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Edinburgh, 42 Greenhill Gardens, St Bennets Archiepiscopal Chapel
Chapel (20th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, 42 Greenhill Gardens, St Bennets Archiepiscopal Chapel
Classification Chapel (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Roman Catholic Archbishop's Chapel, St Benets
Canmore ID 258187
Site Number NT27SW 1595.01
NGR NT 24823 71712
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/258187
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
(Roman Catholic Bishop's House)
ARCHITECT: John Henderson after 1856
R W Schultz 1906 - R C Chapel
St Bennet’s Archiepiscopal Chapel was recorded by the Threatened Buildings Survey on 21st February 2024. Although not at risk we were able to undertake the recording of this private chapel with the kind permission of The Most Reverend Leo Cushley, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
In 1890 the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh bought 42 Greenhill Gardens as a residence for the Archbishop. It had been designed c.1859 for George Seton, advocate, by John Henderson. The detached Byzantine chapel was built in 1905-7 by Robert Weir Schultz to the west of the house. In the 1930’s W Reginald Fairlie made alterations and additions to the house including the new entrance vestibule which now links the chapel and house.
The third Marquess of Bute, who died in 1900, bequeathed a sum of money for the construction of a domestic chapel for the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. In 1889 William Frame had designed a new chapel in the west wing of the House of Falkland, Fife for the third Marquess. Although already partially built the scheme was abandoned when Frame was sacked for drunkenness in 1890 and replaced as architect by Robert Weir Schultz. Schultz designed a new Byzantine chapel and Frame’s work was taken down and packed away. It this interior that the third Marquess left to the archdiocese with the instruction to his son, the fourth Marquess to employ Schultz to design a suitable building to house it. Schutz created the new interior using Frame’s plaster capitals, carved woodwork by the Cardiff Workshops and the original parquet floor. He added his own plasterwork to the vaulted ceiling and brought the whole scheme together. The exterior is completely Schultz’s design unusually combining Byzantine and Celtic motifs.
The chapel contains important examples of Dalle de Verre stained glass. Three windows by Gabriel Loire of Chartres of 1968 and six windows by his son Jaques Loire.
