Hawick Congregational Community Church And Halls, Bourtree Place

This is an Early Gothic-style church and halls built in 1893-4 by James Pearson Alison. The church is laid out in a T-shape and oriented southeast-northwest. It is accompanied by single-storey halls of an irregular plan attached to the side. The building is constructed from squared, snecked yellow sandstone with polished ashlar dressings.

The church has slim, colonnaded towers flanking the entrance gable and stone-mullioned windows; these are segmental-arched to the aisles and hall, trefoil-headed to the gallery, and cinquefoil-headed to the principal front and transepts, with chamfered margins. Hoodmoulds feature over the principal windows and door. The exterior includes two-stage, gabletted buttresses. A flight of six stone steps leads to a recessed, pointed-arched doorway with a multiple-chamfered architrave at the centre of the principal (northwest/Bourtree Place) elevation, flanked by single lights. Above the doorway are three tall lancet windows, and the gable apex contains a small, tripartite window. Octagonal towers, with pavilion roofs and finials, rise to a full height, incorporating open, trefoil-headed colonnades at the upper stage and lateral buttresses to the left and right. The southwest elevation displays a tripartite, Y-traceried window to the gabled transept, and three bays with tripartite ground-floor windows and bipartite above. A modern ramp interrupts the left ground-floor window, providing access. A piend-roofed, canted bay extends from the centre of the rear (southeast) elevation, while a gabled transept is positioned to the left of the northeast elevation.

Inside, the church has a T-plan layout with sloping galleries over three sides, supported by slender cast-iron columns with timber casing in the form of four shafts. Tapering timber corbels are present. The ceilings are shallow-vaulted and timber-boarded with exposed timber beams. Tongue and groove panelling runs to dado height, and dark timber pews have chamfered detailing. A plain, timber-boarded pulpit has a balustraded side stair. A large organ from 1925 is located in the apse. Plain timber-boarded floors are throughout. A timber-mullioned stained-glass screen separates the narthex, which has Gothic-patterned ceramic floor tiles, and twin stone stairs with decorative cast-iron balustrades and polished timber handrails lead to the gallery.

Attached to the left of the church's northwest elevation are the halls, which are single storey and three bays wide. Seven stone steps lead to a timber-boarded door in a shouldered architrave, flanked by bipartite windows. A spired vent with louvres is located on the ridge of the roof. The main hall contains tongue and groove panelling to dado height, a painted, timber-boarded ceiling with painted timber beams, and scrolled corbels. Corridors lead to service areas at the rear.

The church features fixed, geometrically patterned stained glass in leaded lights. The halls have two-pane fixed glazing. A grey slate roof with metal ridges is topped with ashlar-coped skews, and cast-iron rainwater goods are affixed.