THE second Saturday of February, 1932, and parishioners make their way to the dedication service for the new King’s Park Parish Church in Glasgow.
This was no ordinary church building, especially for those times. The design, which had been the subject of an architectural competition, showed “many striking changes from the more usual type of church building,” according to this newspaper. “In style it is Romanesque, built in multi-coloured facing bricks uncovered both on the exterior and in the interior. Brightness of a subdued kind is introduced by the woodwork, which is of bright ‘limed’ oak.
“The church is cruciform in plan, and the transepts, one at either end of the nave, are so contrived that by means of rolling shutters, they can be cut off from the nave and used as independent small halls.” The church could seat 830 people, with provision at the rear for a 100-seat gallery.
Read more: Herald Diary
The dedication was carried out by the Very Rev Dr Alexander Martin, principal of Edinburgh’s New College.
On the following day, a ‘symbolic pictorial window’ commemorating the 15 men of the former Victoria Church congregation who were killed in the Great War was unveiled at the city’s Crosshill-Victoria Church. It replaced a memorial plaque erected in the old Victoria Church, which was destroyed by fire in March 29 and subsequently demolished.
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