St Ninian's Roman Catholic Church, Knightswood, Glasgow

This Roman Catholic Church was formed in about 1924 and the church built in 1926/27. The Presbytery in Baldwin Avenue was added in 1927/30. A school, Rotherwood, was opened in 1931. Stained glass windows were installed in chancel by Alexander Russell in 1950/57.

A new church built to the south in 1958/59 and this church became the church hall. The designer of this church was C H Purcell of Pugin & Pugin and the site work carried out by S Stevenson-Jones. The style for the church was traditional.

The original church is aligned north west/south east with the entrance in the west (say) gable. The building is essentially an aisled and cruciform church now converted to a church hall. It is built in brick, now painted, and has an upper white rendering. The original slates have been replaced by tiles.

The entrance in the west gable is a plain rectangle with originally a fan-light and hood moulding. On either side are plain domestic=style windows but with hood mouldings. Above is a larger pointed arch window with a hood moulding and block label-stops. It contains three lancets and perpendicular tracery.

At the west end of the lean-to aisles are small transverse wings. They have small rectangular windows in their wet walls and larger rectangular ones in their gables. The aisles then have six bays separated by buttresses and containing simple rectangular windows. The nave walls above have slightly shorter versions of these windows but no buttress separation. To the east are entrance porches which project out beyond the aisles.

Internal furnishings for the original church were designed by Lorimer and made by Grieve & Co of Edinburgh. The aumbry and minister's chair were made by Cochrane of Glasgow. Blackett & Howden of Newcastle upon Tyne installed a pipe organ. A stained glass window by Herbert Hendrie was installed in the porch in about 1930.

The high Altar in the new church depicts scenes from the life of St Ninian. H Hilsdon removed the organ from the previous church and installed it in the new one.

The present church is also in brick with masonry dressings and is aligned north/south with the entrance in the south gable and a semi-octagonal chancel apse in the north. It also is aisled but is not cruciform. The brickwork is pale pink and the nave roof is slated but the aisle roofs and those of the side buildings are flat. The nave and aisle windows are all pointed arches but those on the side and rear extensions are rectangular.

The tall south entrance front has to entrances which are slightly pointed arches. Above is a very tall window with four graded pointed cinquefoils a round-lobed quatrefoil and perpendicular tracery. It has a simple hood moulding. The sides of the gable have heavy buttresses. The aisles to either side have fairly large windows containing two pointed cinquefoils, a pointed-lobed quatrefoil and tracery.

The sides of the nave nine bays separated by buttresses. The bays furthest to the south are blank and all the other bay have windows with two pointed cinquefoils, a pointed-lobed quatrefoil and tracery. The north bay on the east wall has a chimney adjacent to the window. The aisle bays also have buttresses but those in the east wall have the furthest south bay with a single pointed cinquefoils and then the next two bays copy the nave wall windows. Whereas the west wall has a blank bay followed by five bays with window which are the same as the nave walls. On both sides after that are low flat-roof wings. That on the east has a simple rectangular entrance to the halls/offices on the east wall and also single, bipartite or tripartite rectangular windows. On the west the entrance is to the church and is in the south wall and has a slightly arched lintel. The windows here on the west wall are four pointed cinquefoils. The aisle also on this side extends one bay beyond the entrance porch and has a window similar to the other aisle windows.

The chancel has tall windows on the two splayed sides of the apse. They contain three pointed cinquefoils and perpendicular tracery.