[1] A square-plan neo-Gothic church with a 3-stage entrance tower, hall and offices, and a basement,[2] the architectural historian John Gifford describes the plan as "unexpectedly orthodox".

Internally, the layout is a T-plan interior typical of Presbyterian churches of this era, exhibiting a renewed emphasis on the pulpit as the focal centre around which the congregation assembled to hear the preaching.

The interior includes a timber U-plan gallery on the first floor, boasting a carved and paneled balustrade; this is supported by slender cast-iron columns with elaborate corinthian capitals, rising all the way to the main groin vault ceiling.

It was commissioned, most likely by public subscription (as was common custom at the time), to accommodate a congregation over-flow from the nearby Fountainbridge Free Church, which under the ministry of Rev.

The St David's Viewforth buildings were sold to Newcastle Breweries, and demolished as part of the development of their McEwan’s Brewery at Fountainbridge; the entire Brewery site has in recent years itself been demolished and redeveloped forming the new Boroughmuir High School Viewforth-St Oswald's was itself a product of the 1957 merger between St Oswald's Parish Church (located in nearby Montpelier Place) and Viewforth with both buildings remaining in use for worship until 1963, when the St Oswald's church and hall buildings were sold to the local Education Authority, for use as the Boroughmuir High School Annexe.