The Building

The Building The building was formally St Thomas’s Church, Manse and schools. The inscription inside the door notes that the buildings were founded by Sir John Gladstone of Fasque. The date is given as 1820. However, the buildings were built to the designs of John Henderson in 1840-43.

The building is an example of the early to mid 19th century Romanesque Rivival which was fashionable before Ecclesiological Gothic took hold. The Romanesque detailing continues inside the building to some extent, notably in the rib-vaulted chevron-moulded plaster vault of the lobby. The architect or patron did not consider Romanesque to be a suitable style for the more domestic manse, schools and asylum to the west of the church and which form a unified scheme with it. Another popular style of the period, Tudor, was chosen instead.

The architect, John Henderson, was an important figure in the history of the church design of 19th century Scotland. His early career, of which this building is an example, was in the period before the writing and example of Pugin and Ecclesiological movement encouraged much more scholarly revivals of Gothic architecture. This building is very good example of Henderson’s work before his conversion to Ecclesiology. In the second part of his career, Henderson was Scotland’s first major exponent of the Victorian Gothic Revival.