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Blackfriars, Glasgow, Church of Scotland

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Blackfriars,
Westercraigs Court,
Westercraigs,
Glasgow
G31 2EG

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Church History

In 1246 a community of Dominican Monks (the Black Friars) built a convent on the east side of High Street. 

With the Reformation, the property was confiscated to the Crown and thereafter gifted by Mary Queen of Scots to Glasgow Town Council in 1567.  The Council in turn passed it on to Glasgow University (“Glasgow College”) in 1573.  Although most of the monastic buildings were eventually removed, the chapel on the site continued to be used and was known both as the College and the Blackfriars Church. Pews were reserved for the Principal, professors and students of the University.

In 1635 the College determined that it could no longer meet the costs of any further restoration and transferred the church and yard back to the Town Council for its use as a Burgh Church.  In return, the College staff and students were allowed space within the church for regular worship and also its use for some collegiate events.

A bell was donated in 1643 by George Duncan of Barrowfield, a previous student of the College.  This was recast in 1670 and restored to the church shortly before a final blow was struck to the old building.  Law in his “Memorials” describes the event.  "October 29, 1670.  There was a suddane thunderclap by seven of that morning, that fell out at Glasgow, and lighted on the Blackfriar kirk, the like whereof was not heard in these parts; it rent the steeple of the said church from top to bottom, and tirred the sclattes off it, and brake down the gavills in the two ends of it, and fyred it, but was quenched afterwards by men.

The church was rendered completely unusable and the Town Council was not disposed towards its replacement during such a turbulent period in religious life.  It was almost 30 years later, in 1699, before work began on another.  This new Blackfriars was completed on the site of the old and opened in 1702.

By 1763, the student numbers attending the College had grown to such an extent that it was no longer practical for services to be held at the Blackfriars church.  Thereafter, College services were held in its Common Hall.

With the redevelopments taking place in the area during the later Victorian period, the College took an opportunity to sell its property to the City of Glasgow Union Railway Company and move to new accommodation at Gilmorehill to the west.  The Company embarked upon the extensive construction of railway lines and goods yards which required the demolition of the University buildings.  The need for additional land saw the acquisition of the Blackfriars church in 1875 by the railway. The church was demolished in the 1870s to make way for College Station. 

The congregation removed itself to a new church built in 1876-77 in Westercraigs, in the suburb of Dennistoun.  This retained the name of Blackfriars Church of Scotland.

This new church was designed by Campbell, Douglas & Sellars in a German Romanesque style. In 1982 it joined the congregations of Dennistoun and Dennistoun South to form Dennistoun Blackfriars Church of Scotland.  

The church was closed in 1983. Part of the old Romanesque church was incorporated into a private housing project in the early 1990s, the steeple on the leftmost tower being removed, and is now known as Westercraigs Court.

The rear view of Blackfriars Parish Church, also known as the Old College Church, c 1840.

Blackfriars Parish Church in Westercraigs in Dennistoun, looking south towards Bellgrove Street, 1955.

 

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Maps

It was located at NS6088865094 (Lat/Lon 55.8589, -4.224135). You can see this on maps provided by:

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