Gospel Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey framed hall with attached foyer, used as a Gospel Hall, situated on Loopland Road, built 1950. Single bay, orientated east/west with painted, timber cladding to exterior walls and bitumen-type covering to felted pitched roof. Located in small car-park bounded on all sides by cast-iron railings and with paired vehicular gates to southern boundary.

Framed and pitched roof with felt, now covered with bitumen-type paint to main hall and corrugated fibre cement roofing panels to foyer at different pitch. Painted timber bargeboards and uPVC rainwater goods.

Main elevation faces west. Corrugated panels, now painted, to walls with timber framing to window and door openings. Central entrance door, recessed with shallow concrete step from car-park. Pair of timber doors, panelled and painted, opening outwards. Metal window with obscure glass, divided into six panes with one upper light with top-hung opening to either side of door recess.

North elevation has corrugated panels to walls of foyer section (right-hand side) with horizontal painted timber cladding between framed uprights, placed between windows. Brick plinth to main part of hall. Three painted timber windows, three panes over three panes, with upper section top hung along length with vertical frames between. Make-shift timber and wire grilles to all windows. Projecting lean-to at right-hand section with shallow pitched roof with corrugated panels. Vertically boarded timber sheets to wall and pair of painted timber two-panel doors, outward opening to north face.

East elevation has timber boarded wall to lean-to with metal window with obscure glass, divided into six panes with one upper light with top-hung opening. Gable wall of hall has brick plinth and man-made panels, painted. Painted timber bargeboards with exposed rafter-ends. Small square opening, placed centrally on wall at high level, framed with timber and faced with wire with fan behind.

South elevation has corrugated panels to walls of foyer section (left-hand side) with horizontal painted timber cladding between framed uprights, placed between windows. Brick plinth to main part of hall. Four painted timber windows, three panes over three panes with upper section top hung along length with vertical frames between. Make-shift timber and wire grilles to all windows.

Materials:

Roof: Felted with bitumen-type finish
RWGs: Upvc
Walls: Corrugated panels and timber cladding
Window: Metal.

Setting:
Located on the north side of Loopland Road behind cast-iron railings which bound entire site. Ground within railings has bitmac surface.

Historical information

The Loopland area of Belfast, between the Cregagh and Castlereagh Roads, began to be developed in the interwar period, and in particular from the early 1930s onwards. The streets laid out comprised Loopland Road, Crescent, Drive, Park and Gardens.

The Gospel Hall in Loopland Road was built in 1950 as a meeting place for members of the religious movement known as the Brethren. The Valuation Book has a new entry for that year for a ‘Meeting Room’ which was leased by ‘Trustees of Loopland Road Meeting Room’. The immediate lessor was George F. Greeves, a company director, who was himself of Brethren background.

Little is known about the background to the building of this hall. In 1955 Margaret McCutcheon, late of 2 Deramore Avenue, Belfast, left a bequest to Alexander McKnight ‘for the purposes of the hall at 46 Loopland Road, Belfast, used by the Brethren’.

The simplicity of the building is very much in keeping with the principles adopted by the Brethren for worship services. The sign at the front reads: ‘If the Lord will the word of God will be preached here on the Lord’s Day Evening at 5.30pm. You are invited to come.’

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, VAL/3/C/3/17, 1936-57, Ormeau Ward, Belfast
2. Belfast and Northern Ireland Directory, 1950 onwards
3. Belfast Gazette, 13 May 1955

Online sources
1. http://www.mybrethren.org/history/fram1963.htm

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Single storey framed hall, built c.1950, with attached foyer, used as a Gospel Hall, situated within a primarily residential area of Loopland Road. Single bay, orientated east/west with painted, timber cladding to exterior walls and bitumen-type covering to felted pitched roof. Located in small car-park bounded on all sides by cast-iron railings and with vehicular gates to southern boundary. Although of interest as a 20th-century utilitarian style Gospel Hall, there are better examples of its type and it is not considered to be of special architectural and historic interest.