Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

5A, 5B AND 5C KIRKGATE, LIBERTON PARISH CHURCH WITH MEMORIALS, SESSION HOUSE, GRAVEYARD, GATES AND GATEPIERS, WALLS AND RAILINGSLB27090

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
A
Date Added
14/12/1970
Supplementary Information Updated
29/03/1996
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 27409 69532
Coordinates
327409, 669532

Description

J Gillespie Graham, 1815, incorporating 1736 Baird family vault at rear. Rectangular plan with 3-stage tower to W, Gothic church on site of earlier church, Coursed, stugged ashlar with polished ashlar dressings, base course, corner buttresses, hoodmoulds, cornice. Crenellated parapet, cruciform finials to gables. Predominantly simple decorated tracery with stone mullions and transoms, plain glass. Each elevation symmetrical.

S ELEVATION: 5-bay. 2 pointed-arched doorways in advanced buttressed and gabled penultimate bays, boarded timber doors with window above. Small 17th century rectangular blocks beside each door, carved with figures and hourglass, probably tomb fragments. 2 tall 3-light windows to centre bay with cast-iron railed Gothic memorial to Rev Grantam in red sandstone ashlar between. Single window to outer bays, door with window above on W return beside tower, crowstepped gable rising to abut tower.

TOWER: 3-stage, with corbelled, crenellated parapet and thin gabled pinnacles. Door to W at ground, single light window above and to each return, 2-light louvred windows to each stage above.

E ELEVATION: gabled, with crowstepped gables and round opening with trefoil window to gablehead. 2 doorways at ground floor to outer bays with 2-light light window above, large 3-light window to centre.

N ELEVATION: central advanced, buttressed, gabled bay with gabled pinnacles, door at ground floor, 2 tall 2-light windows flanking. Bay flanked by 2 windows at left and right.

INTERIOR: T-plan created by stair-halls at NE and NW corners. Built to accommodate 1,480, altered to seat 1,000 in 1882. Woodwork stripped in 1928. Plain compartmentalised ceiling and oak furnishings; Gothic panelled fronted galleries on 3 sides carried on slender cast-iron columns. Pulpit to S with (dummy) organ loft above, organ 1928, simple Gothic panelling to communion table. Carved memorial to Rev W Purdie (died 1834) on W wall beneath gallery signed A Ritchie. Stained glass on S wall, E end, 2 lights by Ballantine 1905. ELDERS ROOM: originally Baird vault from earlier church. Small vaulted room to NE housing 3 memorials to members of Baird family of Newbyth; 2 white marble plaques with family crest on N and S walls, large Baroque grey and white marble memorial of 1736 on W wall, also memorial to Margaret Steuart, white and grey marble by Richard Cooke 1804.

GRAVEYARD: enclosed by rubble coped, rubble walls with ashlar polygonal GATEPIERS to S and wrought-iron GATES, pedestrian gateway to right with stone arched overthrow adjoining Session House. Graveyard encloses other very fine 17th, 18th and 19th century memorials; Neo-classical Stevenson memorial adjoining N wall, grey ashlar with marble plaque in carved surround, also railed enclosure with ashlar plaques to Duncan family. Free-standing, Baroque carved memorials to Aitkens (1690?s).and Haliburtons (1760) to SE of church. To SW, ornate, free-standing, pedimented and pilastered memorial to Baxter family, 1737 with engaged caryatids carrying entablature at sides. Late 17th century table memorial to W of church to Straiton family of Tower Farm, elaborately carved with recumbent effigy within, damaged.

Graveyard extended early 20th century to W and to N with low ashlar walls and railings to Liberton Brae, 2 sets of ashlar gatepiers and gates to W, one to Kirkbrae to N. 1914-18 war memorial inside W gates to Liberton Brae.

OFFERTORY HOUSE: single storey, 2-bay building inside S gates, contemporary with and in same style as church with harled 20th century lean-to to E.. Timber boarded door to left, window to right each with square hoodmoulds. Arched window to N. Crowstepped gables, blind to S, polygonal stack to S. Retains timber fittings inside.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built on the site of an earlier building which was burned and demolished (drawing in vestry, also illustrated in Ferenbach), the church tower is a prominent landmark. The church originally served a much larger parish than today including Gilmerton (see NSA). The Minister, James Begg, describes the interior of the church as unsatisfactory in the NSA of 1839, it was remodelled in 1882. The Straiton tabletop memorial to the W of the church has a carved end panel (W) depicting Liberton Tower and adjacent farmhouses as seen from the church, then known as Tower Mains.

References

Bibliography

Gifford, Walker & McWilliam EDINBURGH (1984), p484. NSA (1839), p1-28. Rev Campbell Ferenbach THE ANNALS OF LIBERTON (1975) pp2-12.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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