FEATURES | INGLEBY GALLERY | FEATURES The undulating hum of psalms and prayer reverberates around the cavernous chamber of the unadorned Meeting Hall. As the service approaches noon, the sound of preaching and song makes way for the familiar clatter of cutlery and crockery, and the creak of a pulley as cauldrons of soup are hoisted from the kitchen to the Feast Hall above. Hot bowls of broth are served to the hungry congregation, perched on benches along long rows of tables, before returning to the Meeting Hall to resume their worship. Above: The Glasite Meeting House on the corner of Albany Lane and Barony Street. The Glasite Meeting House / Ingleby Gallery 'Glasite Meeting Hall 01' by byronv2 licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Below: View of the Meeting Hall, photographed in 1990 from the north west showing the pulpit. © HES CAL HARRIS, a graduate of he Glasites were a breakaway for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in unsuccessful planning application submitted Glasgow School of Art, is an Christian sect founded in the Scotland and the National Stone Institute. by HLA in 2017. The root of contention 18th century by maverick assistant architect at Helen Lucas T Ultimately, however, the financial burden was the future of the Meeting Hall’s pulpit; Scottish Clergyman John Glas, and their the former perch and lectern of the Glasite Architects Ltd (HLA). Cal has been of repairing the Meeting House and the place of worship in Edinburgh was the ongoing operating and maintenance costs Deacons, Precentor, Reader and Elders. involved in a diverse range of built Glasite Meeting House, an unassuming meant that a new purpose had to be found Designed by renowned Scottish architect projects and was an assistant to neoclassical ‘church’ designed by for the building and a new home found for the David Bryce, the two-tier canopied timber the Project Architect, Helen Lucas, Alexander Black and built in 1835. AHSS. The Scottish Historic Buildings Trust pulpit was installed in 1873, almost 40 years on the conversion of the Glasite Nestled inconspicuously within the (SHBT) took over ownership in late 2012 after the Meeting House’s completion. Although it wasn't contemporary with Meeting House. The Ingleby Gallery New Town, on the fringes of the World and began efforts to establish what this Heritage Site, the category A listed Meeting new use could be. The Trust offered various Black's original scheme, The City of Edinburgh are long established clients of HLA, House is a stone’s throw away from the rooms for hire and, for a short time, a Planning Department were adamant in its collaborating on projects spanning bustling thoroughfare of Broughton Street. popular community-led film programme ran preservation and the initial application (which the past two decades. The Glasites were utilitarian and modest called the New Town Community Cinema. was also objected to by the AHSS Forth & in their ethos which is reflected in the No other paid bookings were received and Borders Group cases panel) was refused. Main image (above) shows the inaugural building's lack of superfluous decoration and so in 2016 SHBT submitted two (successful) A fundamental requirement for the exhibition of the Ingleby Gallery in the Glasite ornamentation. Blank, in-filled windows and planning applications which aimed to Meeting House with works by Callum Innes. display of contemporary art is the need for All images © Angus Bremner Photography for polished brown glass reflect their desire for convert the building into a more flexible a vast expanse of uninterrupted wall space. Helen Lucas Architects, except where stated privacy over ostentation and few people and commercially attractive space. These For the Meeting House to function as an art otherwise. walking past the site would have been aware applications proposed the introduction of gallery HLA felt that taking down the pulpit that a congregation gathered there. new windows into the dummy openings in its entirety was unavoidable and appealed The ‘Kale Kirk’, as it was known, saw its of the façade, removal of the central pews the decision. After considerable deliberation, last Glasite service in 1989 when it was from the Meeting Hall, the construction of a and with the project programme suspended gifted to the Cockburn Conservation Trust new surface above the raked floor and the for many months, the planners finally as "a permanent base for the Architectural disassembly of the pulpit's lower tiers. granted permission. They agreed to the Heritage Society of Scotland". In October Around this time the owners of the careful dismantling of the pulpit on condition 1991 the AHSS moved in and in 1997 Ingleby Gallery, Florence and Richard Ingleby, that the component parts remained within secured ownership of the building through were looking for a new gallery space the Meeting Hall itself to allow for the the AHSS Charitable Company (renamed and, seeing the potential of this simple, possibility of its reassembly, should the the Glasite Meeting House Trust in 2005). elegant building, approached SHBT. Having building's use as an art gallery change. Considerable redecoration, repair work and collaborated on a number of architectural The riddle of how to store the pulpit fundraising was undertaken to secure the projects spanning nearly twenty years, the was solved by the boldest of the proposed building's future with the aim of creating a Inglebys appointed Edinburgh-based practice architectural interventions. Originally centre for conservation. Helen Lucas Architects with the task of the rectangular in plan, the east and west ‘wings’ Readers may recall the many events, delicate restoration and conversion of the of the Meeting Hall were divided from lectures and meetings held there, and the building, and its return to the public as a the main space. Ten-metre-high removable presence of a number of other heritage centre of culture. steel partitions were erected into these organisations including the Garden History Before the work could begin, a lengthy natural room breaks, intricately scribed Society of Scotland, ICON, The Society appeals process took place to challenge the to the underside of the room’s perimeter 20 THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND I AUTUMN 2018 AUTUMN 2018 I THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND 21 FEATURES | INGLEBY GALLERY INGLEBY GALLERY | FEATURES The cupola, made up of over 400 hand-painted glass panes, required Light from the cupola dances across the walls. The dining room, photographed above in 1990, was renamed the Colin The dining room was transformed into a secondary gallery and dining space, extensive conservation and careful cleaning. McWilliam Room in the 1990s following a bequest in his memory. © HES now known as the Feasting Room. Below: The main gallery space with reused pews. arches, creating a storage zone on each side texture to the predominantly neutral space. etched glass, and hand-painted motifs team with the greatest design challenges, of the central space. The partitions were The completion of the new level floor of which no two panes were alike. repairs and redecoration were needed then lined with Fermacell, a specialist class facilitated the most fragile and painstaking Whilst the scaffold was in place, sixteen throughout the building, both inside and of self-healing gypsum board, designed to task of the project: the restoration of discreet fixings were made into the ceiling’s out. Externally, windows were repaired and bear the weight of massive artworks and the cupola. A striking octagonal skylight, inner timber ring beam for the suspension refurbished, and cast-iron pavement grilles installations. These new ancillary spaces comprising an exquisite latticework of of a simple, slender lighting gantry. Once were reinstated to match those unique are only accessible between exhibitions, timber fins and diamond shaped glass panes, the cleaning and paintwork to the ceiling to Barony Street. Extensive repairs were via concealed doors, and serve as the soars eleven metres above the centre of was complete, the crash deck was finally made to the delamination and cracking of storage areas for large artwork crates and the gallery floor. A true feat of engineering dismantled. For the duration of the build, the the external stonework; the handiwork of the archive of Bryce’s pulpit. The partitions and craft, its purpose was to envelop the scaffold had cloaked the site in perpetual almost two centuries of Scotland’s finest accommodate vital service zones for the chamber and congregation in natural light. darkness. Its dismantling was eagerly wind and rain. gallery, but they also recast the Meeting Hall However, it was only when access was anticipated, and finally permitted the now The kitchen and ancillary rooms across into a perfect eleven metre cube. This stark, attained from the Meeting House’s roof, pristine cupola to bathe the room in natural three floors were fully renovated, and the symmetrical volume provides an immaculate via a single, precarious crawl space, that the top light, further accentuated by the freshly dilapidated dumb-waiter made operational yet evocative backdrop for the display of once again. A number of door heads were true extent of the cupola’s condition was painted gallery walls. paintings, sculpture and artefacts. raised to three metres, to accommodate brought to light: decades of dirt and dust The rigorous restoration of the cupola the ferrying of large artwork crates. The At full capacity, the Meeting Hall could settlement between the inner and outer also led to the discovery of an extraordinary, dining room, where bread was once broken seat 700 Glasites, and the original timber cupolas had resulted in a blanket coat of and entirely unexpected phenomenon. and stories shared, was re-established as a Original tables and benches were used to box pews, still inscribed with initials carved grime to the individual glass panes.