The building was sold to the corporation and, after a period as a furniture saleroom, reopened as the Southside Community Centre in 1986.

Managed jointly by the city council and the South Side Association, the centre continues to house a range of community facilities and groups.

[5] 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 at Bristo, ruled that the buildings were legally the property of two Burgher trustees.

[6][7] 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.

[8] After their expulsion from the Bristo buildings, the congregation first met in a tent nearby on Windmill Close on 7 January 1753 and afterwards at the Skinners' Hall in the city.

[9][10] A new site off at Quarry Close, off Crosscauseway, was leased in July that year and a new church was opened on 4 November 1753.

Gib's refusal to lift the bread to break it during communion services led to some other members of the congregation to depart and set up the Second Secession Church nearby in Potterrow.

[20][21] A Gothic design by James Gillespie Graham was chosen and a plot of land was purchased so the new building could face onto Nicolson Street.

Nicolson Street's minister, John Jamieson, had been instrumental in the reunion negotiations and was honoured by being elected moderator of the last Anti-Burgher Synod.

This loss was compounded by Jamieson's frequent absences for lexicographic work and by difficulties in appointing an assistant minister.

With the appointment of George Johnston in 1831, the situation improved: the congregation's roll, which had declined to about 500, doubled in the first year alone.

[32] In 1858, Nicolson Street appointed David Kennedy as precentor; though the congregation did not adopt the practice of singing hymns until 1862.

[23][34] By the end of Johnston's ministry, the Southside was becoming an increasingly working class and industrial neighbourhood and Nicolson Street was losing status as a society church.

[38] Howie also oversaw the establishment of a women's guild of friendship, a men's club, and Scout and Guide troops.

This supplemented a strong roster of church groups, which included a women's guild, a Boys' Brigade troop, missionary societies, and rambling and bowling clubs.

[45] When the ministry of Buccleuch fell vacant in 1964, that congregation sought union with Nicolson Street but this was blocked by the presbytery.

The united congregation adopted the name Kirk o' Field and met in the Charteris-Pleasance buildings on the Pleasance.

[48][49][50][51][52][53] At its closure, Nicolson Street Church was sold to the corporation for use as a community centre; though it was initially used as a furniture saleroom.

[54][55] The community centre is the result of a long campaign by the South Side Association for a permanent meeting place.

[56] In its early years, the centre was the site of local political activity, hosting meetings of the Anti-Poll Tax Alliance and as a distribution base for surplus dairy products.

[63] Secession churches had tended to be plain and the use of Gothic architecture at Nicolson Street was the subject of controversy even before construction began.

[22][23] John Stark, writing in 1825, identified the headstops of the main door as saints and commented: "This simple circumstance of itself bespeaks a wonderful change in the tone of thinking of the present and last age".

Stark also quotes an elderly disciple of Gib, who, when asked what the congregation's founder would have made of the heads, replied: "that he would not believe his ain een".

[25] Dissatisafaction with the Gothich form of the new church was among the reasons that some members left Nicolson Street to join a new congregation at Castle Wynd.

He noted that, in this approach, it is similar to James Gillespie Graham's earlier design for St Mary's Roman Catholic Chapel.

[64] Andrew Landale Drummond, writing in 1934, described the church as "a square meeting-house masked by a pretentious Gothic façade".

The whole arrangement, as well as the flat ceiling and the gallery front, incorporated detailed wood carving and took inspiration from Robert Lorimer's designs for the Scottish National War Memorial.