St Matthew's Church

St Matthew’s Church stands on a small traffic island where Gordon Street meets Johnston Street in Paisley, Renfrewshire. Built between 1905 and 1907, it was designed by William Daniel McLennan, a Paisley man who also belonged to the congregation. The building mixes Art Nouveau lines with Perpendicular Gothic shapes, a style Historic Scotland calls an ‘Art Nouveau interpretation of Perpendicular Gothic’. McLennan planned a tall spire but later dropped the idea. He also shaped every inside fitting—organ case, font, pulpit—and the iron railings outside. The church began life as St George’s East Free Church, became part of the Church of Scotland in 1929, and was renamed St Matthew’s in later years. The interior is a single wide nave with wooden galleries along the right wall and at the back. On the left sits the pulpit topped by a carved wooden crown of thorns. To the right the choir overlooks a large organ that still plays today. Small rooms open off the main space, and halls lie at the rear. A tulip pattern runs through wood, stone, glass and even the light switches. Most windows are plain white with tiny coloured details, but the west window behind the choir is a bold stained-glass work by Robert Anning Bell. This memorial window replaced an earlier one after the Great War. Outside, the church shares its island site with a former fire station. Inside, the organ case, font and pulpit all carry McLennan’s hand. The brass lectern in the pulpit bears the same tulip motif found on the light switches and stained glass. The west window floods the choir with coloured light. Some regard St Matthew’s as Scotland’s finest Art Nouveau church, often compared with Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Queen’s Cross Church in Glasgow.