Description
Thomas Smellie, 1907. Freely adapted Gothic, multi-gabled church built on steep slope with tall aisle to W; projecting gabled stair bay to SW, deep transept on E elevation and gabled projection to lower N chancel. Snecked, rubble-faced, red sandstone with contrasting ashlar dressings. Gablet skews and long gablet skewputts. Moulded window and door surrounds, drip cills.
S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: curved wing walls leading to door under moulded, pointed arch, with plain reveals, in S of advanced tower, semi-circular window above containing 2-arched lights. 2-stage tower with angle buttresses; octagonal, corbelled stair-tower with pointed roof to upper right with irregularly placed slit windows; paired cusped belfry openings to main tower; crenellated parapet and angle finials to each return. Tall gable to left: pair of arches to ground floor containing paired arched windows to upper, blind wall to lower; large 4 ogee light window with teardrop lights above to gablehead, trefoil above; slit window to gablehead; gabled buttress to left angle.
W ELEVATION: lower 2-storey, 4-bay aisle to centre: door to ground floor right with miniature paired windows above left, 3 large bipartite windows to left, 4 arched tripartite bays to 1st floor, central stepped buttress to both storeys; higher nave of church to rear with 4 semi-circular bays containing 3 and 4 light pointed arch windows. 3-storey gable with gabled angle buttresses adjoining to right of nave: bipartite window to ground floor, arched bipartite to 1st floor, multifoil window to gablehead. Further 2-storey stair gable to left of aisle with slit window to 1st floor.
N (REAR) ELEVATION: ground floor angles with single bay at base of 3-sided, double height apse, 2nd floor pointed arch window to each side; to right 2 irregular width windows with narrow window to 2nd floor right. Lean-to terminating in large stack adjoining left return of apse: tripartite windows to upper ground and 1st floors, small window to mid floor left, further single window to left of later red brick stack. Adjoining side of taller E gable to rear.
E ELEVATION: consisting of tower, lean-to, deep transept gable and lower gable. Stair tower (see S ELEVATION) to left: door to ground floor, 2-light window with roundel within arched surround to 1st floor. 2-storey lean-to second left: bipartite window to ground floor, triple arched window to 1st floor. 3-storey transept gable end to second right: central 2-storey battered gable, bipartite window to ground floor flanks, paired arched windows to 1st floor flanks; to gablehead central arched window with 4 lower lights leading to intersecting bar tracery above. Lower gable to right: central 2-storey canted bay window.
Mostly plain and coloured glass of squared or diamond quarry. Reticulated tracery to south gable window. W elevation with mullion and transomed windows to lower hall, 4-centred heads to triple aisle windows, Y-tracery to gallery. 6 lying-pane upper fixed timber windows & 8-pane lying-pane timber sash and case windows to lower lights of hall and associated rooms. Clear glass. Cast-iron 2-pane Carron lights to higher gabled roofs. Many steeply pitched grey slate roofs. Terracotta ridging tiles and finial to apse. Lead flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods; square hoppers. Snecked, rubble-faced red sandstone wallhead stacks with single high cans, later brick boiler house stack with no cans.
INTERIOR: timber pews to main body of building; church hall incorporated to lower level of the building; many associated anti-rooms for ecclesiastical use.
Statement of Special Interest
Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The original Henderson Church in Wellington Street was described as being a poorly attended "miserable building." A congregation of Original Burgers, which then went on to become part of the Free Church, had built this older church in 1818. Over ?1000 was spent on "improvements and alterations" and finally it had 650 sittings. When the Reverend David Landsborough became minister in 1851, he set about changing the perception of the church into a bold, bright, young spirited place of worship. A new site was found along London Road and the congregation held a bazaar to raise funds for the building of the new church. They managed to raise the sum of ?2,227. Landsborough was also well known as a naturalist. His son, David, also became renowned as a medical missionary in Formosa (Taiwan). The church's architect was local man Thomas Smellie (1860 -1938). He worked with Gabriel Andrew before moving to his own practice in Grange Place. His house, at 46 Portland Road, still retains his architectural studio. Smellie was the architect of many buildings in Kilmarnock at this time. This church is sited on a prominent corner at the start of London Road, adjacent to the Kilmarnock Water.