Church Overview

This neat, cruciform Romanesque church was a product of the draughting table of prolific Scottish church architect John Henderson and opened its doors onto Morningside Road on 29 July 1838 when local resident, the Rev Dr Thomas Chalmers preached the inaugural service.

The first church to be erected in the expanding Edinburgh suburb of Morningside, it was built by the Church of Scotland’s “Committee for Church Extension”, which was chaired by Chalmers and tasked with building new churches across the country. Its transepts were later added by the firm of Peddie & Kinnear in 1868, the chancel in 1888 by Hardy & Wight and the interior was substantially reordered in 1931-33 by architect and artist Leslie Grahame Thomson MacDougall.

The impressive kingpost roof, that rises from stone corbels holding aloft structural iron braces, most likely dates from the 1868 intervention. Its furnishings included a pulpit with panelling depicting the Four Evangelists and an octagonal Caen stone font, designed by Cox, Sons, Buckley & Co and installed in 1888. The stained glass in the chancel and transepts, portraying various Biblical stories, was installed in 1868-74 and 1902 by the Edinburgh studio of Ballantine & Son.

Originally known as Morningside Parish Church, by the late 1980s its congregation had diminished and its maintenance costs were rising. In 1992, the Church of Scotland sold the building to Napier Polytechnic, which became a university later that year, and its new owners converted it into a performing arts centre. The Church of Scotland congregation merged with the nearby Braid Parish Church congregation in Nile Grove. In 2016, the building was purchased by an independent evangelical congregation, who fundraised to restore and convert it into a welcoming multi-functional community space, renaming it “Chalmers Church”.

An ancient carved stone, known as the “Bore Stane”, is built into the church’s boundary walls on Morningside Road. Installed there by Sir John Forbes of Pitsligo in 1852, it was reputed to have steadied the Royal Standard of King James IV when the Scottish army mustered on the Burgh Muir in Edinburgh, before the Flowers of the Forest marched to their defeat at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

Services

Sundays at 10.30am and 6.30pm

Opening Arrangements

Open by arrangement 

Disclaimer

The information about churches in Scotland’s Churches Scheme has been provided by the congregations or taken from the Historic Scotland list and published sources, in particular, the Buildings of Scotland volumes and the RIAS Illustrated Architectural Guides. To contact this specific church please complete the Contact this Church form above. The information is not authoritative; please contact Scotland’s Churches Trust to let us know of any errors or omissions.