Wellington Church
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Wellington Church, located on University Avenue, Glasgow, opposite the University of Glasgow, is a parish church in the Church of Scotland. It was designed by the architect Thomas Lennox Watson and built in 1883-4 for the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland ("U.P."), which joined with the Free Church of Scotland to become the United Free Church of Scotland in 1900.
The exterior of Wellington Church is notable for its magnificent neoclassical portico, complete with a colonnade of Corinthian columns in the style of an ancient Graecian temple. This neoclassical architecture was much favoured by United Presbyterian Church, in contrast to the Gothic Revival favoured by most other churches in the Victorian era.
The Wellington Church congregation was originally founded in 1792 as an "Anti-Burgher" congregation, which in 1820 became part of the United Secession Church (and in turn U.P. from 1847). In 1828 they opened their own church building in Wellington Street near the centre of Glasgow. The congregation had outgrown this by the 1880s, so the church commissioned a new building at the junction of Southpark Avenue and University Avenue on Gilmorehill, opposite the University which had moved from the city centre the previous decade. Given that the United Presbyterian Church had no parish boundaries it was not uncommon for U.P. congregations to relocate.
The church ministers to the surrounding Hillhead community, and to the staff and student body of the University which has grown to surround the church's site. Although the University maintains its own chapel in the nearby Gilbert-Scott buildings, the Wellington hosts both religious and secular university events. The church also hosts musical concerts, and recitals played on its original Forster and Andrews pipe organ.
The congregation is actively involved in social justice issues, such as the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005. The current minister (since 1990) is the Reverend Leith Fisher. The congregation won Scotland's eco-congregation award in November 2004.
