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Summary

Description

Tarbolton and Ochterlony, 1938. Irregular-plan neo-Romanesque church with prominent square-plan tower with broached spire to entrance (E) elevation, entrance porch to N, flat roofed side chapel (Lady Chapel) to S creating T-plan. Tower with projecting gabletted stair tower to south corner, corbelled concrete band course. Rusticated stone cross to tower front. Rendered with concrete and chamfered stone dressings. Pointed arched paired windows to entrance porch with leaded glazing. 3 paired pointed arched windows with quatrefoils to knave; 3 trefoils to side chapel. 4 capped, strip buttresses to W gable, (outer 2 flying). Moulded eaves course.

Leaded glazed windows, some stained glass to side chapel. Timber boarded entrance door. Slate roofs with tiled ridges, stone skews and corniced skewputts. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: a good contemporary decorative scheme with unusual 3 section barrel-vaulted concrete roof structure. Rendered internally with pointed arch flanked by side doorways leading to chancel with vaulted ceiling and exposed stone arch with crucifix. Stone window surrounds. Early 20th century reredos screen. Marble altar table and flooring, terrazzo tiled floor elsewhere. Screen from side chapel reused from the earlier related hall (demolished). Single room to the top of the tower. Later 20th century alterations to form single storey facilities against west gable.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: rendered dwarf walls with hedging and paired rounded gatepiers with rounded circular caps to (E) front elevation with taller rubble stone wall to south boundary. Simple metal gates.

Statement of Special Interest

Place of worship in use as such.

St Salvador's is a good example of a interwar church building which is inspired by historic church architecture of the Romanesque period (in particular 14th century St Monan's Parish Church, Fife) in its use of a broad tower and simplified broached spire, while providing a modern interpretation of motifs with simple pared-down geometric forms, immediately preceding similar post-war examples which would continue to abstract traditional forms. The style of this church is both traditional and modern which is an important part of its character and is a significant landmark in the surrounding contemporary interwar housing estate. The materials and construction although simple are thoroughly modern and are of good quality. Of particular note is the concrete barrel vaulted interior.

Harold Ogle Tarbolton (1869-1947) was born in England and moved to Scotland where he opened a practice in Edinburgh with Sidney Tugwell around 1895, a short-lived partnership which had dissolved by 1897. In 1932 the practice partnership emerged between Harold Tarbolton (1869-1947) and Matthew Ochterlony (1880-1946).

Tarbolton was involved in designing a variety of building types, including a number of Episcopal churches throughout Scotland, having taken over the prominent practice of Hay and Henderson in 1907, who were recognised for their extensive church building and restoration, including St Giles. The A-listed Bangour Village Hospital Parish Church of 1924-30 is one of Tarbolton's earlier recognised works. He was consulting architect to the Deans and Chapters of the Cathedrals in Perth and Oban (see separate listings) and became the advisory architect for the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board in 1944 which led to some of the firms larger projects such as power stations at Loch Sloy and Tummel-Garry. He was a prominent figure in public life in Edinburgh.

The firm carried out works to existing Scottish Episcopal Churches mostly in Edinburgh. Other examples of church designs by the practice are also characterised by a simplified historical design, including St David's of Scotland Episcopal Church in Granton and St Fillans in Buckstone. The Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland holds drawings by Edinburgh architectural firm Dunn and Findlay for a vicarage design for St Salvador's built on Saughton Main Street for 1950, although this building may no longer be extant. The church previously had a hall that predated it but this was demolished in 1999. The stained glass in the Lady Chapel is thought to originated from the Saughton Hall (demolished 1949).

References

Bibliography

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