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Summary

Description

Alexander Johnston, 1874-81 (including smaller adjoining chapel/hall to N, 1875 attributed to Maclaren and Aitken; and Boyd Hall to E, 1933 by Joseph Johnston - see Notes). Large, T-plan, Lancet Gothic church with crowstep-gabled tower on triangular site at corner of Main Street and Isla Street. Squared and snecked rubble with pale sandstone ashlar dressings and in-and-out quoins.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: gable with 5 vestibule windows to ground; hoodmoulds to 3-light window above. Battlemented porch in NW angle; narrow, 65ft 5-stage tower to SW corner with bowed stair projection; louvred bipartite openings to bell chamber; saddle-back roof with crow-stepped gables on two sides and corbelled parapet course.

N and S ELEVATIONS: buttressed with gabled transepts to E end.

Extending from N transept: single-storey session hall/chapel (1875) with octagonal plan to W front and bowed ante-room outshot to far N with bowed wallhead stack breaking eaves; overhanging eaves with exposed timber brackets.

BOYD HALL (to E): single storey, rectangular plan. Quadripartite window to S (Main Street) with keystoned occulus to gable above. Dentiled eaves course to E. Timber panelled door to outer left bay. Louvred ventilator with pyramid cap to centre ridge.

INTERIOR: broad nave/chancel with wire brace and tie-beam roof; gallery to W with organ by Foster and Andrews. Early 20th century stained glass to E wall, by Arthur and Charles Moore. Yellow-tinted glazing with amber borders to N, S and W.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: square-plan gatepiers with decorative caps to W point of triangular site. Squared and snecked rubble walls with ashlar coping to street facing elevations. Cast-iron gates and railings.

Statement of Special Interest

Place of Worship currently in use as such (2013).

Coldside Parish Church (Former Clepington and Fairmuir Church) is a good and well detailed example of a late 19th century church in the Hilltown area of Dundee. The design and plan make effective use of a triangular site between two road junctions. Prominently anchored, the church makes a positive contribution to its immediate and surrounding streetscape. The principal components of the church including the tall tower with bowed outshot, the half-octagonal chapel with bowed outshot and the later hall to rear group well together to create a unified whole.

Clepington was one of five churches, built under a scheme to provide additional accommodation for the expanding congregations of the Church of Scotland as a result of Dundee's industrial growth during the latter half of the 19th century. When it opened in 1881 the church contained nearly 900 sittings.

The large, mid 19th century organ is by the renowned English firm of Foster and Andrews and was formerly at Wellpark Church in Glasgow. Reconstruction work was carried out in 1952 by Andrew Watt & Son, Organ Builders, Glasgow and it was installed in the church in 1957.

Alexander Johnston came to Dundee to practice in the later 1860s. His architectural partner (from 1896) David Baxter, described him as a Renaissance man compelled by the nature of his practice to become a Gothic designer. His early churches show the influence of Peddie and Kinnear's traceried churches of the 1860s. His buildings in the area include the Ardler Church and the Blyth Memorial Hall, Newport (see separate listings). The competition to build Clepington Church is understood to have been won by Johnston in 1874 although Maclaren and Aitken of Edinburgh also submitted designs and are understood to have built the smaller chapel/hall in 1875.

References

Bibliography

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