St. Clement's Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double height Tudor-gothic-style Church of Ireland built from 1928-30 to the designs of architects Blackwood and Jury. Barn-style plan form with adjoining belfry tower, chancel and side entrance porches. Located at the junction of Paxton Street and Templemore Avenue, in the east side of Belfast city.

Pitched natural slate roof with slight incline at eaves level; louvered vents located close to the clay ridge tiles; moulded sandstone eaves with replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Brick walling laid to stretcher bond; sandstone dressings and projected plinth. Tripartite leaded coloured glass windows with decorative sandstone mullions and transoms; irregular long-and-short sandstone surrounds; chamfered cills and jambs. The larger windows are multi-paned Tudor-arched with hood moulding and reticulated tracery. The doors are double-leaf timber panelled with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges; encompassed with moulded sandstone Tudor-arched surrounds.

The principal elevation faces east and comprises a symmetrical skew-table gable with sandstone shoulders, saddle coping, kneelers and apex stone with gablets. The elevation is abutted by a gable-ended chancel with matching details and a large centrally positioned Tudor-arched window flanked by two-stage set-back buttresses terminated with sandstone gablets with trefoil mouldings. The left cheek of the chancel has a single high-level window to the right; single storey gable-ended abutment to the left at the re-entrant to the tower; tripartite window to the gable end; matching sandstone detailing. The right cheek of the chancel matches the left with the exception of a hipped roofed entrance porch with chamfered corner and single-leaf door with square headed surrounds; two single windows to the east face and a single tripartite window to the north. Chimney rising from the ridge level breaking through the eaves of the chancel; terminated with stepped sandstone detailing and large octagonal moulded pot.

The south elevation is asymmetrically arranged and is five windows wide, each bay separated by a single-storey buttress. The left bay is abutted by a three-stage symmetrical brick belfry tower with angled buttresses (partially infilled at lower level to create an octagonal clasping buttress) and terminated with a heavily moulded crenallated sandstone parapet comprising a series of moulded quatrefoil panels over dentiled cornice with projecting gargoyles at the corners. Deep-set Tudor-arched surround to entrance door on the south face, with heavy label embracing the spandrels. Single window to the ground floor east face. The first floor comprises single leaded windows to the east, south and west faces. At second storey is a bipartite Tudor-arched louvered openings with moulded surrounds and a single hood moulding over with continuing sandstone drip and string courses. Located at the re-entrant of the north face of the tower and the left elevation of the nave, is a single-storey gable ended abutment with matching sandstone detailing with a single Tudor-arched window centrally located.

The rear gable is symmetrically arranged. Matching sandstone dress stone detailing. Centrally located Tudor-arched window with reticulated tracery flanked by adjoining square-headed windows, further flanked by two-stage buttresses breaking through coping course. The left is abutted at ground floor by a flat-roofed structure which has been extended to form a corridor linking to the adjacent church hall (HB26/06/012).

The right elevation matches the left elevation in principle; five bays wide, the right bay abutted by a slight projected gable ended entrance porch with matching sandstone detailing; Tudor-arched door with long-and-short surrounds and hood moulding with geometric stops; diminutive single-stage buttresses to the left and right cheeks.

Setting:

The church runs parallel with the adjacent side street although sits at an angle to the principal road to the front elevation, which allows goods views of the front elevation and adjoining tower. The positioning gives the church a unique aspect
setting it apart from the adjacent buildings. Immediately north of the church is the Mountpottinger Baptist Church. Opposite is modern three ½ -storey housing with further modern commercial buildings to the south.

Roofing : Natural slate
Walling : Brick
Windows: Leaded coloured glass
RWG: Replacement uPVC.

Historical information

The Irish Builder records that St. Clement’s Church of Ireland on Templemore Avenue was constructed between 1929 and 1930 to designs by Blackwood & Jury; however, the congregation of St. Clement’s had occupied the site since as early as 1901 (Irish Builder, Vols 70-72). Prior to the construction of the current redbrick building the congregation of St. Clements met in an iron church, a temporary and portable church hall on the Beersbridge Road (later moved to Templemore Avenue in 1901). This structure was originally built for a congregation in Germany and was later transported to England; by the end of the 19th century the iron church had found its way to Ireland and was used by the congregation of All Saint’s Church, University Street; the hall was sold to St. Clements congregation by 1898.

The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map dated 1902 depicts the iron church as a square shaped building occupying the same layout as the current church. The Belfast Telegraph records that St. Clement’s was an offshoot of Ballymacarrett Parish Church on the Newtownards Road and could accommodate a congregation of 600; describing the iron church the writer states that ‘other Church of Ireland congregations in their early progress made use of similar structures until funds warranted them in venturing upon building enterprises [they were used] as a means of extending, broadening and deepening the religious life of the Ulster Capital’ (Belfast Telegraph, 20 Feb 1929). Although the iron church on the Beersbridge Road was set up by 1897 and the Belfast Street Directories first recorded ‘St. Clements Parish Church’ from 1902, the Annual Revisions did not value the building until 1906. In that year the temporary church was valued at £77 and was let to the Incumbent minister and churchwardens by D. Anderson & Sons.

It was thirty years before the congregation of St. Clements undertook the construction of the current church; by 1929 over £2,000 had been gathered for a church building fund, however construction only began with the aid of the Church Extension Committee. In order to make way for the new building, the iron church was sold in 1929 (it was never used again as a place of worship). The Irish Builder records that upon disposal of the previous structure the foundation stone of the new church was laid on 29 April 1929. The church was designed in a Tudor-gothic style by Blackwood & Jury with Courtney & Co., who had offices on Shaftsbury Avenue, contracted as builders. The Jacobean bricks were supplied by John McNeill of 109 Corporation Street whilst the glazing for the church was crafted by W. J. Douglas & Sons of 43 Dublin Road. The bell for the new church was acquired from the Mariners Church off Corporation Street (close to the current site of the Sinclair Seamen’s Presbyterian Church) and is dated 1889; in 1929 the bell was housed in St. Clement’s schoolhouse (situated on Castlereagh Street to the rear of the church) but upon the church’s completion in 1930 this was moved into the belfry tower which was specifically designed to house the bell.

The Belfast Telegraph records that St. Clements Parish Church was consecrated on 14th June 1930 by the Bishop of Down. The church measured 100ft in length, with its tower measuring 50ft in height; built in red brick with Aughenheath stone dressings, its tower was designed to incorporate a number of gargoyles which continue to protrude from its corners (Belfast Telegraph, 14-16 June 1930).

When construction was completed, the value of the church was recorded at £224; however in 1935 the government carried out the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which subsequently increased the value of the church to £370 and noted that the value of the school on Castlereagh Street stood at £110. The value of St. Cement’s church was increased in 1956 under the second revaluation of Northern Ireland property which valued the church and its hall at £885; this joint value was reduced to £708 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act and remained at this amount by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Rankin records that the congregation of St. Clement’s was originally established on the Beersbridge Road in the 1890s; it was here that the iron church purchased from All Saint’s Church was first set up by 1897. Stewart notes that the Iron Church was described as ‘the largest of its kind’ and measured 81 by 61ft and 40ft in height complete with a spire; the temporary structure could accommodate a congregation of around 750 (Stewart). The church was relocated to Templemore Avenue in 1901 as a result of a dispute between the first minister the Rev. W. Peoples and his congregation (Rankin, p. 81). Peoples led a following of over 700; however shortly after its establishment the vast majority of the congregation found offence with their minister’s ritualistic views. Peoples was criticised for being too ‘High church,’ practising an Anglo-Catholic service which alienated many of his charge; out of a congregation of 700 only 20 members of the church supported Peoples methods and from August 1898 to March 1899 Peoples and the Church were targeted by Orange mobs. Each Sunday for six months St. Clements Church was surrounded by a mob of approximately a thousand Orange Men and other groups who harassed Peoples on his way to his dwelling and also broke into the church building to remove offending items such as hymn books (and presumably Catholic iconography). The attack upon the church was not an isolated incident, the leader of the mob urged his followers that ‘as soon as things are finally settled at St. Clements Church we will tackle St. George’s [High Street] ... we will just walk in in a body and bring out everything that ought not to be there.’ The recurring religious violence at St. Clements was discussed at Westminster by Nationalist politicians who presented the episode as an example of the stranglehold militant Orangism had over politics and ecclesiastical affairs in the city (Hansard).

Peoples was eventually expelled from St. Clements as a result of his ritualistic views; the iron church was closed and then relocated to the current site where it was reopened for worship in 1901 under a more agreeable minister, the Rev. W. A. Lee. Between 1899 and 1902 St. Clements was linked to the congregation of St. Donard’s Church on the Beersbridge Road (which also met in an iron church until its current building was built 1911-12); however St. Clement’s Parish became independent in 1902 and over the next three decades grew with the addition of portions of Ballymacarrett and Willowfield parishes (Rankin, pp 81-83).

The site of the current church on Templemore Avenue was purchased at a cost of £980 in 1910; from that year a Church Building Fund was begun. In 1929 the Select Vestry decided that the new church should be constructed of ‘Stone Crete,’ a cheap produced stone; the facing stone is now crumbling in a state of disrepair due to this choice of poor stone (Stewart). Larmour states that St. Clement’s Parish Church was one of the last major works designed by P. M. Jury (of Blackwood & Jury) who carried out the design in his favoured Tudor-gothic style. The Gargoyles of the tower, along with a number of other carved features were crafted by S. & T. Hastings of Downpatrick (Larmour, p. 83). Later changes to the church included the addition of a Choir vestry in 1958, a new pulpit in 1964 and a new font and lighting system in 1968 and 1971, respectively. Field Research finds that a number of the stained glass windows were added in 1983 by C. W. S. Design of Lisburn.

St Clement’s Church was listed in 1989 and since that time the church has undergone refurbishment and repairs, the most extensive in 1994 at the cost of £50,000 (Stewart; Rankin, p. 81).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-21
4. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/6 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/11 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/12 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/30 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
9. Hansard (Feb; Mar 1899)
10. Belfast Telegraph (1929; 1930)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
2. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: The Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
3. Stewart, J., ‘St. Clement’s Parish Belfast: A brief history to celebrate the centenary 1897-1997’ Belfast: Unknown Publisher, Unknown Date.
4. First Survey Record – HB26/08/011 (1898)* (Recorded in wrong ward during First Survey)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A freestanding double height Tudor-gothic-style Church of Ireland Church with two stage tower built c 1928 to designs of architects Blackwood and Jury. Prominently sited in an urban context, at the junction between Templemore Avenue and Paxton Street in the east side of Belfast. Essentially of Tudor-gothic character and proportions, the building's architectural fabric is largely intact, retaining much of its original detailing.The church has a relatively well-preserved Tudor Gothic interior. St. Clement's Church is of considerable social importance and interest to the local community it serves.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered, it was previously recorded as HB26/08/011