The Southside Community Centre is a community centre in the Southside, Edinburgh, Scotland. The centre opened in 1986 and occupies the former Nicolson Street Church, which was completed in 1820.
Nicolson Street Church originated in 1747 when Adam Gib led the majority of his congregation out of the Secession Church at Bristo in opposition to the Burgher Oath. For this reason, Robert Small called the congregation "the mother Secession Church in Edinburgh". Their first permanent meeting place was a simple building off Crosscauseway. This was replaced by the current building on the same site during the ministry of lexicographer John Jamieson. A succession of denominational unions saw the congregation join the United Secession Church in 1820, the United Presbyterian Church in 1847, the United Free Church in 1900, and the Church of Scotland in 1929. Once a fashionable society church, the congregation faced decline in the post-war years and merged with Buccleuch and Charteris-Pleasance in 1969 to form Kirk o' Field Parish Church. The building was sold to the corporation and, after a period as a furniture saleroom, reopened as the Southside Community Centre in 1986. Managed jointly by the city council and the South Side Association, the centre continues to house a range of community facilities and groups. During the Edinburgh Fringe, it is used as a venue under the name Zoo Southside.
The building was constructed in 1820 to a perpendicular Gothic design by James Gillespie Graham. It was gutted by fire and reconstructed by John Ross McKay in 1932. The building was gutted and partitioned internally ahead of its reopening as the Southside Community Centre in 1986. It has been a Category B listed building since 8 September 2003.
Nicolson Street Church Foundation
Nicolson Street originated in the Secession congregation founded at Bristo in 1741 with Adam Gib as its minister. The Secession Church soon faced a division over the Burgher Oath of 1690, which required public officials to "profess and allow with all my heart the true religion presently professed within this realm and authorised by the laws thereof". One faction – the Anti-Burghers – held that subscription to this oath was sinful while another – the Burghers – believed it was not. At a meeting in Bristo of the Synod on 9 April 1747, members divided in a schism known as "The Breach".Small 1904, i pp. 426–427.Wishart 1953, p. 8.Gray 1940, p. 106. During the meeting, Gib led out a faction opposed to the oath out of the meeting-house and into the adjoining manse.Pinkerton 2012, p. 15.
For a year, the two factions worshipped together in Bristo but relations were tense: each used its own collection plate and members of each faction broke into the church to try and change the locks.Wishart 1953, pp. 8–9. The issue had to be settled by the Court of Session, which, finding the congregation had not been a body corporate at the time it purchased its lands at Bristo, ruled that the buildings were legally the property of two Burgher trustees. The Anti-Burgher congregation was thus expelled in January 1753.Wishart 1953, p. 10.MacKelvie 1873, p. 189. Despite the fact that only one tenth of the congregation remained with the Burghers, these represented its wealthiest elements and counted for a third of the financial contributions to church funds. The fact that the majority joined the Anti-Burghers led Robert Small, historian of the United Presbyterian Church, to call Nicolson Street "the mother Secession Church in Edinburgh".Small 1904, i p. 431.
After their expulsion from the Bristo buildings, the congregation first met in a tent nearby on Windmill Close on 7 January 1753 and afterwards at the Skinners' Hall in the city.Thin 1879, p. 49. A new site off at Quarry Close, off Crosscauseway, was leased in July that year and a new church was opened on 4 November 1753.Wishart 1953, p. 10.Small 1904, i p. 427. The building was, in John Wishart's words, "plain, square, and barn-like". It had no seats apart from in the galleries, which were accessed by external stairs. A manse was built at what is now Gib's Entry: a passage named for its first resident. The church remained in place at the construction of Nicolson Street in the 1760s; however, its primary entrance having been via Crosscauseway, the building now presented its rear to the new street.Wishart 1953, p. 11.Palmer 2007, p. 7.MacKelvie 1873, p. 191.
Early years: 1766–1817
In 1766, some members of the congregation founded an Anti-Burgher congregation in Leith despite opposition from Gib. Gib's refusal to lift the bread to break it during communion services led to some other members of the congregation to depart and set up the Second Secession Church nearby in Potterrow.Wishart 1953, pp. 11–12. Gib nevertheless maintained one of the strongest congregations of any denomination in the city. Over 2,000 would regularly come to hear him preach.Pinkerton 2012, p. 18.
Following Gib's death in 1788, the congregation went seven years without a permanent minister. In 1791, a controversy over whether the session or the congregation could manage seat rents led the Anti-Burgher Synod to rule that, in all cases, sessions had authority in their congregation's management. The following year, the synod also allowed for the creation of a new congregation in Edinburgh. Yet, when that congregation was barred from calling Frederick McFarlane as its minister, McFarlane briefly set up as an independent preacher in the Bristo. These factors had much diminished the congregation by the time it appointed a full-time minister, John Banks, in 1794.Wishart 1953, pp. 13–14.Small 1904, i pp. 427–428.
During John Jamieson's ministry from 1797 to 1829, the church constructed halls for dual use by the congregation and by the Anti-Burgher Synod. The buildings were also used as the Synod's theological college.Wishart 1953, p. 15. While divisions between Burghers and Anti-Burghers were dying down in this period, the controversy within the Anti-Burghers between conservative Auld Lichts and progressive New Lichts was growing. In 1806, some Auld Licht members left to join the Old Secession Church on Infirmary Street.
New meeting-house and reunion
In September 1817, part of the cornice collapsed during a service and the meeting-house was condemned as unsafe. The congregation had already been raising funds for repairs since 1815. While a new church was being constructed, the Second Secession Church on Potterrow offered its buildings for afternoon services while the Bristo Burgher Meeting-House was used for evening services.Wishart 1953, pp. 13–14.Pinkerton 2012, pp. 21–22.
A Gothic Revival design by James Gillespie Graham was chosen and a plot of land was purchased so the new building could face onto Nicolson Street. The new church opened for worship on 19 March 1820.Wishart 1953, p. 16.Palmer 2007, p. 8. The building cost £6,000 and could accommodate 1,170 worshippers.Dunlop 1988, p. 64. During this period, the church was known as Dr Jamieson's Meeting-House.
The same year, the Burgher and Anti-Burgher factions united to form the United Secession Church. Nicolson Street's minister, John Jamieson, had been instrumental in the reunion negotiations and was honoured by being elected moderator of the last Anti-Burgher Synod. Dissatisfaction with the Gothic form of the new church led some members to leave; as did the union, which saw some members join an Anti-Union congregation at Castle Wynd then at Infirmary Street. In 1827, they joined Thomas McCrie's congregation at Davie Street.Small 1904, i p. 429.Dunlop 1988, p. 65.
1820–1900
With the union, the church became one of several Secession congregations in Edinburgh and many members left to join congregations nearer their homes. This loss was compounded by Jamieson's frequent absences for lexicographic work and by difficulties in appointing an assistant minister. With the appointment of George Johnston in 1831, the situation improved: the congregation's roll, which had declined to about 500, doubled in the first year alone.Wishart 1953, p. 17.Pinkerton 2012, p. 23.
During Johnston's ministry the church established a school in its halls, which continued until 1858. The congregation also supported foreign and domestic missions, including a mission on Potterrow; raised collections for the abolition of slavery; and founded a savings bank and two friendly societies. In 1833, the congregation founded a missionary society, which continued until the early 20th century.Dunlop 1988, p. 66. In 1834 alone, the congregation raised a Sunday school and a congregational library, which house 2,000 volumes by 1850.Wishart 1953, p. 18-19. In 1858, Nicolson Street appointed David Kennedy as precentor; though the congregation did not adopt the practice of singing hymns until 1862.Wishart 1953, p. 21.
Johnston had been instrumental in the negotiations to unite the United Secession Church with the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church in 1847. In 1852, Johnston was elected moderator of the denomination's general assembly. In the year of the union, some members of Nicolson Street established a new mission at Duncan Street in Newington.Wishart 1953, p. 22.
By the end of Johnston's ministry, the Southside was becoming an increasingly working class and industrial neighbourhood and Nicolson Street was losing status as a society church. After Johnston's death in 1871, many members left for suburban churches.Wishart 1953, p. 24. David Christie was elected minister in 1897 and proved a popular preacher and lecturer. During his ministry, the church's membership and financial position improved, standing at 754 in 1900.Small 1904, i p. 430.Wishart 1953, pp. 24–25.
20th century
In 1900, the United Presbyterian Church united with the Free Church and Nicolson Street joined the newly formed United Free Church. Some members left with the departure of Christie's successor Campbell Macleroy in 1909. Under Macleroy's successor George Wyllie Howie, however, the congregation tripled.Wishart 1953, p. 25. Howie also oversaw the establishment of a women's guild of friendship, a men's club, and Scout and Guide troops. The halls were also extended and a pipe organ installed during his ministry.Pinkerton 2012, p. 28.
In 1929, the United Free Church united with the Church of Scotland and the congregation rejoined the denomination from which it had split almost two centuries prior. In 1932, fire gutted the church, necessitating the complete reconstruction of its interior.Wishart 1953, p. 26. The interwar years would prove a high point for the congregation's membership, which stood at 1,041 in 1930, declining to 617 by 1960.Pinkerton 2012, p. 30.
With the departure of John Nelson Hall as minister in 1956, union was proposed between Nicolson Street and College on South College Street. Nicolson Street was supportive but College blocked the move.Pinkerton 2012, p. 31. Nicolson Street received around a hundred members from College when that congregation was transported to Muirhouse in 1960.Palmer 2007, p. 19. Nicolson Street also took up College's social club. This supplemented a strong roster of church groups, which included a women's guild, a Boys' Brigade troop, missionary societies, and rambling and bowling clubs.Pinkerton 2012, p. 29.