All Hallows Episcopal Chapel at the 1938 Empire Exhibition

The Scotsman, 25 April 1938

EPISCOPAL CHURCH - Timber Building with Wooden Tiles

The architects, Messrs R. Mervyn Noad & Wallace, of Glasgow, have taken full advantage of the site, which is at the end of an avenue. The whole building is of timber roofed with cedar wood tiles. It is approached by two flights of ten steps, between which rises a 24-foot cross. The Glasgow Tree Lovers’ Society has planted the bed of flowers surrounding the base of the cross, as well as two hedges flanking the entrance to the building. Over the door in a niche is a figure of Christ, designed by the late Mr Archibald Dawson, Glasgow. The building is divided into an outer hall, 36 feet long by 24 feet broad, and an inner chapel, 24 feet by 16 feet. The hall has a sense of loftiness and space, as it is 40 feet from the floor to the ridge. The roof is left open, and on the lowest rafters are displayed the shields of the seven diocese, which are the work of Mr. H. Lewis Gordon, Edinburgh There will be an information stand, two show cases devoted to Church history, and cases displaying vestments and work of the Church Crafts League. Over the entrance door is a mosaic plaque of St Margaret of Scotland by Miss O. Carleton Smyth, and a 7-foot angel in plaster by Miss Evelyn Beale, Glasgow, is over the five-fold door leading into th chapel. Two tempera panels by Miss Mabel Dawson, Edinburgh, depict Bishop Kennedy and St Joan. A model of an 18th century meeting-house has been designed by the Rev. R. Henderson-Howat. The hall is intended to be used as a restroom, for which purpose armchairs and tables have been loaned. The chapel will seat 40. Stained-glass figures of St Ninian, St Patrick, St Columba, and St Kentigern by Miss Margaret Chilton, Edinburgh, are in the four windows; whilst the symbols of these saints in the upper parts of the windows were painted on glass by Mr Ralph Cowan, Glasgow. The seating is of oak, arranged with a central aisle.

The Exhibition had three chapels: Church of Scotland, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic.  The exhibition was not open on Sundays, but on other days there was a daily act of worship in All Hallows. On 13 June,the Revd Duncan Macinnes, rector of St Mary’s, Glencoe, and St Paul’s Church, Kinlochleven, travelled to Glasgow to conduct Gaelic Evensong there, with the choir of St Mary’s Cathedral Glasgow taking part in the service.  On 30 June, Bishop Darbyshire led a radio service from the chapel.

Flags carried in battle by Covenanters and some of their personal relics are included in a special display in the Hall of History, in the Scottish Pavilion south, 1938 being the tercentenary of the signing of the National Covenant.

It had originally been planned to relocate the chapel after the end of the Exhibition, but in the event it was sold on site for £45, because a further £400 was required to restore the site afterwards.

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