St. George’s Tron Church is influenced by Baroque classicism, while St. Vincent Street Church exudes an oriental exoticism with the display of various Egyptian elements. Both of buildings have tower on their main facade to give an air of loftiness. But St. George’s Tron Church adopts a classical appearance with tower in the middle to define central axis for the symmetrical facade. St. Vincent Street Church is asymmetrical with the tower relegated to one side of the entrance.

 

The side elevation of St. Vincent Church is facing onto a sloping street. The temple like portico is elevated on a podium to make one allude the building to the Acropolis in Athens. St. George’s Tron Church sits on a flat island site. It has the main facade facing Buchanan Street which is the most prominent street in the city centre of Glasgow.

 

The portico of St. Vincent Church takes on a Greek temple appearance with Ionic columns supporting a pediment topped with acroterion which is a signature hallmark of Alexander Greek Thomson. St. George’s Tron Church has its main entrance flanked by Doric columns which are two-storey high. With these giant Doric columns, William Stark, the architect of St. George’s Tron, welded an austere appearance for the church facade. The main entrance has an arched fan light that sits above the door opening.

 

The tower of St. George’s Tron Church has corner piers decorated with obelisk finials that draw one’s eyes upwards to the sky. The cupola above the clock supports a semi-circular dome which is also topped with stone finial. St. Vincent Church’s tower displays heavy oriental influence. It has T-shaped window openings with Egyptian caryatid busts. The tower has corners topped with bells, and the lantern is supporting an elongated dome. Instead of finial, a stone urn singularly sits at the very top of the tower for St. Vincent Church.

 

The interior of St. George’s Tron Church is plain with white washed wall and ceiling. It has three sided gallery supported by slender cast iron columns. The interior picture indicates that the building is still functioning as a church for congregation these days. In contrast, the interior of St. Vincent church looks more rich and colourful. The door has architrave decorated with rosettes, like an Egyptian pylon. One can identify similar feature for windows on the external side elevation. Inside the church of St. Vincent, column capital is crowned with a ring of repetitive palmettes. Together with the acanthus leaves lining with the surface of capital, the column is an obvious take on of the ancient Egyptian architecture. The ceiling has frieze of palmette and anthemia motif as a continuation on the theme of orientalism.

 

Following the archaeology discoveries in Africa during the 19th century, the exotic oriental ornaments of Alexander Greek Thomson can be explained by the growing interest of that period towards Egyptian antiquity. On the other hand, being built half a century earlier, St. George’s Tron is a church that belongs to an era of Enlightenment when architects looked for inspiration from classical antiquity of the European architecture.