St James' Church Of Scotland, Underwood Road, Paisley

St James' Church of Scotland, located on Underwood Road in Paisley, was built in 1880 and designed by architect H J Blanc. This cruciform church features a steeple and is constructed from snecked rubble with ashlar dressings. The nave and aisles have a gabled front, with paired central doors beneath a carved lintel, which has moulded reveals and nook shafts. The entrance is flanked by coupled lancets, and above are three lancets with stilted arches, supported by angle buttresses topped with conical pinnacles.

To the west, there is a lean-to aisle with a lancet and angle buttresses, while to the east, a connecting passage leads to the steeple, which has two tiers of triple lancets. The tower is angle buttressed and consists of six stages, separated by string courses, culminating in a spire. The lower four stages of the tower feature a variety of windows, with louvred arcading in the fifth stage and an octagonal sixth stage with louvred lancets and octagonal pinnacles. The spire is facetted and includes four lucarnes.

The church has a four-bay nave divided by buttresses, with coupled lancets in the aisles and two-light windows with sexfoils in the clerestory. The double gabled transepts each have triple lancets, with the east transept featuring stilted arches and clustered colonnettes. The semi-octagonal apse has lancets, and the halls and vestry are clustered around the north end. The original hall to the northwest was extended by two bays in 1904 by Blanc. The roof is covered with slate tiles, with crest tiles on the church and the first hall, and a fleche over the crossing of the church.

Inside, the nave features arcades with moulded pointed arches and a clerestory above. The rear west bay contains a narthex with a glazed wooden traceried screen of arches supported by columns and half-columns with detached colonnettes. The chancel arch leads to the north. The nave and transepts have curved coupled wooden roofs (doubled in the transepts), and the chancel has wooden vaulting. Most furnishings were gifted by the Coats family between 1903 and 1904, including canopied stalls on the end walls of the transepts and across the chancel arch, with the chancel occupied by an organ. The pulpit's front panel was designed by James E Christie, and the font was created by a "Mr Rhind of Edinburgh." Stained glass, except for the triple lancets at the south and two small windows in the east aisle, was made by Ballantine and Gardiner in 1903-1904.