St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal)

Grave of Barbara and Mary Walker, Greyfriars Kirkyard

In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Presbyterianism was restored in place of episcopacy in the national Church of Scotland. This led to the emergence of the Scottish Episcopal Church as a separate Christian denomination.

Edinburgh's historic St Giles' Cathedral was raised to cathedral status in 1633, the seat of the newly established Bishop of Edinburgh. However the rejection of episcopacy saw the cathedral converted to Presbyterian use. For a time the Episcopal residue of that congregation worshipped in an old woollen mill in Carrubber's Close, near the site of the present Old St Paul's Church.[1]

A bequest by Barbara and Mary Walker left the cathedral's site in Edinburgh's West End to the Episcopal Church alongside an endowment. administered by the Walker Trustees, allowing for the building of a cathedral dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The sisters owned the surrounding Drumsheugh Estate and lived in Easter Coates House, which survives to the north of the cathedral. They were the granddaughters of the Rev. George Walker, the Episcopal minister of Oldmeldrum Church (1734–1781). Their father, William Walker, was Attorney in Exchequer, and Bearer of the White Rod of Scotland; their mother was Mary Drummond, daughter of George Drummond, six times Lord Provost of Edinburgh and initiator of the New Town. William Walker bought the Coates estate from the Byres family around 1800 and is remembered in the street names William Street and Walker Street round the corner from Manor Place.[2]

Design and construction

The cathedral was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and the foundation stone was laid on 21 May 1874 by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, whose family had been supportive of Scottish episcopacy over the previous hundred years. Inside the stone was placed a bottle containing a copy of the trust deed, the Edinburgh Post Office Directory, Oliver and Boyd's Almanac, newspapers and coins. The cathedral's builder was G. W. Booth and the clerk of works was Edwin Morgan.[3]

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral has four main doors: the west, east, north and south doors. The cathedral's main entrance is the ornate west entrance, from Palmerston Place, which features Saint Peter and the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In preparation for the opening of the cathedral a congregation had been formed to worship in a temporary iron church erected on the site now occupied by the Song School. Beginning on 26 May 1876, it was ministered to by the dean, James Montgomery, and two chaplains, and grew rapidly. The nave of the cathedral was opened on 25 January 1879 and from that day, daily services have been held in the cathedral. The cathedral was consecrated on 30 October 1879 in the presence of about 200 clergy from around the country.[4]

The twin spires at the west end, known as "Barbara" and "Mary" after the Walker sisters, were not begun until 1913 and completed in 1917. The architect for these was Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott, Sir George's grandson.[5]

The reredos is designed by John Oldrid Scott and sculpted by Mary Grant.[6] The critic Sacheverell Sitwell condemned the design as "peerless for ugliness, unless it be for its own sister, Scott's St John's College chapel, at Cambridge".[7]

^ Ingram, Mary E. (1907). "A Jacobite Stronghold of the Church". ^ The Closes and Wynds of the Old Town: Old Edinburgh Club. ^ Cite error: The named reference hes was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ "Consecration Of A Cathedral In Edinburgh". The Times. No. 29714. London. p. 6. Gale CS100973921. ^ "Edinburgh Cathedral: The Building Completed". The Times. No. 41410. London. 23 February 1917. p. 9. Gale CS153290839. ^ Dictionary of British Sculptors ^ Sitwell 1945, p. 189.