Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Edinburgh, 5b York Place, Casino

Chapel (18th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, 5b York Place, Casino

Classification Chapel (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) St George's Episcopal Chapel; Genting Casino

Canmore ID 52427

Site Number NT27SE 381

NGR NT 25672 74276

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52427

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Architecture Notes

NT27SE 381 25672 74276

Built as St George's Episcopal Chapel, 1792-4, architect James Adam. Front altered by John Jerdan in 1934. Now a warehouse.

RCAHMS 1951; J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984.

NMRS REFERENCE

Printroom: Acc. No. 1991/53

Colin McWilliam Collection

Ink wash and sketch on catalogue slip showing North facade before alteration

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

126 (a). 5B York Place.

In 1792, one year after the penal laws against Episcopalians had been rescinded, James Adam designed St. George's Episcopal Chapel, which has recently been converted into the warehouse at No. 5B York Place. Some of the original contract-drawings, signed and dated by Adam and endorsed by the contractors, are exhibited on the premises. This chapel and the manse next door are of special interest as being the only excursions into the "Gothick" style upon which Adam ventured in Edinburgh, although in the suburbs there is Braid House (No. 187) which has so much in common with these buildings in York Place as to suggest that he was responsible for it also. On plan the body of the chapel was octagonal, rising to a lantern, and all round it ran a low aisle, also octagonal, which opened into the central area by an arcade elaborately decorated in plaster. The altar stood in the E. bay of the aisle. The other bays were divided horizontally by galleries,* and from the W. gallery the organ faced the altar. Below the chapel was a vaulted cellarage, ingeniously planned in a fashion recalling the undercroft of the "dome " at the Register House (No. 129). This cellarage was rented by a neighbouring firm of wine-merchants, who fitted it up with stone bins or "catacombs," for the storage of their wines.

As the building stands to-day the cellarage remains unaltered. On the street floor the front has been squared up in alinement with the central entrance-porch. The interior of the chapel, apart from the arcade and the lantern that it supports, has been gutted and an upper floor has been introduced. The tracery of the lantern windows has been replaced by wooden frames.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

*From 1810 to 1826 Walter Scott rented a pew in the north gallery.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions