West Register House

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Coordinates: 55°57′05.5″N 3°12′33.0″W / 55.951528°N 3.209167°W / 55.951528; -3.209167
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West Register House
Map
Former namesSt George’s Church
General information
StatusIn use
TypeRecords office
Architectural styleNeoclassical
ClassificationCategory A
LocationCharlotte Square
Address17 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4DF
Town or cityEdinburgh
CountryScotland
Coordinates55°57′05.5″N 3°12′33.0″W / 55.951528°N 3.209167°W / 55.951528; -3.209167
Construction started1811
Completed1814
Renovated1964–1970
Cost£30,000 (1814)
OwnerNational Records of Scotland
Height160 ft (49 m)
Technical details
MaterialSandstone
Floor count5
Design and construction
Architect(s)Robert Reid
Listed Building – Category A
Official nameCharlotte Square, West Register House (Former St George’s Church)
Designated3 March 1966
Reference no.LB27360

West Register House is a building of the National Records of Scotland, located on Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. The building was constructed between 1811 and 1814 as St George's Church and converted to its current purpose as a records office between 1964 and 1970.

The church's site in the centre of the western side of

drum. The dome, topped by a gilt cupola and cross, is a prominent feature of the Edinburgh skyline and terminates the view west along George Street. The interior of the church was gutted during its conversion as a records office. It had been noted for its tall pulpit by William Trotter
.

St George's Church opened in 1814 to serve as the

St Andrew's and St George's
. Between 1964 and 1970, Robert Saddler converted the building for use as a public records office. A restoration of the building was completed in 2021.

History

St George's Church

In 1809,

Presbyterian worshippers had resorted to attending St George's Episcopal Chapel on York Place.[1]

Robert Adam had designed a church as the centrepiece of the western side of the square; The funds raised by renting pews in advance had proven insufficient, however. The city council therefore charged Robert Reid to create a new design. Reid had offered a verbal estimate of £18,000 for the costs of construction.[2]

The foundation stone was laid on 14 May 1811 by

quoad sacra by the presbytery with a parish area allotted from portions of St Andrew's and St Cuthbert's. As the charge was supported by the city council, St George's was a burgh church and the stipend of its minister was supported by diverting money from the second charge of the New North Church.[5]

The church's first minister was

evangelical faction and a keen social reformer. When Thomson died in 1831, Thomas Chalmers, his effective successor as the leading evangelical, preached his funeral sermon in St George's.[6] Assisted from 1823 by choirmaster R.A. Smith, Thomson also established St George's strong musical tradition, even holding choir practices at his house.[7] Smith's most notable successor was Alexander Mackenzie: who served as choirmaster and organist from 1870 to 1881.[6]

Initially, St George's supported the

Free Church.[8]

St George's minister from 1834,

James Wellwood Moncreiff and his son, James Moncreiff, 1st Baron Moncreiff; David Cathcart, Lord Alloway; James Ivory, Lord Ivory; Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn; John Fullerton, Lord Fullerton; Alexander Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank; and Thomas Maitland, Lord Dundrennan. Three Lord Provosts – William Trotter of Ballindean, Kincaid Mackenzie, and John Learmonth – were also seat-holders as were Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster and the scholars James Pillans and John Shank More.[12]

In the middle of the twentieth century, structural issues began to plague the building and a portal frame was erected to support the dome. The congregation launched an appeal for £40,000 in January 1960. Despite the appeal's success, the extent of dry rot in the building soon became apparent and the congregation entered into negotiations for union with St Andrew's. The charges were linked with a single minister in June 1962 and formal union was completed on 7 June 1964. At the time of its closure, the church maintained halls and a church officer's house at Randolph Place. The manse was at 17 Wester Coates Crescent, having been at 3 Melville Crescent before 1946.[13]

The following ministers served St George's:[14]

† died in office

West Register House

The building was purchased by Scottish Records Office and converted to a public record office under Robert Saddler of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. This involved the gutting of the interior to install five storeys and a two-storey entrance hall.[15][16] During conversion, the West Register House was designated a Category A listed building in 1966.[15]

Restoration work on the building, supported by Edinburgh World Heritage was completed in 2021. This included covering the exterior in scaffolding to restore stonework and to regild the cross at the top of the building.[17] During the restoration, homelessness charities, including Shelter, criticised plans to install railings to deter rough sleepers.[18]

Architecture

Setting

St George's seen from George Street

A.J. Youngson called St George's dome "one of the most notable features of the Edinburgh skyline".[19][13] The church's dome is prominent in the western half of the first New Town and terminates the view along George Street.[4] St George's occupies a site designated for a church in James Craig's initial plan for the New Town.[20]

Both George Hay and the Buildings of Scotland guide to Edinburgh note that while the building is out of proportion to its surrounding terraces, it forms an effective visual terminus to the view along George Street.[21][16] Ian Gordon Lindsay and William Forbes Gray also note the church's lack of proportion to Adam’s surrounding buildings. Gray surmises that Reid designed the church relative to the overall size of the square rather than to its neighbouring terraces.[22][23]

Robert Adam's plan

Adam's unexecuted plan for St George's (left) compared to Reid's finished plan (right)

In his plan for Charlotte Square,

drums. The central dome would have been similar, albeit shallower and with four pedimented faces on the drum.[16] By the time of St George's construction, concerns over cost and the waning popularity of the Adam style meant a new design was sought from Robert Reid.[22]

Exterior

The west elevation of the building, from Randolph Place

The facade of the building, facing onto

balustraded portico supported by four Ionic columns in antis and accessed a flight of shallow steps. Within the portico, two rectangular entrances flank an arched entrance. All are filled in with smoked glass, which replaced wooden doors at the time of the building's secularisation.[24][15][16]

Two pavilions flank the portico. Each pavilion stands on a base course and contains a rectangular window and oculus within a recessed arch; above this, an empty frieze panel sits between an impost course and the cornice, which is continuous with the portico. The pavilions are topped by panelled attic storeys in line with the balustrade of the portico.[24] Reid's drawings show plans to include clocks within the faces of the attic storeys and to crown the pavilions with statues of female figures. These were never executed. The rear facade of the building, which faces onto Randolph Place, centres on a rear of attenuated pavilions flanking a Diocletian window above a Venetian window.[16] David Bryce drew up plans to add towers to the pavilions. This too was never carried out.[15]

The building's prominent green

drum. The bottom part of the drum is peristyled with every fourth bay blocked in by a niche. The shorter upper section is pierced with oculi. The drum and dome rise from a stout square base over the former vestibule at the front of the building.[24][15][16][25]

The building's plan is 112 ft (34m) in width and length while its total height is 160 ft (49m).[4] The exterior is constructed of Craigleith sandstone.[16]

Interior

Prior to conversion, the sanctuary was shaped as a

Greek cross. George Hay identifies this as one of only two such plans in Scottish churches of this period: the other is at Carnock in Fife.[26] At the intersection of the cross’ limbs, piers in each corner spanned by coffered segmental arches supported a shallow, coffered dome centring on a circular light.[21] Illumination was also provided by three-light windows in the north, south, and east arms. These same arms housed galleries while the west arm was occupied by the focal point of the pulpit, communion table, and pipe organ.[13]

The church was able to accommodate 1,600 worshippers, the interior was, prior to conversion, relatively plain though distinguished by a large pulpit in Spanish

Father Willis installed in 1882 and upgraded to three manuals by the same firm in 1897 and again enlarged by them in 1932. The organ was removed in 1962 and parts of it were reused at St Mary & St Giles Church, Stony Stratford.[13][29]

The current interior, dating from Robert Saddler's conversion of the building between 1964 and 1970, consists of five storeys. These are accessed via a two-storey entrance hall with mezzanine floor.[16][15][30]

Criticism

Early critics, including The Scots Magazine, drew negative comparisons between Reid's design and Adam's, noting that the latter could have been built for the ultimate cost of Reid's.[31][19] Victorian critics included John Ruskin, who called it "a most costly and most ugly building", and James Grant, who described the building as "heavy in appearance, meagre in detail, and hideous in conception".[22][4]

Later writers were more measured. George Hay hailed the facade as a "fine composition" while noting the dome's lack of relation to the rest of the building. He also criticised the interior as "rather an anti-climax".[21] William Forbes Gray described the building as "an impressive reminder that we were once in earnest about churchgoing".[1] A.J. Youngson found harsher criticisms of the building unjust while also concluding "it is certainly a pity the Adam design was not used".[19]

See also

Notes

Explanatory notes

  1. Lothian Road in 1845. 1n 1869, the congregation moved to a new church by David Bryce on Shandwick Place after the Caledonian Railway purchased their previous building. The congregation led many foreign and domestic missions. In 1900, the congregation joined the United Free Church and, in 1929, the Church of Scotland as St George's West.[10] In 2013, the congregation united with St Andrew's and St George's to form St Andrew's and St George's West. The congregation's Shandwick Place building has been occupied since 2016 by the Charlotte Chapel, a Baptist congregation.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Gray 1940, p. 122.
  2. ^ Youngson 1966, p. 189.
  3. ^ Gray 1940, p. 124.
  4. ^ a b c d e Grant 1880 ii p. 175.
  5. ^ Dunlop 1988, pp. 24–25, 126.
  6. ^ a b Gray 1940, p. 127.
  7. ^ Gray 1940, pp. 124–127.
  8. ^ Dunlop 1988, p. 126-127.
  9. ^ Gray 1940, pp. 127–128.
  10. ^ Dunlop 1988, pp. 159–160.
  11. ^ "Charlotte Chapel". leeboyd.com. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  12. ^ Gray 1940, pp. 128–129.
  13. ^ a b c d Dunlop 1988, p. 127.
  14. ^ Dunlop 1988, pp. 127–128.
  15. ^ a b c d e f "Charlotte Square, West Register House (Former St George's Church): LB27360". portal.historicenvironment.scot. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Gifford, McWilliam, Walker 1984, p. 291.
  17. ^ McLean, David (26 February 2021). "Stonemason praised for high quality restoration work at historic Edinburgh landmark". Edinburgh Evening News. Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  18. ^ Loudon, Calum (20 April 2021). "'Inhumane' railings would hurt homeless, say critics". The Times. London. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  19. ^ a b c Youngson 1966, p. 191.
  20. ^ RCAMS 1951, pp. 184–185.
  21. ^ a b c d Hay 1957, p. 127.
  22. ^ a b c Gray 1940, p. 123.
  23. ^ Lindsay 1948, p. 30.
  24. ^ a b c d RCAMS 1951, p. 185.
  25. ^ Hay in Gray 1961, p. 58.
  26. ^ Hay 1957, p. 126.
  27. ^ Gray 1940, p. 129.
  28. ^ Hay 1957, p. 188.
  29. ^ "Midlothian Edinburgh, St. George, Charlotte Square [N11969]". npor.org.uk. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  30. ^ "Robert Saddler". scottisharchitects.org.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  31. ^ Gray 1940, pp. 122–123.

Bibliography

External links

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