Buccleuch Parish Church

St Andrew's Orthodox Church is an Orthodox church located in the Southside, Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh's Orthodox community was founded in 1948 and has, since 2013, occupied the former Buccleuch Parish Church, which was founded as a chapel of ease of St Cuthbert's in 1756 and closed in 1969. In the middle of the 18th century, St Cuthbert's Parish covered a large area around Edinburgh. Its population was growing, especially in the area of the modern Southside. The church opened in January 1756 as St Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease. The church became a parish church in 1834 and founded a parish school on the Meadows in 1839. The Disruption of 1843 greatly affected the church and it was revived with the support of Archibald Charteris and the Edinburgh University Mission Association. By the middle of the 20th century, the congregation was declining as many of its members moved away from the Southside. In 1969, Buccleuch united with Nicolson Street and Charteris-Pleasance. The building was sold to the University of Edinburgh, which used it as a furniture store. The Orthodox Community of St Andrew was founded in 1948 by Archpriest John Sotnikov, a Russian chaplain of the Polish Army. Under Sotnikov's successor, Maitland Moir, the church moved into the former Buccleuch Parish School in 2003 before purchasing the former Buccleuch Parish Church in 2013. The church is a simple, cruciform building, greatly altered in the Gothic style by Daniel MacGibbon in 1866. It has been a category C listed building since 2007. Notable interments in the surrounding churchyard include Thomas Blacklock and Deacon Brodie.