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Summary

Description

Peter MacGregor Chalmers, dated 1903. Hall added 1938 by Mills & Shepherd and further alterations by Walker & Pride 1966 & 2002 (see Notes). Simple Romanesque church with dominant 3-stage tower located at junction of Hepburn and Donaldson Gardens. Squared and coursed sandstone with colonnetted reveals to round-arched openings. Base course, moulded cill course

SE (HEPBURN GARDENS) ELEVATION: central 3-stage square-plan tower with tall narrow round-headed bell opening to 2nd stage. Corbel-course divides parapeted and crowstepped pitched roof top stage. To right recessed gabled nave with taller stained glass window flanked by two niches, with further gabled bay to left.

NE (DONALDSON GARDENS) ELEVATION: asymmetrical 8-bay range. To left timber 2-leaf door set within advanced gabled porch with round-headed entrance with chevron detailing and pair of engaged columns. To left single stained glass window. To right irregularly distributed stained glass windows including blind window. To far right recessed curved apse wall. To extreme right further recessed entrance to 1938 hall extension.

Excepting stained glass, windows predominantly glazed with small leaded panes. 2-leaf timber boarded door. Cast-iron rainwater goods; hopper to the SE elevation dated 1903. Ridge stack to front of hall addition. Graded grey Caithness slates. Ashlar-coped skews with beaked skewputts. Small carved stone cross finials to nave gables.

INTERIOR: Good simple Romanesque scheme. Distinctive angled droved finish to interior masonry. Kingpost type roof to nave resting on carved stone corbels with simpler Kingpost construction to side aisle. 5-bay round-arched arcade; circular ashlar columns with finely carved capitals separating nave from side aisle. Semi-circular apse to nave flanked by engaged columns. Square oak pulpit, communion table, and prayer stalls with blind arcading, Romanesque details and Celtic interlace design. Octagonal white marble font. Plain oak timber pews with carved Celtic designs to pew ends. Various stained glass windows including: War Memorial 1914-18 by Alexander Walker. Also work by Margaret Chilton, Herbert Hendrie, Henry Holiday and Marjorie Kemp.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: low coped stone section of wall to S and E; low gabled gatepiers with carved cross at E entrance and further piers to left and S entrance.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. St Leonard's is a good example of Romanesque revival architecture by the renowned church architect Peter MacGregor Chalmers. The simple interior is of good quality with fine carving to the individually styled capitals and a good collection of stained glass. St Leonard's tower forms a distinctive element within the streetscape, in an area of St Andrews classified by suburban expansion from the 1890's.

Peter MacGregor Chalmers (1859 - 1922) studied at the Glasgow School of Art. A master of the Romanesque style, he designed a number of fine churches including Cardonald Parish Church, Glasgow, and St Anne's in Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

The church was built to accommodate the congregation of the newly independent parish church of St Leonard's, until 1904 the parish was part of College Church, United Collage. The Gothic style font was brought from College Church and Organ from St Salvator's Chapel. The specification was drawn up in March 1902 and the church opened on Thursday 28th July 1904. The cost of construction was £5,189:5:8d. The local architect David Henry, as Chalmers local representative, is associated with the 'preparation of plans and superintending of works' (Jones p 43). The building is dated 1903, on a rainwater hopper on the south-east elevation.

The hall was added in 1938 by Dundee architects Mills & Shepherd. It is of a simpler but sympathetic design and is discreetly located behind the main body of the church. The interior of the hall and the west wing of the church, including vestry and session rooms, was modified by Walker & Pride in 1966 and again in 2002.

References

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