PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical double-height gable-fronted Tudor Gothic Revival stone church, built 1877-79, to the designs of Young & Mackenzie. Rectangular on plan facing southwest with two-storey red brick lean-to extension to rear. Set on a slightly elevated constrained site on the north side of Carlisle Road adjacent to Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church Hall (HB01/19/059B).

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles hidden behind front gable and crenellated parapets to either side. Cast-iron guttering breaking through parapet walls. Uncoursed squared rubble schist walling with sandstone ashlar dressings. Tudor-arched window openings formed in chamfered sandstone ashlar with flush splayed sills and leaded coloured glass windows.

Three-bay frontispiece elevation (SE) is elaborately adorned with stone Gothic features returning by a single bay to either side elevation. Central gable has blind trefoil arcaded panel to the apex surmounted by quatrefoil raking balustrade and clasping finial. The gable is framed by octagonal piers with panelled buttresses to the ground floor, rising as turrets with trefoil panels at gable level with tapered tops and poppy-head finials. Corbelled out octagonal turrets with tapered heads and poppy-head finails rise from the corners of the front elevation with stepped diagonal buttresses below. The corner turrets are repeated to the single-bay return of the frontispiece to both side elevations. The gable frames a large Tudor-arched window with continuous hood moulding, trefoil-panelled apron, embellished coved surround and perpendicular stone tracery window frame with leaded coloured glazing. The side bays have square-headed window openings to the upper level and Tudor-arched openings to the lower level, both having hood mouldings with label stops, cusped stone tracery window frames and leaded coloured glazing. Paired Tudor-arched door openings to the centre with deeply moulded and embellished surrounds and voussoired compound arches rising from engaged columns on plinth blocks with angular capitals. Foil spandrels over the arches are surmounted by ribbon banners framed by splayed architraves with a single carved crest panel above each opening. Original vertically-sheeted battened hardwood sliding doors open onto sandstone paved platform and flight of steps. The frontispiece bay has single Tudor-arched door opening to either side with original vertically-sheeted hardwood doors.

SW side elevation is five windows wide (excluding frontispiece bay).

Triple gabled rear elevation (NW) has a two-storey red brick lean-to projection spanning entire rear elevation. Stone coping to the gables with a rendered chimneystack rising from the central gable and a further brick chimneystack rising from that to the right. The flanking gables have elaborate stained glass windows (Clokey). The rear brick projection has square-headed window and door openings with original 6/6 timber sliding sash windows and timber panelled doors.

NE side elevation as per northwest elevation with the addition of a steel pedestrian walkway connecting the church to the church hall (HB01/19/059B) at FF level, 2nd bay from left. Further Tudor-arched door opening to the rear end with deep jambs and vertically-sheeted hardwood door.

Setting:
Located on an elevated site on the west side of Carlisle Road adjacent to the Presbyterian Church Hall (HB01/19/059B) on a constrained site. Site enclosed to the front by schist plinth wall with cement coping and elaborate cast-iron railings with two pairs of matching iron gates hung on trefoil-panelled octagonal sandstone piers with iron finials and a central cast-iron post.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Schist / sandstone ashlar
Windows Stone tracery with leaded coloured glass

Historical information

Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church, a Tudor Gothic Style church located at the south end of Carlisle Road, was constructed in 1877-79 as Londonderry’s fourth Presbyterian Church. In 1838 the disused theatre on Artillery Street (HB01/19/065) was converted into a meeting house for the Seceding Presbyterian Congregation of Second Londonderry (First Derry Seceding was located on the Strand Road – see HB01/21/011). Prior to 1838 the congregation, which was a seceding mission, had met at a makeshift hall in Fountain Street. In 1840 the Synod of Ulster and the Secession Synod merged to form the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. As a result of this merger the formerly divided Presbyterian congregations in the city were reorganised and renumbered. First Derry Seceding became Second Derry Presbyterian and Second Derry Seceding was renamed Fourth Derry Presbyterian. The Short History of Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church: 1838-1938 records that the congregation continued to meet at Fountain Street until 1841 when the former theatre on Artillery Street was acquired and converted into its new use as a meeting house.

The congregation remained at Artillery Street for the next three decades although, by the 1870s, it was decided that a new meeting house would be needed to accommodate the ever growing congregation. Designs for the current church were drawn up in 1877 by Young & Mackenzie, a Belfast-based partnership. The Dictionary of Irish Architects described Young & Mackenzie as ‘the most successful architectural practice in Belfast [which] had become the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the North-East and had already received some of the most important commercial commissions in [Belfast].’ The DIA states that Young & Mackenzie carried out most of its work in the North-East of the province and the firm were very active in Derry having designed commercial premises on Foyle Street, a second Presbyterian Church on Clooney Terrace, Professor’s houses at Magee University and one of the city’s largest shirt factories on Patrick Street (DIA). The new Presbyterian Church on Carlisle Road was designed in a Tudor Gothic style possessing a large tracery window and side turrets. The Natural Stone Database notes that the church was constructed of locally-quarried materials including Derry Schist and Barony Glen sandstone. The Colhoun Brothers, a local building firm, were hired as contractors for the site (NSD).

Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church was completed by March 1879. The church history notes that two opening services took place on the 23rd and 30th March, the ceremonies being carried out by the Rev. W. F. Stevenson of Dublin and the Rev. Prof Flint of Edinburgh. The new church was initially valued at £150 under the Annual Revisions, but this was raised to £200 following the construction of the adjoining Church School in 1884 (see HB01/19/059B). The combined cost of the church and its school was estimated at over £10,000. When the church was opened in 1879 the building did not possess its current entrance and railings which were not completed until 1890. In that year the Derry Standard noted that the entrance was designed by local architect William Barker who predominantly carried out work for the Presbyterian Church in his early career. The construction of the gate piers and railings was carried out by the building firm of John Shannon (Short History of Carlisle Road Presbyterian; Derry Standard; DIA) The c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan depicted the building along its current layout suggesting that no significant alteration has been made to the structure of the church since its completion in 1879.

There was little change to the structure of the church over the following three decades. Following the end of the First World War the War Memorial Organ and War Memorial Tablet were installed within the building on 24th April 1922. The interior of the church was redecorated in 1934 when new church furniture was added and the entrance floor of the vestibule laid down in terrazzo. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the joint value of the church and schoolhouse was increased to £480. In 1938 Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church celebrated its centenary year. There are a number of memorial tablets located within the building, the earliest of which are the memorial tablet to Dr. Craig (installed on 25th March 1925), the tablet to the Rev. J. Huey (installed on 16th July 1929), and the marble memorial to the session clerk Mr. J. Hamilton (which was unveiled on 9th September 1947). The oak baptismal font was presented by the Women’s Fellowship in 1948 in memory of all those from the congregation who had died during the Second World War whilst the War Memorial Window was dedicated and unveiled on 9th November 1952 (Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church History).

In 1961 the church was in a poor state of repair and the decision was made to completely reroof the building and repair the external stonework (the repair work cost over £10,000). The memorial window to Jeannie Morrison (a prominent member of the congregation) was installed in May 1965 and, following an additional renovation project, the church was reopened on 15th September 1968. By the end of the Second Revaluation the combined value of the church and schoolhouse had risen to £784. In 1973 the church’s organ and windows were damaged following a bomb blast. The Memorial Organ was rebuilt by Wells-Kennedy Partnership in 1977, and in 1979 the congregation celebrated the centenary of the current building’s erection.

In 1970 the UAHS guide for Derry described Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church as a ‘Neo-Gothic façade in the perpendicular style fronting on to the street … the gable is flanked on both sides with mock turrets crowned with pinnacles’ (UAHS guide, p. 30). Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church was listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records noted that the two stained glass windows (located to either side of the church organ) were designed by W. F. Clokey, a Belfast-based stained glass manufacturer which was one of the principle ecclesiastic glazers in Ulster in the early-to-mid-20th century (NIEA HB Records). Due to the decline in the protestant population on the western side of the Foyle during the Northern Ireland Troubles, in 1989 the congregations of Carlisle Road and Crossroads (Co. Donegal) were merged. In 1993 the church was reopened after undergoing an extensive internal renovation that included the redecoration of the building and the addition of modern wiring and lighting installations. The total cost of the renovation came to approximately £50,000. Following the closure of Strand Road Presbyterian Church in 2010 the two congregations were merged. Kirkpatrick notes that the congregation at Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church currently stands at just under 200 families (Kirkpatrick, p. 206).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/15 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/1A-1B – Annual Revisions (1897-1929)
5. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Londonderry (1837)
8. Derry Standard (5 May 1890)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1943)
10. First Survey Record – HB01/19/059A (1970)
11. First Survey Image – HB01/19/059A (No Date)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/059A

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Short History of Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church: 1838-1938’ Londonderry: Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church, 1938.
2. Baillie, W. D., ‘A history of congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland: 1610-1982’ Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1982.
3. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
4. Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
5. Kirkpatrick, L., ‘Presbyterians in Ireland: An illustrated history’ Booklink, 2006.
6. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/
2. Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com//buildings.cfm?bk=1953
3. Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church website - http://www.crpci.org.uk/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical gable-fronted stone Tudor Gothic Revival stone church, built 1877-79 as Londonderry’s fourth Presbyterian Church to designs by Young & Mackenzie, a successful Belfast-based partnership which became the leading architectural practice for the Presbyterian Church in the North-East. Set on a slightly elevated site at the south-west end of Carlisle Road adjacent to Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church Hall (HB01/19/059B), with which it has group value, it stands behind fine iron railings on stone walls with decorative stone piers. The perpendicular Gothic style of this late nineteenth-century church is emphasised by its elevated site on a narrow street. Much historic fabric has been retained both internally and externally providing an authentic Gothic Revival interior that continues to serve the local Presbyterian community while standing as a prominent landmark in the centre of the city.