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Free church built in 1881, designed by JB Pirie, with additions by JAO Allan in 1939 and AR Whitelaw in 1971. It was built to serve the expanding community in the West of Aberdeen. It combines High Victorian Gothic, Greek, Scots Baronial, Aesthetic Movement and even Art Nouveau motifs. It is on a T-plan with shallow transepts and halls to the East, built of tooled coursed grey granite ashlar with finely finished dressings, a grey slate roof with lead ridges, stone skews with gabletted skewputts and cast-iron rainwater goods The principal, West, elevation is asymmetrical, with gabled centre bay flanked by buttress to the left, terminating in an arcaded pinnacle. The doorway has an advanced gabletted porch supported by squat columns with stiff-leaf capitals, decorative mouldings with paterae label stops, a trefoil-headed tooled panel set in gablehead and stone finial to the apex. The pointed-arched doorway is supported by colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals, inset glazed quatrefoil and 2 trefoils to tympanum, J B Pirie's monogram occurs on the left jamb. A large 4-light window with early geometric tracery is centred above the doorway, with a row of small trefoil-headed windows along its base, a hoodmould with scrolled label stops and a small lancet flanked by 2 tiny openings set in gablehead, dated '1879' above, with a decorative stone finial to the apex. The recessed bay to the left has a curved outer angle corbelled out to form a right angle below eaves and a pointed-arched doorway to the ground floor, supported on colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals. To the right of the main door is a square-plan 5-stage engaged tower with octagonal clasping buttresses terminating in stone spires with iron navel-like paterae finials. Above the pointed-arched doorway are soaring triple lancets with tiny quatrefoil above, and a bracketed platform with parapet to the third stage. The upper part of the tower is octagonal in plan with an open colonnade on squat columns; and gablet to each side of the fifth stage with quatrefoil inset, and conical stone spire with 4 stone lucarnes and decorative iron finial to apex. The south elevation is asymmetrical, of 7 bays, the three bays flanking the tower each tripartite window with bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above, and decorative timber lucarnes to the roof above. The 2 gabled transept bays to the right are flanked by buttresses, with a tripartite window with bipartite pointed-arched traceried window above to each bay, with 3 square openings above, 2 small lancets to the centre of gablehead, a multi-foil window set in the gablehead, and square-plan arcaded pinnacles enclosing gable to left and right. The easternmost gabled bay has a highly decorative pointed-arched doorway to the ground floor, with a scrolled tympanum with wave-like brackets and paterae and a deeply set shouldered doorway. The single storey 2-bay block adjoining to the East has a gabled bay to left, with 3-light window set in hoodmould, and the bay to the right 4 convex-shouldered flat-arched openings with single decorative timber lucarnes to roof above. There is an adjoining canted 5-light addition by J A O Allan (1939) adjoining, and addition by AR Whitelaw to the East. The East elevation is gabled with a decorative traceried rose window with hoodmould to centre and a small lancet with hoodmould set in gablehead, with a stone finial. The North elevation is asymmetrical and 7-bay, with a gabled bay slightly advanced to the West with 3 small trefoil-headed lancets at ground stage above which is a pointed-arched hoodmould above enclosing 3 broken lancets. The three centre bays each have pointed arched traceried windows with decorative timber lucarnes to the roof above. The two gabled transept bays to left also each have bipartite pointed-arched traceried window with 3 square openings above, and 2 small lancets in the centre of the gablehead with stepped hoodmoulds, and a quatrefoil window set in gablehead, with square-plan arcaded pinnacles enclosing gable to left and right. The interior includes a U-plan gallery supported on elongated cast-iron columns with stiff-leaf capitals supporting pointed-arches of a colonnade at gallery level. Windows include some early 20th century stained-glass including the rose window at the East end and 2-light window to the South gallery, both by Douglas Strachan. There are 2 pairs of square-plan gatepiers to the West of the church on Albyn Place and Carden Place, of grey granite, with a battered base, and sunken fillet forming cross in shaft, pink granite neck, coped with pyramidal caps, spherical finial to apex, and low granite walls.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Aberdeen City
HER -
NJ90NW0571 - QUEEN'S CROSS CHURCH, CARDEN PLACE, ABERDEEN