Queens Parade Methodist Church Queens Parade

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached double-height gable-fronted Gothic-style church built c.1891 to the designs of John Harold Burton. Located adjacent to Bangor Marina overlooking Bangor Bay towards Belfast Lough.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; centrally located copper ventilation lantern. Square uncoursed rubble basalt with sandstone dressings. Gothic diamond lattice leaded stained glass windows; long-and-short chamfered sandstone surrounds with hood moulding over. The principal entrance comprises a modern glazed replacement door embraced by a segmental arched opening with hood moulding rising to an engaged finial; flanked by diminished red sandstone colonnettes embedded into chamfered jambs. Door accessed by three sandstone steps accompanied by modern tubular steel handrails.

The principal elevation faces north and is a symmetrically arranged gable. The front door is located centrally at ground floor level; flanked by paired windows either side. Upper stage comprises two large gothic plate tracery windows comprising sexfoil opening over three gothic openings; hooded mouldings and head-stops; flanked by quoins. Gablets to apex stone and gable shoulder. Dress stone pillars to either side of elevation; squared rising to string course with semi-engaged octagonal upper stage; rising to cornice level surmounted by a octagonal conical pinnacle.

The left (east) elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

The rear (south) rendered gable is blank; view partially obscured.

The right (west) elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

Setting

The church is bounded by adjoining building to the east, south and west. The front elevation makes up part of a long terrace of Victorian and modern replacement two and three storey commercial and retail premises; many of which are derelict. Between the church and the marina carpark runs a multil-ane road.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Basalt
Window: Leaded lattice stained glass
RWG: Unknown

Historical information

The Methodist Chapel, built c.1891, is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901. However, it replaced an earlier Methodist Meeting House on the same site which is captioned from the first edition of 1833. This earlier building, described in the OS Memoirs as ‘tolerably neat’, was built in 1820 at a cost of £600, which was raised by subscription. The church accommodated between 300 and 400 people. (OS Memoirs, p.24) A surviving image of the late 1880s shows the former church, a simple primitive gothic building looking out over the harbour. (Wilson, p.26; Patton, p.175-6)

This earlier church was built by Wesleyan Methodists, but was later taken over by New Connexion Methodists and the two branches of Methodism both built new churches in Bangor in the centenary year of Wesley’s death, responding to Bangor’s steady increase in population as it grew into a resort and commuter town. The Wesley Centenary church in Hamilton Road opened slightly later, in September 1891. (HB23/05/003)

The opening of the new Methodist church at Queen’s Parade (then known as Sandy Row), together with schoolroom to the rear, was previewed by the Belfast Newsletter on 26th June 1891. The architect was Mr John Harold Burton of Lancashire whose only known work in Ireland is this church and school together with some domestic architecture elsewhere in Bangor. However, he was the winner of several competitions for chapels and schools in the north -west of England in the late 1880s, and this may have brought his name to the attention of the Methodist congregation. (www.dia.ie) The contractors were Messrs Dixon and Campbell of Belfast who used Dundonald whinstone from their own quarries and ashlar dressings from Scrabo. (Belfast Newsletter)

According to Seyers’ reminiscences, the meeting house was rebuilt by William James Campbell, the developer of several houses further along Queen’s Parade in the 1880s and 90s (HB23/07/012A-B, HB23/07/022A-B). (Seyers, p.12) A schoolhouse fronting onto Main Street was built at the same time as the new church and this is still extant, dated 1891, and now occupied by a travel agency.

The Newsletter comments that, “internally the joiner’s work is of varnished pitch pine, the walls and ceilings are plastered, and the windows are filled in with stained lead lights of simple design. The body of the church is 33 feet wide, and is divided by two aisles into three groups of seating. Special care has been taken to make all the seats sufficiently roomy and comfortable in use.” The church was furnished with a gallery and was able to accommodate 400 people. (Belfast Newsletter)

A German air raid in 1941 caused considerable damage to the building. Extensive repairs and the replacement of the windows were completed in 1945. In 1981 the building was again damaged by a bomb that devastated the lower end of Main Street. The roofs of both the sanctuary and Wesley Hall were destroyed, and all the church windows were blown in. With the help of £11,000 from the Northern Ireland Office, repairs were made and the windows replaced.

The building remains in use as a church.

This record was completed without reference to primary source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
4. PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
5. PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. Belfast Newsletter, June 26th 1891

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down II, 1832-4, 1837, Vol. 7.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.
2. Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
3. Seyers, W T “Reminiscences of Old Bangor” Belfast: Lion Gate Press, 1983
4. Wilson, I “Bangor, Historic Photographs of the County Down town” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1992
5. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A double-height gable-fronted Gothic-style church built 1891 to the designs of John Harold Burton. Externally the principal façade has retained its appearance, typical in style and proportion to Methodists churches of its period. However, it has undergone several phases of alteration and suffered substantial bomb damage resulting in the loss of much historic fabric. Although of local interest the extensive alterations have compromised its architectural and historic interest.

General comments

Within Bangor Central Area of Townscape Character