Category A Listed Church Set To Become Luxury Apartments

A historic church in Crieff near Perth is the centrepiece of a £3m project to create nine luxury apartments to be available through letting agents in Scotland.

Based in Comrie Street, Old South Church was bought by Webster Developments who aim to retain the historic features of the Category A listed building in the new development.

Once the planning applications are approved, work on the site will begin later in 2021 and is aiming to appear on the market by November.

Originally designed by JJ Stevenson and constructed in 1882, Old South Church was originally known as the South United Free Church and has a distinct gothic look based on the design of Dunblane Cathedral.

Mr Stevenson, a leading light in Scots Gothic revival architecture, fled to London after the City of Glasgow Bank collapsed in 1878, being part of a group of architects known as the “London Scots”.

Originally costing £5000 to build along with an extra £100 to build the belfry (roughly £630,000 in 2021 money), the building has lavish double glazed stained glass windows, a spire reaching 120ft into the air and could seat 800 parishioners.

The Free Church and United Presbyterian churches merged in 1900, and this new denomination would eventually merge back into the Church of Scotland from which both seceded in 1929.

Whilst there was one final congregational influx in 1964 when Monzievaird Church closed its doors, by 1999 it had become surplus to requirements for the Church and became an antique centre in 2000.

By 2008 it was falling into disrepair and had become a victim of vandalism and rising damp, and it would take 13 years for a serious attempt to restore and repurpose the building as a set of apartments.