Standing Building Recording

Date 27 July 2018

Event ID 1085012

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1085012

NT 26377 73601 A historic building survey was undertaken, 27 July 2018, of the Old Kirk prior to renovation work. The building, originally known as the St John Street Church, was built, 1881 – 2, on the site of a former drying green. It was designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and George Washington Browne to accommodate the congregation of St Gile’s Cathedral. It was designed to seat 875 people and included a first-floor gallery. An additional hall was built to the NW of the kirk in the 1910s (now demolished), and the kirk was then bought by the adjacent Moray House in 1944, and used as a training centre. In the 1950s a linking building containing a main entrance lobby and reception area was built between the kirk and the hall, which survived the demolition of the hall in the late 20th century. In recent years it has been used as a base for construction contractors.

Today, little of the original arrangement of the kirk remains, with the exception of the main entrance lobby and stair towers to the SE side. Many of the interior windows have been covered over with plasterboard and areas have been partitioned to create smaller spaces, meeting rooms, offices and a toilet block. However, areas reflecting the character of the original roof are still in situ, above the false ceiling, including a heavily glazed hipped roof to the SE supported on thin cast-iron columns with large brackets. The original leaded windows also survive in the S and E stair towers.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: University of Edinburgh

Diana Sproat – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES Vol 19)

OASIS ID: aocarcha1-325191