St James' Church Centre

St James's was built in 1894 as a Presbyterian church by the well known church architects Hicks and Charlewood in the revived Free Perpendicular style of the time, a stylistic link that it does have with St Michael’s.

George Reavell, a well-known local architect who once had offices in Bondgate Within, added an early Arts and Crafts church hall in 1904 which was recently converted into an award winning housing scheme.

As part of a recent re-ordering of the interior of the church, the building has been split into two levels: the Sanctuary is now located on the upper floor, and the ground floor now has a modern meeting hall, meeting room, kitchen and other facilities.

Though St. James's current building dates from 1894, its beginnings come from the Great Ejection of 1662 when the vicar of St. Michaels was removed for not signing the Act of Uniformity. He and the dissenters met in secret in a barn in Pottergate, smuggled in and out of town. He was eventually imprisoned on the Bass Rock for his beliefs.