St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church

Our Lady of Pochayiv and St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church (Ukrainian: Українська католицька церква Св. Андрія) is situated on Dalmeny Street, Leith in Edinburgh. It is one of the few Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish churches in Scotland. It is a church in the only Eastern Catholic eparchy in Great Britain, the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London. It is a Category B listed building.

1. Early history

The site was secured for use as a church by the United Presbyterian Church in March 1879, to serve the rapidly growing population in the new tenements around Leith Walk who were not well served by existing U.P. Churches. A temporary church hall was built in that year and a congregation established from existing U.P. members in the neighbourhood. It took until June 1881 to secure a minister, George B. Carr from the parish of Tranent. The sandstone Gothic Revival building was built for the congregation and was opened on 6 October 1882 to a design adapted by Archibald Thomson from an original version by Sloan & Balderston in 1822. At this time, Dalmeny Street was known as Colston Street, after James Colston, Esq., the treasurer of the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh. With the merger of the United Presbyterian and the Free Church of Scotland in 1900, the Church passed to the United Free Church of Scotland. The majority of the United Free Church merged with the established Church of Scotland in 1929, and Dalmeny Street followed after this. The Church was vacated by 1950, with the congregation merging with nearby Pilrig to form Pilrig and Dalmeny, now Pilrig St. Paul's.

1. As the Ukrainian Church

A Ukrainian diaspora community arrived in England, Scotland, and Wales after World War II. It included former veterans of the SS Division Galicia, but also many other anti-communist civilian refugees who arrived from displaced persons camps in West Germany as part of the European Voluntary Workers labour scheme. In 1950, The Scotsman newspaper reported there were approximately 1,500 Ukrainians living in Scotland, with 7–800 in Edinburgh alone. The first Ukrainian Catholic mission was opened in 1965 by Mitred Priest Mycola Matyczak. The local Ukrainian community "in work and finance, supported the project, to transform the interior of the building into a beautiful Catholic church, with a large icon of Saint Andrew over the main altar." In 1983, in advance of the 1988 celebration of 1,000 years of Catholicism in Ukraine, the Church was refurbished, including a new wooden belfry and steeple in an Eastern Catholic style and ornamental ironwork on the perimeter which includes the tryzub Coat of arms of Ukraine. The congregation at this time was reported to number 700.

1. References


1. Further reading

Gifford, McWilliam and Walker Edinburgh (1991), p459

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Dalmeny Street drill hall

The Dalmeny Street drill hall in Edinburgh, was built as a military drill hall in 1901, and between 2003 and 2010 was redeveloped as community arts and education centre under the name The Out of the Blue Drill Hall. The drill hall is protected as a category A listed building.

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Rhubaba gallery and studios

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Leith Walk

Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Union Place at the south-western end of the street to the 'Foot of the Walk' at the north-eastern end, where Great Junction Street, Duke Street, Constitution Street and the Kirkgate meet. For historical reasons the carriageway is known as Leith Walk but the upper half has several stretches with side names including some parts having different names on opposite sides of the street. Running from its upper (south west) end, on the west side of the street the sections are Union Place, Antigua Street, Gayfield Place and Haddington Place; on the east side, sections are titled Greenside Place, Baxter's Place, Elm Row and Brunswick Place. It continues (on both sides) as Croall Place, Albert Place, Crighton Place and, after the junction with Pilrig Street, as Leith Walk.

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Pilrig

Pilrig is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The name probably derives from the long field (rig) on which a peel tower (pil/peel) stood. There is evidence of a peel tower situated on an area of higher ground above the Water of Leith. Pilrig lies midway between Leith and Edinburgh, west of Leith Walk. It is split by Pilrig Street, which marks the division between the EH6 and EH7 postcode districts (also the old division between Edinburgh and Leith hence the name of the bar opposite being originally the Boundary Bar, then City Limits and now known simply as "the Boundary"). Along the north-east side of Pilrig Street lies Pilrig Park, within which is Pilrig House, the heart of the former estate of the Balfour family. The 19th-century Rosebank Cemetery is located at the west end of Pilrig Street, at the junction of Broughton Road.

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