The seceders joined the Associate Presbytery in 1738 and constructed their own church at Bristo in 1741 with Adam Gib as its first minister.

The congregation's buildings also included Seceders' Land: a tall house which stood between the meeting-house and Bristo Street.

The proclamation of Wotherspoon as minister sparked a tumult, which was only dispersed when the town guard fired upon the protestors, injuring several of them.

[1] Despite Wotherspoon's death before his installation could be concluded, some members responded by establishing a "Praying Society", meeting in Portsburgh.

[6][7] On 10 October that year, the praying society was received into the Secession Church as the Associate Congregation at Edinburgh and began to meet at Gardeners' Hall in Fountainbridge.

[9][10] The year of Gib's ordination, the congregation bought from Arthur Straiton an acre and a half of land at Bristo to construct a new church and manse.

[2] At the time, the area was a collection of low dwellings outside the Bristo Port at the southern edge of Edinburgh.

[12][14][15] During the Jacobite occupation of the city, Gib confronted the occupying forces, removing his congregation to the gates of the rebel camp at Dreghorn, near Colinton.

[22][23][24] During periods of expulsion from Bristo, the Burgher faction met at Carrubber's Close in the Old Town and at Bainfield House, West Fountainbridge.

[25] The issue had to be settled by the Court of Session, which, finding the congregation had not been a "body corporate" at the time it purchased its lands in Bristo, ruled that the buildings were legally the property of two Burgher trustees.

[26][27][28] Despite the fact that only one tenth of the congregation remained with the Burghers, these represented its wealthiest elements and counted for a third of the financial contributions to church funds.

[31] While a student of the University of Edinburgh and lodging in Bristo Street, Thomas Carlyle was an occasional visitor to the new church in its early years.

[33] From 1837, the congregation supported a Christian instruction society to minister around Crosscauseway from a mission building at Cowan's Close.

[35][36] By Peddie's 50th anniversary in 1832, the membership of the congregation had been diminished by the establishment of new Secession churches at Dean Street, the Cowgate, and Gardner's Crescent.

[47] The building was purchased by John Donald Pollock, who gifted it to University of Edinburgh as a venue for public lectures, meetings, and religious services.

After purchasing the hall, he began to buy up surrounding buildings in with a view to creating student union and club facilities in them before transferring them to the university.

[52] Pollock's death in 1962 removed a major obstacle to the university's plans to demolish the hall and its surrounding area.

[58][59][15] The grounds of the building were accessed via three gates, one of which incorporated a sentry box in which an elder stood to take collections as the congregation entered.

[31][61] The church was screened from Bristo Street by a house known as Seceders' Land, constructed at the same time as the first meeting-house and serving as its manse.

At ground level, beneath this gable was a pend, which allowed access to the meeting-house from Bristo Street.

[66] An illustration in James Thin's history of the congregation shows the church as a neoclassical building with round-headed windows and a façade centred on a pedimented gable containing an oculus and surmounted by a chimney stack.

On the ground floor is the extension of 1820: an advanced porch including an attic storey and Ionic pillars in antis.