Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

MONTPELIER PARK BOROUGHMUIR HIGH SCHOOL ANNEXE FORMERLY ST OSWALD'S CHURCH AND CHURCH HALLSLB27254

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Date Added
03/02/1993
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 24418 72209
Coordinates
324418, 672209

Description

Henry F Kerr, 1899-1900. Rectangular-plan gothic church with 5-bay nave, side aisles, narthex, porch and side chapel; adjoining hall by kerr, 1894; cream sandstone, coursed and snecked rubble, ashlar dressings (red ashlar dressings to hall); moulded ashlar mullions.

NARTHEX: 2-stage 3-bay arthex as rectangular projection masking liturgical W end to SE; angle buttresses with octagonal pinnacled turrets; tall ground floor blank except for 3 narrow arrowslit windows; blind arcading of lancets with moulded arches and colonnettes to gallery, every 3 lancets divided by buttresses with central lancets with inset window; cill course and parapet with gablet-capped pinnacles above. ENTRANCE PORCH: tall gabled porch to left of narthex opening to SW flanked by buttresses; pointed-arch doorway to Montpelier Park with clustered colonettes to chamfered reveals and moulded arch; open timber roof with corbels inside; relieving arch over inner doorway, wide framed-and-lined timber double door; decorative cast-iron gates. STAIR BLOCK: low polygonal stair block to NE of narthex with lancet stair windows and parapet; slightly advanced round-arched doorway to Montpelier with bracketted ashlar dentilled roof, moulded arch and carved inscription in tympanum.

NAVE: gabled projecting liturgical E end to NW with 2 tall lancet windows to chancel and oculus in gablehead, gablet skews, stone cross finial above; narrow side aisles flanking with lancet windows and lean-to roof; clerestorey consisting of tripartite lancet windows (4 to NE, 5 to SW); rose window with distinctive tracery in SE gable wall, stone cross finial above.

TRANSEPT AND CHAPEL: low gabled transept to NE with paired lancets in end gable. Rectangular-plan gabled side chapel to SW corner; angle buttresses; cornice and parapet with pinnacles; oculus with curvilinear tracery and hoodmould in NW gable, stone cross finial above; 2 4-light pointed-arch windows with tracery and hoodmoulds divided by buttress to SW; pointed-arch doorway in porch set obliquely in re-entrant angle formed with side aisle, roll-moulded with hoodmould.

HALL WITH LINKING PORCH: gabled, rectangular-plan set alongside NW; stepped tripartite window under pointed-arch hoodmould in SW gable, central 2-light window, plain stone cross finial above; stepped tripartite window with cusped heads in NE gable. Link to main church with round-arched doorway to Montpelier Park with nook-shaft and hoodmould, 1 rectangular and 1 small bipartite window to right of doorway; small parapet. Steeply pitched tall roof, green slates to church, black slates to hall, lead flashings, 5 small gablet roof vents to each pitch; single stack to NE of nave.

INTERIOR: rubble with ashlar dressings, outer walls rendered; narrow aisles; pointed arch arcade with octagonal stone piers; plain clerestorey; elaborate crown-post rimber roof with decoratively carved wallplate; timber dado to aisles and west wall, arcade wall stugged rubble; single slender colonnettes with annulets rising from foliate corbels at arcade; arcade of 3 pointed-arch openings to gallery in W wall; square-headed roll-moulded doors to vestibule in centre of W wall and in aisle ends; moulded chancel arch with single shaft rising from plain corbel. Plain chancel with elaborately carved stone reredos in Decorated style; 2 organ chambers in arches on each side with Decorated Gothic carves timber bases (Morgan & Smith, 1900). Stained glass by C E Kempe in E wall (dated 1899, Christ in Majesty, scenes from the crucufuxion and resurrection); rose window of SW chapel also by Kempe (Trinity). Low rubble boundary wall with saddleback coping, short gatepiers.

Statement of Special Interest

The congregation has originally used an iron church which had been re-erected for them in Bruntsfield Gardens in 1890. The present church was built at the cost of $11.936 and opened in 1900. Allegedly, the internal arrangement and design was much influenced by Henry J Wotherspoon, a notable liturgiolist, who was minister at St Oswald's from 1894-1923. Now used by the drama department of Boroughmuir High School.

References

Bibliography

Gifford et al., EDINBURGH (1984), p494; A I Dunbar, THE KIRKS OF EDINBURGH 1560-1984 Scottish Record Office New Series 15 & 16 (Edinburgh, 1988).

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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