Carrickfergus Congregational Church, Albert Road, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached double-height Romanesque-style red brick Congregational church, built c.1910, located to the west side of Albert Road, at the corner of Unity Street. Rectangular-on-plan, facing east; modern extension to southwest corner.

Roof is pitched natural slate with finial to east gable; raking brick cornice on exaggerated kneeler stones to gables. Walling is red brick (English garden wall bond) with accent mouldings and brick cornice, all over brick plinth. Windows are round-headed, grouped in pairs and plainly glazed, unless otherwise stated.

Principal gable (east) is dominated by three moulded relief arches springing from brick pilasters in a symmetrical arrangement. The central arch is larger, enclosing main entrance doors and a grouping of three windows, (central window is taller). The flanking arches each frame a pair of windows with brick hood mouldings, surmounted by an occulus, also with brick surround. There is a brick string course and sill course, and blind roundel to apex. The double-leaf entrance doors are of panelled timber set within double rebated opening with semi-circular hood moulding.

The south elevation is six pairs of windows wide, each pair being set in a recessed bay framed by brick pilasters. The right bay has pair of windows at ground floor level surmounted by oculus. The left bay is abutted by the return.

The west gable is rendered with raking cornice. There is a two-storey extension with deeply overhanging pitched natural slate roof to centre.

The north elevation is arranged as south elevation with outside bays detailed as flanking bays of main elevation. Leaded stained glass to third and fifth window from left.

The church is bounded to Albert Road by wrought iron railings on a masonry plinth wall. Attached linking block and church hall (HB22/08/016B) to southwest. North elevation is street fronted.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Red brick (English garden wall bond)
Windows Timber framed fixed glazing with masonry sills
Rainwater goods Cast-iron box profile downpipes, ogee profiled guttering

Historical information

The church is not recorded on the third edition OS map of 1902, however a town map corresponding with the Valuation Revision books from 1894-1929 shows the building added in pen (date not given), and listed as 'Independent Meeting House' under exemptions in the Revisions of 1908-1915. It is valued at £40.

References

Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/52/1 -First Edition OS Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/52/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/52/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1901-2)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/7 A-C –Valuation Revisions (1894-1929)
5. PRONI VAL/12/E/20/2/1 -Town Plan Maps (1898-1908)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An early twentieth-century double-height Congregational Church, executed in brick in a Romanesque style. It is an imposing building which is distinctly urban in character. The church is externally and internally well preserved and forms a coherent group (despite frontage to separate streets) with the “Independent Sabbath School” (HB22/08/016B), now a church hall. Set on a prominent site on Albert Road, the church functions as a local landmark in a highly developed area, and is an important part of the social fabric of the community.