
Architecture of Thomas Coats Memorial Church Paisley
Brian Hannan from Abbey Book reviews the Architecture of Thomas Coats Memorial Church Paisley, The Baptist Cathedral of Europe 1894
A new book celebrating one of Paisley’s most stunning buildings has been published by Paisley Publishing. With an astonishing 180 photographs, Architecture of Thomas Coats Memorial Church Paisley, The Baptist Cathedral of Europe 1894 reveals how the building was structured as well as the many intricate and unusual aspects of the design with multiple examples of extraordinary craftsmanship.
This is the second book in the series created by Abbey Books second-hand bookshop in Wellmeadow Street, as a way of keeping available rare books about Paisley. “Since we are barely a hundred yards away from Coats Memorial Church, which, with its high elevation, dominates the town like no other building, it seemed ideal that our next venture into publishing should be about this,” said Brian Hannan, manager of Abbey Books.
The book has been developed with the cooperation of Gavin Divers of Paisley Heritage which offers tours of the church.
The church was built in memory of Thomas Coats, the noted Paisley entrepreneur who had been a long-time member of the Storie Street Baptist Church. Following his death in 1883, the family decided to honour his legacy by building a new church. The proposal was for a Gothic church with tower and spire that could accommodate one thousand worshippers with space underneath for ancillary activities.
A total of eleven architects were invited to submit plans. In the end nine entered the competition. The winning entry was by Edinburgh-born Hippolyte Jean Blanc. Among his highly-praised works were the Christ Episcopal Church in Morningside, Edinburgh and restoring the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.
Blanc constructed two accurate scale models complete with electric lighting and supplied more than 400 original drawings. A total of 21 craftsmen were involved in completing the interiors. As well as the more obvious need for plumbing, heating and sanitary works, the building included marble mosaic on narthex and chancel as well as the lower vestibule, ceramic tiles, parquet floors, stencilled decoration, metalwork, and ornamental sculpture.
Among the building’s distinctive features was the marble baptistry designed by Farmer & Brindley acclaimed for the stone carving on the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London and in works for Glasgow University. The baptistry was constructed of imported Paonazzo Marble from the Massa Carrara region of Italy. It is distinguished by strong blue to black and yellow veining.
Paisley firm James Gillespie & Sons of New Sneddon carried out the slating.
The church’s famous organ was built by William Hill & Son, one of the most progressive in the business, recognized as the company that “dragged the English organ into the Victorian age” by introducing the practice, long seen in Germany, of playing the organ with the feet. It was his revolutionary design that permitted the music of J.S. Bach to be heard in churches for the first time. Most of this organ maker’s works have been lost or substantially altered over time but the Coats organ “retains its full original sound, unaltered.”
Completed in 1891, it was stored for three years in Hill’s London premises and transported to Paisley by special train with 17 wagons. It contains four manuals and an astonishing 3,040 pipes.
Jones & Willis created the oak Gothic chairs most likely to the design of Blanc.
Paisley Publishing’s debut book The Paisley Thread by Matthew Blair, first published in 1907, has nearly sold out.
Architecture of Thomas Coats Memorial Church Paisley is available from Abbey Books and the Paisley Heritage website. Price £20.