Kelvingrove Parish Church, 20-30 Bentinck Street, Glasgow

Kelvingrove Parish Church, located at 20-30 Bentinck Street, Glasgow, was designed by James Sellars, in partnership with Campbell Douglas and Sellars, and built between 1879 and 1880. This Greek Revival church is rectangular in plan and occupies a corner site with a prominent temple front facing Derby Street. The building has 6 bays by 9 bays. It is constructed from polished ashlar, banded at ground floor level, with squared rubble to the rear and side elevations. A ground floor cornice, eaves frieze, cornice, and raised parapet at the corners mark the exterior. The roof is slate-covered. All windows are casements set within architraves with glazing bars.

The elevation to Derby Street features a full-height tetrastyle Greek Ionic portico, accessed by stone steps with responds. Above the portico is a plain entablature topped with a pediment and acroterion. A single doorway is located on the back wall, accompanied by carved frieze and cornice detail. An attenuated octagonal roof lantern rises above, supported by semi-engaged Corinthian columns and an entablature, all resting on a square plinth with an angle crowning dome.

The elevation to Bentinck Street is two storeys high, with 8 full bays and a further two bays extending from a low office wing. The ground floor repeats the window pattern, incorporating a three-light Doric pilaster mullioned window to the left of the entrance at No. 30. The bays are arranged 1-5-1. The ground floor features two recessed doorways with architraves and fanlights at Nos. 30 and 22. Six small windows, each with fluted Doric pilaster mullions, are located in the outer bays. The first floor features a pilastrade of five bays with tripartite mullioned and single transomed windows. Painted glass is incorporated into the lower panels. Moulded cills and architraves drop down to the ground floor cornice. A paterae frieze adorns the aprons, and aediculed outer bays display sculpted apron friezes.

The rear elevation is elliptically curved and features five mullioned and transomed casement windows which light a gallery. The elevation to Parkgrove Terrace Lane is plain, following the window arrangement of Bentinck Street.

The interior features a corniced vestibule with flat, coffered ceilings and a frieze. Stone staircases, flanked by cast-iron balusters and carved timber newel posts, are located on both the left and right sides. Carved memorials face the main entry. An elliptical Ionic screen is present in the gallery, accompanied by a carved gallery front with its own frieze. A carved semi-circular pulpit is positioned alongside an aedicule. The basement hall is defined by a tetrastyle elliptical column screen. The basement is lit by cast-iron grilles set into the floor of the main church.