Orangefield Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey gabled rustic brick modernist design Presbyterian hall-church built between 1955 and 1957 to designs by Gordon McKnight and undertaken by the Belfast-based Sloan brothers. Rectangular plan form with off-set square tower to the rear and adjoining two-storey hall to east and north. Located within its own grounds on a site adjacent to the junction of Castlereagh Road and Orby Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with half-round clay ridge tiles, raised verge to front elevation with chamfered stone coping. Segmental canopy roof in copper to tower and projecting entrance porch to front gable. uPVC half-round gutter and circular downpipes through-out.

Front elevation is symmetrical and has a projecting two-storey segmental-headed entrance porch with timber-framed curtain glazing inset with panels of Connemara marble. The square door opening with double-leaf vertical-sheeted Oregon pine door has a projecting timber frame and circular bronze door furniture. Three smaller narrow fixed window openings with fixed uPVC windows and tile cills are situated either side of the entrance porch. The front elevation is of rustic brown brick built in monks bond with projecting headers.

The west elevation has four double-height segmental-headed window openings with projecting reconstituted stone jambs, splayed cills having fifteen-pane timber windows with 3-pane opening light. On the first floor, to the south, a segmental-headed window opens onto a small balcony with skewered-ball railings. Four small square-headed windows below the balcony with uPVC fixed casement windows, clay tile cills and frosted glazing. A square tower to the northwest corner with an open belfry surmounted by a copper spike-and-ball finial.

North elevation abutted by adjoining Hall (of little interest).

East elevation abutted by adjoining Hall (of little interest).

The church is located within its own grounds with the adjoining hall to north and east and a car-park fronting on Castlereagh road, on a site adjacent to the junction of Castlereagh road and Orby street. The site is laid out in lawns to the west with a tarmac car park fronting on to the Castlereagh road, enclosed by dwarf brick walls. Small gate screen to SW corner with rustic brown brick splayed walls built in monks bond with projecting headers to match church and slim concrete coping; original painted iron gates with skewered-ball decoration.

Materials:
Roof natural slate
Walling rustic brick
RWG uPVC
Windows uPVC

Historical information

Orangefield Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1955-57; the current building is the third to have been constructed in the immediate area. The development of housing on the Castlereagh Road from the 1930s was followed by the establishment of mission churches by the Belfast City Mission in the newly-created suburb. The Orangefield Presbyterian congregation was formed in 1935 and originally met in a wooden hall, although this was replaced by a gabled brick church hall in 1938. The Irish Builder records that the first church hall was designed by J. F. Hay, a Belfast-based architect who practised independently until 1938. Hay also designed the church hall for Ballysillan Presbyterian Church (Irish Builder, p. 958; 997; Kirkpatrick, p. 170).

The congregation continued to meet at Hay’s church hall for almost two decades but in 1955 work began on the construction of the current building. The new church was designed by Gordon McKnight and was opened on 6th September 1957. The success of his design for Orangefield Presbyterian Church marked the beginning of a four decade career for McKnight during which period the architect designed over thirty modernist churches for the protestant denominations. The construction of Orangefield Presbyterian Church was undertaken by the Sloan Brothers, a Belfast-based building firm (Larmour, p. 97).

Larmour states that ‘the earlier and smaller gabled pre-war church hall probably gave the cue for the general shape of this post-war church … but the treatment of detail is clearly ‘Festival of Britain’ inspired, from the segmental canopy roof of the tower with its copper spike-and-ball finial, to the skewered-ball side window balcony railings and front gates. The tall and attenuated porch projecting from the entrance main gable with its doorway set in a large expanse of glazing and green slates, is also entirely of the period, drawing ecclesiastical design into the new world of curtain glazing and panel systems’ (Larmour, 50).

Constructed in the post-war period, the modernist design of Orangefield represented a shift away from the traditional conservatism and historic revivalism that characterised the design of most pre-war Presbyterian churches and on its completion the Belfast Newsletter reported that Orangefield Presbyterian Church had been ‘built to the most modern design.’ Although more ‘uncompromisingly modern churches’ were constructed for the Presbyterian Church throughout the 1960s, Larmour states that ‘it was McKnight’s particular blend of tradition and modernity, often wrought in romantic vein, which proved most popular in Ulster’ (Larmour, p. 51). Field Research conducted at the site confirms that the square tower with open belfry (which the First Survey states ‘bears the date 1957’) was designed as a result of the Festival of Britain exhibition of the 1950s, a government initiative aimed at restoring public confidence in the decade following the Second World War.

On 3rd September 1971 an adjoining hall complex was constructed to the south-east side of the church and in 1994 Orangefield Presbyterian Church was listed category B under the First Survey. The NIEA HB Records described Orangefield Presbyterian Church as a ‘remarkably well preserved example of 1950s architecture, exhibiting a number of stylistic traits that were fashionable at the time’ (NIEA HB Records). In 2008 the church reopened after a £3 million restoration project which involved the complete reconstruction and reordering of the interior floor plan as well as the addition of a large modern two-storey extension (which replaced the hall complex of 1971). The membership of Orangefield Presbyterian Church has continued to rise throughout its five-decade history. In the pre-war period the church possessed 230 families and, as a result, was granted full congregation status in 1941. Due to the progressive character of the congregation and the recent reconstruction of the original 1955-57 church, the membership of the church currently stands at approximately 600 families (Kirkpatrick, p. 170).

References

Primary Sources
1. Irish Builder (Nov 1938)
2. Belfast Newsletter (7 Sept 1957)
3. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/30 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
4. First Survey Record – HB26/05/003 (1993)
5. First Survey Image – HB26/05/003 (No Date)
6. NIEA HB Records – HB26/05/003

Secondary Sources
1. Evans, D; Hall, A; Larmour, P., ‘Modern Ulster Architecture’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2006.
2. Kirkpatrick, L., ‘Presbyterians in Ireland: An illustrated history’ Booklink, 2006.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Orangefield Presbyterian Church website - http://www.orangefield.org.uk/Home.aspx

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey gabled rustic brick modernist church with off-set square tower to the rear built between 1955 and 1957 to designs by local architect Gordon McKnight. The exterior of the original building has retained most of its character, style and proportions, despite the construction of a large extension to its SE in 2008. Characterised by 'Festival of Britain' style details including segmental canopy roofs on the tower and projecting porch and skewered-ball railings and gates, the church also retains many original features internally. The building is also of architectural and historic interest as an early example of a modern church building with a curtain wall glazing system.