Free Church College, 31, 33, 35 Lynedoch Street, Glasgow

The Free Church College, located at 31, 33, and 35 Lynedoch Street, Glasgow, was designed by Charles Wilson and constructed in 1856 as a college with an adjacent church facing Lynedoch Street. The church was severely damaged by fire in 1903 and subsequently incorporated into the college as a library in 1909. The interior was refurbished by D Thomson and Colin Menzies in 1909.

The building is a two-storey structure distinguished by tall Lombardic towers. It is constructed of polished ashlar, with a stugged basement and channelled stonework at the ground floor, particularly around the door to the former church and the ground floor pilasters. Continuous bands of Vitruvian scrolls at the first floor form a base for the plinth below the upper-storey windows. A heavy cornice with dentil moulding and a frieze featuring wreaths is topped by a deep, plain parapet.

The elevation facing Lynedoch Place has five bays, with a prominent central bay featuring a monumental doorpiece that rises to a square campanile. The arched doorpiece has a blind fanlight, supported on bracketed reveals, and is surmounted by a corbelled balcony with a solid and balustraded parapet. Ground floor windows are round arched with channelled architraves, while the first-floor windows are set in rectangular recesses with double pilasters and elaborately carved spandrels. The tower features small, corbelled balconies at the second-floor level on all elevations, leading to a tall, arched, pilastered window. Above this are groups of three elongated arched openings, deeply recessed and moulded. The upper cornice is boldly corbelled out to the parapet, which features a cast-iron balcony and a central bell-house with a bracketed cornice.

The Lynedoch Street elevation mirrors the detailing of the first five western bays. An advanced five-bay pavilion, formerly the church, is located on the eastern end. The central three bays are advanced and feature paired engaged Corinthian columns at the former gallery level, supporting a pediment. Ground floor windows are round arched, with the central bay featuring a bipartite window divided by a columnar mullion. The bays flanking the pediment contain arched doorpieces that rise to square towers, which are smaller but similar in detail to the main tower. A corbel table at the top is surmounted by a stone parapet of open balustrade, linking piers at the angles, with obelisk pinnacles above.

The main elevations are surrounded by cast-iron railings supported by square ashlar piers. The east pavilion has two flights of stone steps rising symmetrically to a raised platform with a parapet and piers supporting decorative cast-iron lamp brackets (made by McFarlane & Co). A retaining wall of bull-faced stone with ashlar coping borders the steps. The rear elevation, facing Woodside Terrace Lane, is divided into three irregular sections, all constructed of polished, droved, or rusticated ashlar.