Barclay Viewforth, Edinburgh
Barclay Viewforth, Edinburgh
Barclay Viewforth is a Category A Church of Scotland church at Wright’s Houses, on the edge of Bruntsfield Links, designed by Frederick Thomas Pilkington and opened in December 1864. It was built for the Free Church from a bequest by Mary Barclay.
- Location
- Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh
- Country
- Scotland
- County
- City of Edinburgh
- City / town
- Edinburgh
- Address
- Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, EH10 4HR
- Postcode
- EH10 4HR
- Built
- 1862–64; halls 1891
- Consecrated
- First service 23 December 1864
- Architect
- Frederick T Pilkington; halls by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson
- Denomination
- Church of Scotland
- Parish
- Barclay Viewforth
- Grade
- Category A
- Style
- Venetian Gothic
- Materials
- Bull-faced cream sandstone with red sandstone dressings and polychrome voussoirs
- Opening hours
- Unfortunately we do not have the staff to keep the main building open to visitors, but you are invited to join us before or after our Sunday services at 11am and 6.30pm, when someone will be available to give you a quick tour.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic Environment Scotland lists a Ruskinian Gothic church of 1862–64 on an awkward trapezoid site: an ovoid, clam-shell plan, a massive north tower with a facetted lucarned stone spire, and bull-faced sandstone with red sandstone dressings and polychrome voussoirs. A competition of 1861 was won by Pilkington. Building News described the design as founded on Venetian Gothic. The spire, recorded in the listing at 292 feet, was the tallest in Edinburgh until St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. The first public worship was on 23 December 1864 under James Hood Wilson. Sydney Mitchell and Wilson added complementary halls in 1891. A Hope-Jones organ was installed in 1896.
The congregation passed from the Free Church into the United Free Church in 1900 and the Church of Scotland in 1929, later uniting with Bruntsfield, Chalmers-Lauriston and, in 2009, Viewforth. The church, halls and officer’s house are listed together as LB26720.