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Alterations to St Philip's United Free Church, Portobello

M269 Alterations to St Philip's United Free Church, Portobello

Address: Brunstane Road North, Portobello EH15 2DL
Date: 1906–7
Client: St Philip's United Free Church
Authorship: Authorship category 1 (Mackintosh) (Mackintosh)

Photograph of nave at St Philip's, Portobello

Built to a Gothic Revival design by John Honeyman, St Philip's opened in 1877. In 1904–6, Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh designed a chancel to house a new organ, but their plans were rejected on grounds of cost. They carried out a cheaper scheme instead, the organ being placed at the N. end of the nave.

Authorship: It is clear from the minutes of the Deacons' Court of St Philip's that Mackintosh was the partner in charge of the organ scheme, and that he was responsible for the organ case. Photographs taken before its removal in the 1960s show an unremarkable Gothic design, with none of the individuality that Mackintosh had brought to the fittings at Bridge of Allan church two years earlier.

Alternative names: Portobello Free Church.

Alternative addresses:
14 Abercorn Terrace

Cost from office job book: £264 8s 0d

Cost from other sources: 'the organ ... cost just under £750, and the total expense, including alterations and the shifting of the pulpit, was over £1,300' 1

Status: Standing building

Current name: St Philip's Church, Joppa

Current use: Church (2014)

Listing category: B

Historic Scotland/HB Number: 26724

RCAHMS Site Number: NT37SW 309

Grid Reference: NT 31237 73573

GPS coordinates: lat = 55.950249, lng = -3.102695   (Map)

Notes:

1: W. Allan Maclean, St Philip's, Joppa: The Parish and the Church, Edinburgh: St Philip's Joppa Parish Church, 1976, p. 61.