ST. MARGARET'S
TOLLCROSS PARK CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
179, Braidfauld Street, Tollcross
This
Tollcross church was built in 1900-01 and has been described as “an Arts &
Crafts style church which looks as if it belongs in an English village.”
(Williamson, et al., 1990). It is one of two east end churches of the same period
designed by W.G. Rowan, the other being Eastbank Church of Scotland.
It was the first Established church in the village and was one of the products of the dispute which arose between John White, then minister of Shettleston Church (later, Shettleston Old), and the heritors of his parish. This argument was about who was responsible for the replacement of the old church building. When the heritors were finally found to be completely liable, money which had been accrued already from other sources was then available for alternative enterprises.
Mission work had been ongoing in the Tollcross and Carntyne districts by the Shettleston congregation for a number of years and it was decided to use this windfall to build additional churches there. As a consequence, St. Margaret’s, Tollcross and St. Michael’s, Carntyne were built. The Tollcross church took its name from the medieval Queen of Scotland, Margaret (c.1046-93), wife of Malcolm III. Since Margaret might be viewed as having been instrumental in initiating the introduction of Norman feudalism from England into Scotland, a system greatly supported thereafter by her son David I, she may have been the inspiration for the mock medieval style adopted in the decoration of the church building.
Interior, c.1975
While Eastbank has been preserved in a highly original condition, St. Margaret’s has undergone what can only be described as radical and perhaps rather unsympathetic internal changes in recent years to meet the changing needs of its congregation. The northern transept and aisle have been blocked off and are used as hall accommodation. All the pews have been removed from the nave, resulting in an empty, multi-purpose space. Some of the wood from the pews has been used to screen off the part of the south transept for storage purposes. The interior is now rather barren, and seems to have had the stylistic heart removed from it.
Some
elements of the original design have been retained, and they demonstrate how
lovely the interior once was. The chancel, housing the communion table, remains the least
affected part of the building and is separated from the nave by a delicate
screen. The east wall has carved
panelling with in-built elder’s chairs and is surmounted by two windows with
stained glass. The subject matter
of these is consistent with the Romantic idealism of the later Victorian period
– with representations of knights in shining armour at prayer, with St.
George’s cross on their shields. This
pseudo-medieval theme is continued with the decorative heraldic shields on the
braces of the hammerbeam roof.
A pair of decorative electric candlesticks in the chancel dated 1922 indicate that St. Margaret’s was also known as Tollcross Parish Church. It had been disjoined from Shettleston as a quoad sacra charge two years earlier in 1920. A plaque on the pulpit indicates that it was the 500th quoad sacra parish to be erected since 1847. In 1990 it was linked to the congregation of Tollcross Park Church in Drumover Drive and was finally joined by it a few years later to become St. Margaret’s Tollcross Park. The Tollcross Park buildings were later demolished, in 2001.
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
