St John's And King's Church, Eskbank Road, Dalkeith

St John's And King's Church, Eskbank Road, Dalkeith

This is an Early English gothic church designed by R Thornton Shiells and dated 1870. It stands on a rectangular plan with a steeple positioned at the north-west corner, an octagonal stair tower to the north-east corner, and a former church hall to the south.

The church is built in stugged rubble with ashlar dressings throughout. The north and west elevations display squared and coursed stonework, whilst the east and south elevations are squared and snecked. The base course is coped to the north and west elevations, with an eaves course running along the west and east elevations. The buttresses are coped and set-off, featuring chamfered margins with droved margin drafts and angle margins. Lancet windows punctuate the elevations, accompanied by Corinthian capitals to nook-shafts and hoodmoulds to the principal openings. The deeply pitched roof is covered in grey slates with contrasting bands, and red ridge tiles crown the nave. Coped skews and some gabletted skewputts detail the roof line, whilst original rainwater goods survive, including rainwater heads dated "18 AD 70". A moulded eaves gutter is present in places. Decorative iron door furniture adorns the boarded doors.

The north elevation, facing Eskbank Road and serving as the entrance, features a short flight of steps leading to a hoodmould pointed-arched doorway set within a gabled panel at the centre. The doorway surround is deeply moulded with nook-shafts supporting two-leaf doors. Flanking lancets sit either side, with a buttress to the left. A foliated string course rises above, followed by a wheel window set within a hoodmoulded pointed-arched panel with paired nook-shafts. A half-vesica sits in the gablehead. The steeple rises to the right of this elevation.

The octagonal stair tower intercepting the entrance elevation to the left comprises two stages. A coped course runs between the stages with an eaves course above. Steps descend to a flat-arched doorway at the basement to the south-east. Windows to the ground and first stages occupy the north, east and south-east faces, with the first-stage openings being taller. Segmental-arched openings appear at ground level to the north and east. The tower is crowned with a swept polygonal roof topped by a finely splayed iron finial.

The steeple rises in four set-off stages and is angle-buttressed to the second stage. A pointed-arched moulded doorpiece to the north features a string course stepped over as a hoodmould with flanking nook-shafts. Above the chamfered lintel of a shouldered-arched doorway with two-leaf doors sits a pointed-arched and recessed trefoil detail, with "AD 1870" inscribed above. A two-light window occupies the west face at ground level, whilst three-light windows appear to the north and west at the first stage. Lancets puncture the north, west and south faces at the second stage. The third-stage belfry features tall paired moulded louvred lancets with clustered nook-shafts to each face. A corbelled course sits above panels with a richly carved eaves course. The broached spire above displays slits with Gothic aedicules, a double string course and lucarnes on alternate faces. Foliate detail adorns the angle of the broaching.

The west elevation, facing King's Park, displays the steeple to the left. Five bays divide the elevation. The bay to the left is steeply gabled with a three-light window at ground level and a coped course above, topped by a large trefoil-traceried half-vesica in the gablehead. A gabletted buttress sits to the right. The remaining bays contain two-light windows separated by dividing buttresses. A gabled elevation of the former church hall, advanced to the right with flanking buttresses, displays a four-light window with a trefoiled oculus in the gablehead.

The east elevation contains the stair tower to the right. Five bays are present, with the bay to the right being steeply gabled and featuring a three-light window at ground level topped by a large trefoil-traceried half-vesica in the gablehead. The remaining bays contain two-light windows divided by buttresses. A gabled elevation of the former church hall, advanced to the left with flanking buttresses, contains two windows and a trefoiled oculus in the gablehead, with a four-centred-arched door on the return.

The south elevation displays a cusped half-vesica in the gablehead above a four-light window. Below sits the adjoining single-storey former church hall at ground level.

The former church hall comprises four bays arranged as one, one and two. A four-centred-arched fanlit doorway sits in the bay to the right of centre. Shouldered-arched windows occupy the interior, with three-light openings to the left bays and a two-light to the outer right bay. Shouldered and coped stacks rise to wallhead on the left and along the ridge to the right.

The interior contains an oblong hall with the pulpit and organ positioned to the south, and a panelled gallery on cast-iron columns to the north. Walls are painted plaster with boarded dadoes. The roof is a kingpost timber construction with a pointed vault featuring pierced quatrefoil detailing.

A five-bay organ occupies the south wall with a built-in pulpit below, fronted by a blind pointed-arched arcade. Four-centred-arched doors flank the pulpit. A traceried timber communion table, dated "April 1932", stands with a timber lectern and font as a set, with an arcaded timber rail behind. Stained wood pews furnish the hall.

Four-centred-arched doors lead to the vestibule, which contains glazed partitions and delicate linenfold panelling. Four-centred-arched doors open to the tower, which features spiral staircases with cast-iron balustrades and wooden rails.

Stained glass of note includes paired lancets in the penultimate bays to the south by William Wilson, dated 1939. Geometric stained glass fills the four-light window to the south. Delicate pastel coloured glass detailing appears in the remaining windows, including the wheel window, the lancets flanking the north entrance, and the four-light in the former church hall.

Boundary walls comprise semicircular coped rubble retaining walls, with a low ashlar coped rubble wall to the east.