Interior-general view of roof in Thistle Chapel

Description Interior-general view of roof in Thistle Chapel

Date 1911 to 1912

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

Catalogue Number BL 21478

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies B 64728, SC 717164

Scope and Content Ceiling, Thistle Chapel, St Giles' Cathedral, High Street, Edinburgh 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 magnificent stone vaulted ceiling has a riot of ornamental bosses, carved at every intersection of the ribs in the shape of thistles, roses, acorns, hawthorns and vines by the sculptor, Joseph Hayes. The larger bosses at the apex of the roof represent, from west to east (bottom to top) the Royal Arms, St Giles, the Jewel of the Order, St Andrew, and the Pelican in her Piety, a symbol of loving self-sacrifice. Robert Lorimer (1864-1929) set up in architectural practice in Edinburgh in 1893, and had become Scotland's leading architect by 1911 when he received a knighthood for his designs for the Thistle Chapel. In this work he made full employment of the elaborate carving which was to be a feature of most of his buildings, though his later work is simpler with the decorative detail concentrated at particular points. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Glass

External Reference Box 58

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