ground floor bipartite room and bedroom above. The church interior features an entrance hall separated by a modern timber and glass screen with doorways on either side, leading to the nave. A gallery is present to the west, alongside a timber ceiling with a pointed hammerbeam roof. The apse has a pointed arch supported by slender columns with foliate capitals, surrounded by a hoodmould, and features a foliate cornice. The apse has a marble dado and floor, along with a pulpit, altar (a panel depicting ‘Christ comforted by His Mother’ by Mortimer), and a font, all by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. Plain timber pews are in place. A Lady Chapel, featuring a pointed arch, contains a copy of the 'Black Madonna' in an ornate gilt frame with a trefoil arch and pinnacles. A mosaic is located below the Madonna. A fine stained and painted glass window in the apse depicts the Immaculate Conception flanked by Saints Peter and John, with two small, modern stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel.