Barclay Church takes part in Edinburgh’s annual DOORS OPEN DAY.  This 2007 Doors Open Day will take place on Saturday 29 September and Barclay Church will be open from 10am-4pm. Disabled access is available via the entrance on Wright's Houses.

Its Architecture in Brief

Barclay Church was built in 1862-64 to the powerful Victorian Gothic design of Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832-98) following an architectural competition. Heavily influenced by John Ruskin, Pilkington mixed northern mediaeval elements with those from Gothic architecture in Italy and France. By skilful design, he used the tight irregular sloping site to full advantage.

Externally, the 76 metre high steeple dominates the view south from Tollcross, acting as a focus for several converging streets, and is prominent in the city's whole southwest skyline. Indeed, the only steeple in Edinburgh that is higher is that of St Mary's Cathedral. The exterior of the church is characterised by its multitude of gables, door-openings, arches, stair-towers and window tracery, all surmounted by a highly complex roof.

Internally, the vast Church Sanctuary is broadly heart-shaped with an elaborate timber roof structure supported on four massive pillars. The seating is arranged in arcs at ground level and in two tiers of galleries, focused on the pulpit. The church is much admired for its wealth of decorative features, particularly the barley-sugar wood carvings to the gallery fronts, the bow-fronted marble pulpit (by Pilkington), the stencilled decoration on the roof (by James Clark), and the lacy Gothic organ case (by Sidney Mitchell 1896).

The organ itself was built by Robert Hope-Jones in 1896, rebuilt and enlarged by Ernest Lawton in 1906 and restored with a new console by Henry Hilsdon in 1969.  

Please download the Barclay Church Tour file.