Designating St Bride's Church, Bothwell
Overview
We are proposing to list St Bride’s Roman Catholic Church in Bothwell. It was built 1971-3 to designs by John Duncan Henderson Mackenzie and was constructed to provide a new parish church for the Catholic community in Bothwell, as the town expanded northwards. It remains in use for worship and is one of the most architecturally distinctive post-war churches erected for the Diocese of Motherwell.
St Bride’s Church is a good example of a post-war Roman Catholic church that has remained largely unaltered since it was built. Designed in the Brutalist style common since the 1960s, it reflects the changing artistic and liturgical ideas of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) and displays features of definite architectural quality. These include the stepped pyramidal roof, timber-clad internal roof structure and the integral presbytery. The building is notable for its multi-functional design which incorporates the church, sacristies, presbytery and garage into a single scheme, alongside the connected Poor Clare Monastery (not included in the proposed listing). The main open-plan worship space also retains much of its original character, liturgical artworks and furniture, including a separate chapel for the enclosed nuns.
Since its construction, St Bride’s Church has provided an important religious function for Bothwell’s Catholic community, enhanced by its association with the attached monastery. Its dedication to St Bride reflects both the pre-Reformation history of Bothwell and the strong tradition of Irish Catholic migration to Scotland in recent centuries.
We are now gathering views on our proposal to list this building at category C.
Read more about why we think St Bride’s RC Church meets the criteria for listing by downloading our Report of Handling.
Interior (looking west) of St Bride’s RC Church © HES
How we designate listed buildings
We list buildings of special architectural or historic interest. A dedicated team researches and assesses all designation applications.
- Watch our video about how we list buildings
- Find out more about listed buildings in the Advice and Support section of the Historic Environment Scotland website.
- Read our Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Why your views matter
We’d love to know whether you agree with our proposal.
To help you respond to the following survey, please read why we think St Bride’s RC Church meets the criteria for listing by downloading our Report of Handling.
You can tell us if you agree with our proposal by completing the short questionnaire below.
This questionnaire usually takes 5-10 minutes to complete.
Find out what comments we consider and what happens next in our consultation guide or watch our designations video on YouTube.
You can also watch a version of this video in British Sign Language.
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