The Church of the Pentecost (COI)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical double-height red-brick Parish Church in the modernist style with vertical glazed gable and adjoining hall (HB25/11/003B), built c.1955 to designs by Dennis O'Donoghue Hanna, and located on the west side of Mount Merrion Avenue south of Belfast city centre. Cruciform-plan; vestry to north with belfry tower; single-storey flat-roof extension to rear.

Steeply pitched pantile roof with timber eaves board; copper spire to central ridgeline. Aluminium half-round rainwater goods on overhanging eaves. Walling is stretcher-bonded red-brick; tapered buttresses to south gable. Full-height metal casement windows with vertical glazing bars in timber-sheeted surround to east gable; to upper section only of west gable; vestry has uPVC windows.

The principal elevation faces east and is dominated by the central projecting glazed gable. Entrance porches to exposed sections at north and south, comprising recessed timber-and-glazed double-leaf doors with tiled step. Marble plaque to south porch reads “This stone marks the consecration of The Church of the Pentecost by the Right Rev. F.J.Mitchell D.D Bishop of Down and Dromore on 16th March 1963. Curate in charge The Rev. W.G Neely B.D. Church Wardens W.M Archer James Little”.

The south gable is buttressed with an applied metal cross and subtle brick ornament to gable; abutted at left by the single-storey vestry. Vestry has four panels with applied moulding material to east elevation; five uPVC windows to west elevation.

The west (rear) elevation is abutted at right by the single-storey flat-roof extension; timber-clad with felt roof and opening to south.

The north gable is abutted at ground floor by the adjoining hall (HB25/11/003B). The upper section is blank.

Setting:

Situated at the fringes of the TFO Rippingham designed Cregagh Estate, comprising two and single-storey red-brick terraced housing with Ravenhill Rugby grounds and stadium directly to west, at the side of a busy carriageway. Lawned to all sides; enclosed to front by mid-height metal railings with gates at entrances. Burial plot to south.

To the south and adjacent to the grounds of the church is the rectory, its form recognisably built in similar modernist style, but which has had most of its original windows, doors and screens supplanted with modern replacements.

Roof: Pitched pantile
Walling: Stretcher-bonded red-brick
Windows: Metal-framed casements & uPVC
RWG: Aluminium

Historical information

Mount Merrion Church of the Pentecost was designed by Dennis O’D Hanna and built and consecrated in March 1963. (Clergy of Down and Dromore )

The church sits on the edge of the Cregagh Estate, a large post-war housing estate built between 1945 and 1950 for the Housing Trust (now the Northern Ireland Housing Executive). The Architect fro the estate was T.F.O. Rippingham. The estate houses over 2,000 families and gave rise to the need for a new church in the area, a daughter church of St Finnian’s in the nearby Upper Knockbreda Road (HB25/10/001). In April 1955 building work commenced on a site in Mount Merrion Avenue and the resulting dual-purpose church/hall was dedicated in January 1956. The history of Cregagh parish states that the architect of this building was Dennis O’D Hanna who was later to design this additional and adjacent church building on the site, built in 1963. It appears, however, that the two buildings may have been confused and the architect of the original church/hall is therefore uncertain. (Clergy of Down and Dromore; Hammond; http://mountmerrion.down.anglican.org)

Cregagh parish provided 50% of the building costs which amounted to £16,000, although it is not clear whether this amount covered the cost of both earlier and later buildings. Mount Merrion separated from Cregagh and became a parish in its own right in 1962, with the Rev William Neely appointed curate-in-charge. (Hammond) A church was then added to the original church/hall building to designs by Dennis O’D Hanna and consecrated in March 1963 as the Church of the Pentecost. This dedication was chosen under the terms of the bequest of Rev Donald Moore, a brother of a one-time Rector of Holywood and himself a Rector in the Church of England. Rev Moore left several thousand pounds to the Dioceses of Down, Dromore and Connor for the erection of new churches on condition that he specified the dedications. (Clergy of Down and Dromore) The church achieved full parochial status in 1967 and the Rev William Neely became the incumbent. (http://mountmerrion.down.anglican.org)

The hall building is first shown, uncaptioned, on the ordnance survey map of the area dating from the 1960’s/70s. The hall building enters valuation records in the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at a valuation of £225, later reduced to £180. The valuation is not amended to reflect the addition of the new church building in 1963.

Dennis O’Donoghue Hanna was the son of architect James Hanna and was a lover of theatre and the arts, having attended the College of Art in Belfast or Dublin. He is described as diocesan architect for the diocese of Cashel in 1959 and for the diocese of Connor in 1961 and was the architect of five churches, including the Church of the Pentecost and the Church of St Brendan which are in the diocese of Down. Larmour states that Hanna was “concerned with the blending of traditional and modern styles and also with fostering of modern ecclesiastical art”. The aluminium dove of the Pentecost is by Elizabeth Campbell, wheat and tares decorating the window in aluminium and brass are by Desmond Kinney and stone plaques in the garden/vestry wall by David Pettigrew. (www.dia.ie; Larmour)

Since July 2007 the church has been linked with Willowfield Parish Church in the Woodstock Road, and at that time the Rev Canon David McClay, Rector of Willowfield, was instituted as Priest-in-Charge of the Church of the Pentecost. (http://mountmerrion.down.anglican.org)

References:

Primary Sources
1.OS map 147 (1960s/70s)
2.PRONI VAL/4/B/3/20 – Second General Revaluation (1956-72)

Secondary Sources

1.Hammond, D “St Finnian’s, Cregagh, The Story of the first fifty years 1932-82”
2.http://mountmerrion.down.anglican.org – Church of the Pentecost website
3.Larmour, Paul “Belfast – An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush press, 1987
4.Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996
5.www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A symmetrical double-height red-brick Parish Church in the modernist style dominated by a vertical glazed gable with spire and adjoining hall (HB25/11/003B), built c.1963 to designs by Dennis O'Donoghue Hanna and located on the west side of Mount Merrion Avenue south of Belfast city centre. Although the design is fairly typical of a mid-twentieth century suburban church, of particular interest is the unusual and impressive roof structure. Architectural and interior detailing are also of quality artisanship, in a style representative of the period. Situated in close to its original setting, on the fringes of the TFO Rippingham designed Cregagh Estate, the church and adjoining hall are reflective of demographic changes brought about through concentrated town planning in the post-war period. The church also contributes to the character of the Area of Townscape Character

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered its was previously recorded as HB25/11/003