ST.LUKE'S
& ST.ANDREW'S CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Bain Square, Calton
The parish church of St. Luke's
& St. Andrew's looks out over the landscaped Bain Square in Calton towards
the busy Barras. It is one of those
churches which was built through the Church Extension efforts of Thomas Chalmers,
and until recent years it had retained a memento of the great theologian - an
armchair used by him. Sadly, this was stolen following a break-in.
Designed by James Wylson and built in 1836-37, this
church is now one of the oldest remaining in the east end.
It was extensively damaged by fire in 1924, requiring major restoration
work, and has now lost its clock tower.
St. Luke's was created following missionary work in the area, and started its existence as a Chapel of Ease to the Barony Parish. It served the needs of western Calton, being built in what was then Calton's Main Street. Created under the General Assembly's 1834 Chapels Act it had quoad sacra standing within the Established Church. However, along with many other such chapels, when its congregational rights were challenged in 1843 most of its members transferred their allegiance to the newly established Free Church of Scotland. The Free congregation continued to use the building until as late as February, 1849 when they were forced to quit the premises following the House of Lords' decision as to the property rights remaining with the Church of Scotland.
The
expelled congregation worshipped in a variety of other places, and finally in
the Mechanics Hall in Canning Street, until a new church could be built for
their use - St. Luke's Free, at the junction of what is now London Road and Risk
Street, which finally ended its days as St. Luke's United Free Church of
Scotland. It is recorded that the
donor of the old St. Luke's clocks had them removed when she heard about the
Lords' decision and stored them until they could be incorporated into the new
Free church, which they were.
In July, 1849, Calton disjoined as a quoad omnia parish from the Barony, so that St. Luke's with its residual congregation now functioned as a Chapel of Ease to the new Calton Parish Church in Tobago Street (see Calton Parkhead Church of Scotland). It was not until 1863 that St. Luke's itself was disjoined from Calton and erected into St. Luke's Parish Church quoad sacra.
In
1961 it was joined by the congregation of the Macmillan Calton Church and took
the name of Calton New, Calton Old being located in Helenvale Street by this
time. The black marble slab
commemorating the ministers of the old Reformed Presbyterian congregation was
incorporated into the united church building.
It retained the same name when it was joined by St. John's Chalmers in 1963 and by Greenhead Barrowfield in 1971. At this stage, Calton New was a composite of 9 congregations which had been independent at the time of the 1929 union, but which had been amalgamated as the local population declined. It was linked with one of the Burgh Churches, St. Andrew's, in 1976 sharing a minister between the congregations, and then was finally joined by that congregation in 1992 to acquire its current designation of St. Luke's & St. Andrew's.
One
of the church’s responses to the decline in its congregation has been to
remodel its interior. Since 2001,
the pews have been stripped from the gallery, as well as from the rear section
of the nave. The space created by
the latter action has been partitioned off and provides a facility for
multi-purpose use. The changes have
reduced the seating capacity quite considerably.
The eastern section of the nave and the chancel remain relatively unchanged since the restoration work of the 1920s. They are dominated by the pulpit, organ case and flanking stained glass windows representing “The Woman of Samaria” and “The Good Samaritan.”
Williamson, E., Riches, A., & Higgs, M., (1990); “The Buildings of Scotland - Glasgow.” Penguin Books in association with The National Trust for Scotland.
© 2005 Gordon Adams
GALLERY:
Eagle
lectern