Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Presbyterian Church built 1964-65 to designs by Louis Adair Roche of architects Munce & Kennedy; rectilinear plan comprising square plan church, campanile and adjoining ancillary accommodation and halls. Located on an elevated site overlooking Moss Road at the junction with Harmony Hill, on the east side of the main Belfast to Lisburn carriageway.

The church building consists of a continuous painted roughcast wall enveloping the lower portion of the church and linked through to the courtyard. The principal architectural elements are the hyperbolic-paraboloid roof over the main body of the church, and the open campanile and courtyard.

The church roof comprises seamed membrane roofing with painted timber fascia, spanning the full length and width of the main body of the church over clerestory glazing. The roof structure is supported by four concrete Y-plan buttresses located along the mid-point of each of the four enclosing walls, with the lowest point of the roof structure supported by the buttresses. The roof is drained by lead-lined concealed guttering with plain hopper-heads and concealed downpipes. Rough-cast painted walling in strongly modulated form wraps around the floor plan and is punctuated by the glazing strategically placed; with wall surmounted by the frameless multi-paned clerestory glazing. The building is accessed via steps through replacement double-glazed aluminium screen to main entrance in courtyard. Replacement uPVC double-glazing to the five long windows on the southeast side of the courtyard (meeting room), and timber frames to the openings that now contain stained glass. Principal entrance through timber double-leaf entrance door with narrow vertical glazing panels and large rectangular glazed panel over with etched quote by George Herbert with timber sheeted soffit and eaves.

The principal façade of the main body of the church faces northeast and is symmetrically arranged. The roof forms an inclined pitch with the lowest point in the centre; tapering clerestory glazing between the roof plane and wall. Centrally located vertical concrete Y-plan buttress projecting from the facade with vertical glazing to either side. To the right the soaring in situ concrete campanile creates an opening in the wall, in the form of a pair of tall vertical-concrete planes, joined at the top by two slightly recessed horizontal platforms (the present location of the bell is over the vestibule). At ground floor level, mild-steel gates displaying a large ‘burning-bush’ motif at high level, providing access into the entrance courtyard and main entrance to the vestibule.

The southeast elevation (side) comprises the side façade of the main body of the church, with symmetrical inclined pitched roof. The central projecting Y-plan vertical element has a new double-door fire escape added c.2013 on right side and a narrow timber-framed stained glass window to left. The southwest elevation (rear) matches the principal elevation in design and profile.

The northwest elevation of the main church body mirrors the form of the southeast façade - the left half of the elevation faces onto the courtyard and the right half is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed vestibule and office.

The courtyard is enclosed by the glazed northeast face of the vestibule including the main entrance and the southeast face of the ancillary accommodation which comprises a plain rendered wall with five equally spaced replacement vertical uPVC windows.

The adjoining ancillary accommodation is generally made up of two large halls forming a large cat-slide tiled roof with large roof lights on the northern pitch. The northeast elevation is slightly angled and falls sharply to the left; double-leaf secondary entrance to the left with further double-leaf exit doors to the right.
The northwest façade is asymmetrical cat-slide gable with various openings. The southwest façade is flush with the main body of the church; largely obscured from view; various openings.

Setting:
The
setting to the north, south and west is primarily suburban/residential. The main Lisburn to Belfast Road runs parallel to the railway line, east of the church. Palisade fence to the rear and southeast, beyond which lies a large tarmac car park to the east. The elevated pedestrian entrance is accessed by concrete steps with central circular section handrail from Moss Road. Dense, mature vegetation to front and mature vegetation to rear.

Materials:
Roofing: Seamed membrane
Walling: Painted roughcast render
RWG: Lead-lined/concealed
Windows: Frameless multi-paned clerestory glazing; replacement double-glazed aluminium screen to main entrance in courtyard, replacement uPVC double-glazing to five windows on the southeast side of courtyard, and timber frames to the openings that now contain stained glass (the latter was installed in both 1998 and 2002 to windows on both north-west and south-east sides, windows marked ‘C.W.S. DESIGN stained glass studio’).

Historical information

Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church was constructed in the 1960s; however the congregation has an earlier history dating from First Lisburn Presbyterian Church’s purchase of a house in Lambeg which was used as a church hall from 1929. This hall became the first meeting house of the local congregation (which was officially formed in 1954) and was situated across the road from the current church; the hall consisted of a large upper meeting room and two smaller rooms on the ground floor and became known as Lambeg Presbyterian Church Hall. After the end of the Second World War a large number of new houses were constructed in Lambeg as Belfast spread during the 1950s; as a result in 1953 the General Assembly Church Extension Committee decided to establish a new congregation in Lambeg to cater for the increasing number of Presbyterian residents. The first service of the new congregation took place on 21st February 1954 in Lambeg Church Hall which was later purchased from First Lisburn Presbyterian in 1957 (Wallace).

Wallace records that due to a growing congregation plans for a new church building were submitted to the Church Extension Committee in the early 1960s. The current church was designed by Messrs. Munce and Kennedy, a Belfast based partnership formed in 1919; both James Stilwell Munce and Edwin Riddell Kennedy had died by 1960, however Munce’s son James Frederick Munce carried on the business under the old name until retitling it the James Munce Partnership in the mid 1960s (Dictionary of Irish Architects). Wallace suggests that the architects designed the church as a tent-like structure which mirrored the tabernacle, ‘the very first structure in which the people of God in the Old Testament gathered to worship.’ The Builders contracted to construct the Church were Messrs. Fraser & Co. who completed the work at a cost of £35,820. The foundation stone was laid on 19th September 1964 and the new church was opened on 29th May 1965 by the Moderator of the General Assembly; a Manse was purchased in the same year at 2 Parkmount. The church bell predates the church by almost a century originating from 1874 when it was originally installed in Clogher Presbyterian Church in Co. Mayo (demolished in 1931) (Wallace). In 1965 the Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland recorded that the church was valued at £512 and was owned by the trustees of Lambeg Presbyterian Church (PRONI).

Harmony Hill Presbyterian was elevated to a full congregation in 1968 and in that same year the Church won the Civic Trust Award for ‘the most pleasing contribution it makes to the area’ (Wallace). Kelly records that the new Church Hall, adjoining the church, was opened in 1971; this was constructed by Dunlop Bros. and cost £17,200 to build. The opening of the new hall coincided with the loss of the original Church Hall purchased in 1929; since the construction of the new church the original hall had fallen into a state of disrepair and in 1974 was accidently burnt down. Later alterations to the church included the addition of the pipe organ which was dedicated on 9th January 1977 and was fashioned by the Irish Organ Company, the repair of the roof, which had become affected with rot, in 1982, and the installation of an oil heating system in 1983 (Wallace). Kelly records that the most recent change to the church was the addition of a new entrance and vestibule which was dedicated in 2006 when new glass windows were also presented; field research finds that a number of stained glass windows of minor significance were also installed c. 2000 (Kelly, p. 136).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/52 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
2. Ordnance Survey map 165-3 (1963)

Secondary Sources
1. Kelly, D., ‘Lisburn’s rich church heritage: Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn city area’ Lisburn: Impression Print and Design, 2009.
2. Wallace, S. & B., ‘Forty years on’ Unknown Publisher: 1993.
3. First Survey Record – HB19/15/009 (1993)

Online Resources
1. http://www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church was built 1964-65 to designs by Louis Adair Roche (1927 - 2014) of architects Munce & Kennedy. The church, with its distinctive hyperbolic-paraboloid roof and campanile is located on an elevated site overlooking Moss Road at the junction with Harmony Hill, on the east side of the main Belfast to Lisburn carriageway.
It has architectural and historic significance as a largely intact example of late mid-20th-century modernist ecclesiastical architecture in Northern Ireland. The building demonstrates an innovative structural and spatial concept, expressed through its hyperbolic-paraboloid roof supported by Y-plan concrete buttresses, reflecting the modern movement’s emphasis on clarity, functionality, and sculptural form.
Roche has carried this concept through from design to realisation; the sequence and progression of spaces brings the people on a journey – entering through the base of the campanile into the external courtyard, or open antechamber, then into the lobby, before entering the church itself. The enveloping external walls protect and buffer the congregation from external noise. The design of the roof imitates the concept of a ‘tent’, coming from the Latin ‘tabernaculum’, a place for people to worship.
The original liturgical furniture, consisting of the sculptural concrete pulpit, rotating communion table, and faceted baptismal font, are integral to the architectural composition and represent a unified design approach. Of particular artistic significance is the abstract, faceted in situ cast concrete screen with bronze finish by Kinney Dobson, reflecting the collaboration between architecture and contemporary art during the post-war period and reinforcing the building’s cohesive design language. Kinney Dobson was a leading graphic design and commercial art company in Belfast, formed by Desmond Kinney and Ralph Dobson in 1962.
Recognised with a Civic Trust Award in 1968, the church has a landmark presence and stands a testament to Roche’s early work. It continues to serve the community while preserving the integrity of its original design, making it a good example of modernist religious architecture which integrates structural expression with liturgical function, while asserting a distinctive architectural identity.