St Mary's Church

St Mary's (Free Church of Scotland)

This 1819 map shows the unbuilt block of land at the North East end that was bought in that same year by a congregation that had split from St Mary’s Parish Church in Bellevue Crescent. The congregation planned to build a church on the site , but it was forty years before the church was constructed. In the interim the worshippers met in a building in Barony Street, and the empty site was used by various tradesmen, including a coach builder and a furniture maker.

An unsigned contract from 1843 indicates that originally Alexander Rae was to build the new church to a design by Robert Wright. The reason this did not go ahead may have been due to the end of Robert Wright’s architectural practice at the time.

In the early 1850s a new contract was issued to the Hays of Liverpool as architects for the new church, St Mary’s (Free Church of Scotland). The three Hay brothers were born in Coldstream. The eldest son, John, was educated chiefly as a surveyor in the city of Edinburgh, while the second brother, William, commenced practice in St James Square, Edinburgh, around 1837. The much younger James was probably articled to one of his brothers. William became one of the architects favoured by the Free Church Building Society after the Disruption of 1843. The Hays progressed several stages of design for the new church but then problems arose. Their Scottish practice was experiencing difficulties due to a lack of adequate supervision over contractors. This quickly led to the loss and withdrawal of commissions, including the one for St Mary’s. A letter from John Hay to the church states: 'no payment will ever compensate us for the professional injury we will sustain by the unhandsome and unusual manner by which we are superseded.' Sadly, the Hay’s problems seem to have been exacerbated by John, who ran the Scottish practice, suffering from a 'fatal disease', and he died in 1861.

After the Hays were dismissed, an architectural design competition was held and won by the Edinburgh architect, John Thomas Rochead. He had begun his career designing saloons and cabins for steamships, before setting up his own architectural practice in St Enoch Square, Glasgow. He designed Glasgow’s Great Western Road terraces, and in 1859, won the commission for the Wallace Monument at Stirling. Unfortunately as the contractor for the monument became insolvent during construction Rochead never received his fees. A further setback was that Rochead also was dismissed as the church’s architect. In the letter complaining of his practice’s dismissal John Hay had added: [The result of discharging Rochead is that] 'you are as far at sea as you were this time three years'.

The solicitor George Monro, who lived at 54, wrote to express disapproval with the plans for the Church. He disliked ‘the jutting out of the front or back as it will affect our light and prospect’. A year later Monro suggested they use his house as the manse and re-house him and his family. Clearly this offer was not taken up as Monro lived on in his house. However, at last it was reported that the foundation stone of Free St Mary’s Church had been laid: ‘There was a large number of spectators…the speakers stated that the new building would be a great ornament to the locality.’ And that it would be on: ‘a vacant space which has long been an unsightly object in that part of the city.’ Although Rochead was dismissed, the church and Number 56 were built to his design. The church (photo c. 1900) was opened in January 1862, having cost £13,000. The building’s imposing presence, including the 180 foot high steeple, must have changed the look of Albany Street significantly. A review in Building News from 1862 stated: ‘In style it is what may be termed mixed Perpendicular of the time of Henry VII. The exterior exhibits some fine work, with here and there perhaps an excess of detail, especially in the spire, which loses somewhat of its artistic character when viewed from a distance. The interior is seated for nearly 1,000 persons.’ The first minister of St Mary’s was the Reverend Dr Guthrie. See also the 'Gothic House', Number 56. In 1929, the church was renamed Barony and St James’ Place Church. Perhaps because Rochead was dismissed before he could supervise the construction of the church to his design, there were problems with the fabric of the building from quite an early stage. Eventually the top section of the steeple had to be demolished.