St Mary's Church

For the history of St Mary's (Free Church of Scotland) see https://sites.google.com/site/albanystreetedinburgh/the-building-of-the-street/st-mary-s-churchIn 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.

In the 1950s the building was sold to Mutries, theatrical costumiers whose previous store in Bell’s Brae in the Dean Village had been destroyed in a major fire. Here a photograph of theatrical costumes being sorted at Mutries’ Albany Street premises.

In the 1964 film, Hugh MacDiarmid: A Portrait by Margaret Tait, the great Scottish poet was filmed walking along the wall of Mutries in Albany Street (photo below).

The church building was demolished in 1983 and a new office building, named Albany House, was built by John Laing Developments to a design by David Le Sueur. It became the Edinburgh office of Price, Waterhouse & Cooper, and is now the Edinburgh office of Simpson & Marwick, Residential Property Division.