The Churches of Frederick Pilkington

The article focuses on the period following the Disruption, when the Free Church began to find that its first accommodation was inadequate, and finds Pilkington, albeit ignored and misunderstood, the most original designer of churches in the nineteenth century. The origins of his style are found in the Gothic revival movement but mixed with northern mediaeval style to which Ruskin was drawing attention. The following buildings are discussed: Moray Free (back of Canongate), Penicuik South, Irvine Trinity, Barclay, Auchengray, UPC Morebattle, St John's Kelso, Innerleithen Free, (Cardiff), Dundee St Mark's, Dundee McCheyne, Viewforth (St Oswald's), Lamlash, UPC Dudhope Cres Dundee, Moffat. By the time he returned to London (1884) his designs had gone out of favour but are now being appreciated afresh.