St Michael's Church And Presbytery, 53 Blackness Road, Linlithgow

St Michael's Church and Presbytery, located at 53 Blackness Road, Linlithgow, was designed by Pugin and Pugin and constructed in 1887, with an enlargement in 1893. The church underwent internal modernization in 1952 by J A Coia. It is a rectangular, 7-bay Gothic church with a projecting porch and baptistery on one side, a 2-bay north chapel, a chancel, and a presbytery attached to the southeast corner.

The church is built of cream-colored, coursed bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings. Distinctive features include an offset base course, hood moulds, a banded hood mould course on the west, north, and south elevations, an eaves course, staged and offset buttresses, and a sawtooth-coped edge on the west elevation and side chapel. Pointed-arch openings are present, with cusped plate tracery on the north and south elevations.

The west elevation is gabled, with three bays separated by buttresses; the centre bay is slightly advanced and gabletted. A pointed-arch, chamfered doorway is centrally located, above which is a 4-light window with cusped curvilinear tracery. A hood-moulded plaque above the window is inscribed "IN MEMORIAM MARIE SCOTORIUM REGINAE 1893." The centre bay is flanked by single cusped lights, with a projecting porch to the outer right and a baptistery to the left, each featuring a single light on their west-facing facades.

The north elevation has four bays, divided by pilaster strips. A baptistery, with a small window, is positioned on the outer right, set within a gabled form. To the left of the baptistery is a 2-windowed gabled side chapel that acts as a transept, topped by a circular window with quatrefoils.

The roof is covered in grey slate, complemented by ashlar coped skews with double kneelers on the west elevation, shouldered and gablet skewputts, stone cross finials, and original rainwater goods. Diamond-pane leaded glass windows are a characteristic feature.

The church's interior is aisleless, featuring a 2-bay arcade to the north transept, supported by a single column with a roll-moulded capital. Other interior elements include a chancel arch, a gallery at the west end, and a simple, scissor-beam roof supported by posts on shouldered, moulded stone corbels. A panelled reredos was added by Coia. Stained glass is present, notably a window in the chapel (depicting St John) created by John Blyth in 1957.

The 2-story, asymmetrical L-plan presbytery is joined to the church via a single-story link at the northwest corner. Constructed of cream-colored, coursed bull-faced sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, it features a base, sill, and eaves course. Windows are bipartite and tripartite, with stone mullions.

The west elevation of the presbytery includes a full-height canted window to the left and a tripartite window at ground level to the right; a bipartite window is positioned above the ground floor. The link connecting the presbytery features a bipartite, shouldered window, and a single light to its left.

The south elevation showcases a taller gabled section with two windows on each floor to the left, and a recessed three-bay section to the right housing a porch in a re-entrant angle. A single leaded light is visible on the south face, complemented by a chamfered segmental-arch doorpiece on the return to the right. A tripartite window is situated at ground level to the right, with three bipartite windows above.

The east elevation displays a gable facade with a single-story projection at the northeast corner. The presbytery has plate glass sash and case windows and a steep-pitched grey slate roof with sandstone stacks at the gables, ashlar coped skews, and corbelled skew blocks at the ends of the gables, and retains original rainwater goods. The interior of the presbytery retains original 19th-century fireplaces.