Towns > Helensburgh > 1875 - Battrum's guide and directory to Helensburgh and neighbourhood

22 HELENSBURGH GUIDE.
selves more fully on the minds of those interested in our
burgh, and which we hope, ere many years have passed, to see
accomplished, and Helensburgh the first in attractiveness,
as it is first in situation, of all Scottish watering-places.
Of late years the rapidly-increasing population has efiected
a change in the character of the property in the front street
— most of the old buildings have been taken down, and re-
placed by handsome modern erections fitted up for shops.
Of these there are almost every variety, some of them equal
to those in the first towns in the kingdom, and in which an
abundant supply of every article essential to comfort and
luxury can be procured. There are no buildings of any
antiquity to interest the visitors. The almost only public
buildings are the churches and banks. The first in order
amongst the churches is
THE ESTABLISHED CHUECH.
It stands pleasantly situated close by the sea-shore, and is
one of the first objects which greets the visitor's eye approach-
ing the town by the water. It is a neat substantial build-
ing, but its front view is completely obscured by an enormous
granary, rising in the bloom of its native ugliness, directly
opposite. The church was built in 1847, at an expense of
about .£2700, and was then intended as a chapel of ease to
the parish church at Row. It was afterwards considerably
enlarged and is now seated for 800. In July 1862, by a
decree of the Court of Teinds, it was erected into a parish
church, and Helensburgh attached as a parish quoad sacra.
The boundaries of the parish extend on the east to Cardross
parish, on the west to Ardencaple, and on the north to the
northern boundaries of the farms of Kirkmichael, Stuck,
Mallig, Glenan, Easterton and Woodend. The expense of