[The General Assembly Hall of the Free Church, Edinburgh, during construction]

In addition to portraits, David Hill and Robert Adamson made a number of architectural studies, such as this large photograph. They focused their attention not on the steeple church of Tollbooth Saint John's but on the structure undergoing construction directly below, the General Assembly Hall for the newly formed Free Church of Scotland. As a metaphor for the religious dispute in Scotland, the building stands for the new church sprouting up from under the towering presence of the existing church.