Church Buildings
The United Presbyterian Church constructed a number of notable buildings, the largest of which often used a neoclassical design with a portico. A particularly fine example is Wellington Church, near the University of Glasgow, which was built in 1883-4 by the architect Thomas Lennox Watson. This preference for neoclassical architecture contrasts strongly with the prevailing mid-Victorian taste for Gothic Revival in most of the other Scottish churches. Most U.P. churches were, however, far more modestly built than Wellington.
The famous architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson (1817-1875) designed three striking U.P. church buildings in Glasgow at Caledonia Road (1865), St Vincent Street Church (1859), and Queen's Park (1867). Of the three only St. Vincent Street survives intact, Caledonia Road being an empty shell and Queen's Park destroyed by World War II bombing.
Alexander Thomson was a devout Christian and a member of the United Presbyterian Church. His architectural style was often eclectic; it cannot be described as truly neoclassical (he never managed to visit Greece), but he frequently used Egyptian and other Middle Eastern motifs. His interior designs and colour schemes for churches were strongly influenced by Biblical descriptions of King Solomon's Temple, for example the reference to pomegranates in 2 Chronicles 4:13 and the furnishings mentioned in 1 Kings 6:15-36.
Read more about this topic: United Presbyterian Church (Scotland)
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