Interior-general view of Thistle Chapel

Description Interior-general view of Thistle Chapel

Date 1911 to 1912

Collection Records of Bedford Lemere and Company, photographers, London, England

Catalogue Number BL 21477/A

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies B 64785, SC 717161

Scope and Content Thistle Chapel, St Giles' Cathedral, High Street, Edinburgh, looking east The Thistle Chapel, the most ornate building of its kind to be erected in Scotland since the Middle Ages, was designed by the architect, Sir Robert Lorimer, and built in 1909-11 at St Giles' Cathedral as the private chapel for the Knights of the Thistle, the most ancient Order of Chivalry in Scotland. The architectural photographer, Harry Bedford Lemere, was commissioned to photograph the interior c.1912. The east end of the chapel is panelled in oak, with an elaborate canopy by the wood carvers, William & Alexander Clow. In the centre of the east wall is the Chair of Investiture, which sits beneath a stained glass window depicting St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, by Douglas Strachan. On each side of the chapel are the knights' stalls, each with a pinnacled and steepled canopy topped by a mantled and crested coronet. Although only a small building was required as a meeting place for the reigning British monarch and the 16 Scottish Knights of the Thistle, the ceremonial splendour that attends such meetings inspired Lorimer to create the most richly Gothic building of its time. The overwhelming grandeur of effect is due to the magnificent woodwork by the Clow brothers who, working to Lorimer's designs, undertook all the finest carving. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Glass

External Reference Box 62

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