Parish Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Double-height, gable-ended red brick parish hall (for Shankill CoI parish) of 1898-99 by Young & MacKenzie, with taller modern style two / three-storey office / shop addition of 1978, that replaced a building of 1879 through which the hall was originaly entered.

SETTING Urban street front location close to Lurgan town centre, on the SE side of Church Walk facing directly on to the street itself with the extension to the SW end at the junction of Church Place. To the NE is a walled yard with a narrow strip of land to the SE side.

FRONT (NW) ELEVATION The original section of the hall has a formal arrangement with seven, tall, high-level pointed arch windows with bevelled sandstone sills, plain c.1960s-70s replacement frames and security glazing. Each window is set within a shallow recess formed by plain pilasters which rise from a tall base which is topped with bevelled bricks. Within each recess above the window is a moulded terracotta stringcourse with egg and dart moulding above this, the latter close to the eaves. To the far left is a ground level pointed arch pedestrian doorway with a deeply recessed panelled timber double leaf door. To the far right is the modern extension. This is of no architectural interest; however, it contains the main entrance. (It replaced an original vestibule projection etc. - see historical information.)

NW ELEVATION Gabled. A c.1960s modern style upper-level timber-clad extension (supported on steel uprights) is attached to this end of the hall; it is of no interest. At ground level to left (on the main original section) is a doorway that leads into the boiler room. Patching in the brickwork indicates that there were originally several windows and another doorway to this level.

SE ELEVATION This elevation is largely a repetition of that to NW, but with a doorway (now with modern door) also occupying one of the recesses to the right, and a c.1960s single-storey (kitchen) extension to the far left, whose presence has also resulted in the blocking up of the window to this end. A metal stair runs against the façade to left, rising over the roof of the extension to give access to a doorway on the upper level of the rear of the 1978 block.

ROOF The double pitch roof is covered in natural slate but has a large area of glazing along the ridge. The gable has sandstone kneelers, a parapet (which also appears to be in sandstone), and a brick chimneystack to its apex. C-I RW goods.

YARD etc The yard to the NE is enclosed from the street by a tall rendered wall with a vehicle gateway with plain (and original looking) wrought iron gates. There is a cast iron corner protector to the N corner of the hall next to the gateway. To the SE side of the yard is a small dusused, flat-roofed single-storey building, which is of no architectural interest.

Historical information

This hall was built in 1898-99 for Shankill Church of Ireland parish to designs by architects Young & MacKenzie of Belfast. The main contractor was Thomas McMillan of Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, and the building costs are cited in the valuation records as amounting to £1,730.

Its construction was in large part due to the efforts of the then Rector, Rev. R.S. O’Loughlin, who had ‘not been long in the parish until the urgent necessity for such a building forced itself upon him, and he at once directed all of his energies to the realization of the project, which though often mooted had never previously been seriously entertained by those in charge of the finances of the parish.’ The foundation stone was laid in September 1898 and ‘the splendid assembly room and largest hall in Lurgan’ was officially opened on 7 April 1899.

In its original form the hall was accessed via a ‘commodious vestibule…roofed with coloured glass’. Evidence suggests that this was a single-storey projection attached to the left side of the south-western gable, and which extended into ‘Shankill Buildings’, a two-and a half storey mansard-roofed terrace block in Church Place built in 1879 as a parish-run temperance hotel. In effect this block acted as the frontage for the hall.

The building seems to have retained its original form until sometime around the mid to later 1960s when the raised extension would appear to have been added to the north-east gable. The kitchen extension to the south may have been built around the same time, though it is difficult to pinpoint exact dates for both of these additions.

Following a bomb attack on the nearby police station in November 1973, in which the adjacent parish church sustained damage to its roof, the hall was used to hold services for some months whilst repairs were carried out. Shankill Buildings suffered to an even greater extent in the same explosion and following demolition in late 1974 was eventually replaced with the present structure in 1978, from which the hall is now entered.

The hall is located on the south-eastern side of what was previously 'The Church Walk' a formal, tree-lined avenue created in the later 1700s between Church Place and the Brownlow House demesne. Following the sale of the latter in 1893 it began to be developed for housing with present-day Wellington Street laid out across its path in the early 1900s.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/14/8E Annual valuation revision book, Lurgan ED – 1870-80
2 PRONI VAL12B/14/9E, H, K, L Annual valuation revision books, Lurgan Urban ED – 1894-1930
3 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ – 23 January 1879, p.5
4 ‘Irish Builder’ Vol.40, p.87 - 1 June 1898
5 ‘Lurgan Mail’ – 15 April 1899, p.; 14 April 1928, p.3; 28 February 1974, p.5; 3 October 1974, p.4; 20 March 1975, p.3; 1 June 1978, p.19
6 OS maps of Lurgan (various scales) - 1906, 1935, 1937, 1954, 1963, 1964, 1986
7 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ – 8 June 1978, p.4

Secondary sources
8 Harron, Paul, ‘Architects of Ulster: Young & Mackenzie, a transformational provincial practice 1850-1960’ (Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2016), p.295

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Double-height, gable-ended red brick parish hall (for Shankill CoI parish) of 1898-99 by Young & MacKenzie, with taller modern style two / three-storey office / shop addition of 1978, that replaced a building of 1879 to which the hall was originaly linked. The hall does not meet the criteria for listing.