Robert Baldie, 1878.

Pollokshields Church of Scotland opened in 1878, and was designed by Robert Baldie, is lavishly furnished and famed for its stained glass window.

The architectural form of the church is Gothic of the transitional period from early English to geometric. There is a centre gable of nearly 60 feet in height, having a carved finial, and with a six-light traceried window. On the east side is an exit door and the staircase leading to a small gallery. At the southwest corner a massive buttressed spire rises to a height of 180 feet. At that time there was a fine-toned bell in the belfry which has windows 60 feet from ground level and is surmounted by the four dials of the clock. The west side of the church is divided by buttresses into five bays, each having two single-light windows with hood-mouldings and carved terminals. The clerestory is divided by five piers, each section having three single-light windows. The main entrance is at 274, Albert Drive by a doorway through the spire. The church and hall are cruciform, the building extending 140 feet along Shields Road.

Inside, the area is divided lengthwise by a centre and two side passages into a nave 90 by 33 feet with aisles 76 by 16 feet. Including the gallery and the area beneath it, colloquially referred to as "The Parlour", there are over 1, 000 sittings. At the north end the pulpit stood on a raised platform with the Connacher's organ (1878) behind it in a recess under the four-light traceried window. This organ was replaced, in 1913, by a Harrison & Harrison Organ. The two finely carved oak cases, designed by H. E. Clifford of Glasgow, incorporate a number of the pipes.. The opening recital on this magnificent instrument was given on September 27th 1913 by Sir Frederick Bridge of Westminster Abbey. The choir seats were on each side and the Communion Table in front of the pulpit. Octagonal stone bases from which rise polished red granite shafts with carved capitals, support the clerestory walls. The roofs are all open timbered, the principals resting on stone corbels. The cost of the building was in the region of £14,000.

References

https://www.trove.scot/place/157945

Related links

http://www.pollokshieldschurch.org.uk/

https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::::VIEWTYPE,VIEWREF:designation,LB33477

Map

Streetview

< Back to Notable Architecture