Remember when: Changing times leave churches on their knees

IT will mark the end of an era for the many worshippers who once proudly made the building their home.

News this week that the former site of Granton United Church, on Boswall Parkway, is to be turned into housing is bound to stir up many emotions in its community.

Work will begin next month, taking around a year to complete 15 one, two and three-bedroom affordable homes.

The church building is the latest in a long line of places of worship across the city to have changed uses - many have become shops or offices over the decades, while many more have been demolished.

Unfortunately, some are disused, empty and bereft of the congregations which once filled their pews.

That includes the A-listed Tron Kirk, which has taken pride of place on the Royal Mile for more than 370 years, yet closed its doors in 1952.

Earlier this year, a fresh bid was launched to develop the iconic building - which had a brief stint as a tourist information centre - after frustration over a long-awaited refurbishment continued to mount.

The council has now linked up with the organisation that manages Edinburgh's world heritage sites to try to find a developer.

One church which will never re-open its doors, though, is the Kirkgate Church, formerly in Henderson Street, which was demolished in the early 1970s.

The prominent church eventually merged with neighbouring South Leith Parish Church and when structural investigations revealed the building was no longer safe, it was pulled down, making way for new church halls which now stand on the site.

The former St George's Church, in Charlotte Square, saw extensive reconstruction work in 1968 to allow it to become a "repository for public records", and is now known as West Register House, under the management of the National Archives of Scotland.

Workmen ripped the inside of the run-down building to pieces, removing dry rot and erecting structural steelwork, yet restored its exterior to its former glory over many years.

The church was built in 1814 to a design by Robert Reid, surveyor of the King's Works in Scotland, and cost a grand total of 33,000.

Reconstruction work cost a further 300,000.

Years later, in 1989, congregations who once worshipped in the Hillside Church, at the top of Leith Walk, waved goodbye to the building when the bulldozers arrived. The gothic front fascia was left in place, however, to form part of a hotel development.

But it was a definite end for the Haymarket Church in 1960, when after a short spell as a Woolworths store it was torn down..