Heyn Memorial Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, red brick half-hipped roof Tudor-style parish hall dating from 1928-1929 to designs by Belfast-based architect Robert Hanna Gibson and constructed by local firm F. B. McKee & Co. Rectangular plan built on west-east axis with projecting bays to north and south. The hall was built for St Mark’s Church, Dundela and is located at the corner of Holywood Road and Sydenham Avenue.

Half-hipped natural slate roof tiled with green slates; angled red-clay ridge-tiles and overhanging eaves. Semi-circular uPVC guttering and circular downpipes. Plain barge boards to gables. Two small hexagonal-plan pyramid-roofed and copper spired ventilators to roof with louvred opening to each face. Red brick walling laid to stretcher bond. Square-headed window openings set flush with the wall with no sills, with timber casement windows.

The principal elevation faces south with a pair of two-storey gables to west. Three projecting hipped-roof bays and two modern single-storey flat-roofed outshots to east side. Two-bay two-storey half-hipped roof gable to west end with a two-part window to each bay to ground floor and a three-part window to the centre of first floor. Stone memorial plaque to centre. Two-storey two-bay projecting gable directly to east, with a square-headed opening to porch and main door. Square-plan timber column to corner and painted iron balustrade to side. Red-clay brick paving to porch laid in herringbone pattern; half-glazed timber double door to main entrance. Two-part window to east bay to ground floor and single three-part window to first floor. uPVC lettering to the centre of gable. Three double storey hipped roof projecting bays with four-part window to high level. Single-storey flat-roofed outshot to the western of the three hipped bays with two two-part windows facing south and a single two-part window facing east. Single-storey flat-roofed outshot to the last bay to east with modern metal double door and windows to all three sides.

Three-bay two-storey elevation to west with four-part windows to each bay to ground floor and a flat-headed lucarne (dormer built off face of the wall) with a three-part window to each bay to first floor.

The north elevation has two two-storey gables to west, three projecting double storey hipped-roof bays and two modern single-storey flat-roofed outshots. Two-storey half-hipped roof bay to east end with a projecting single-storey flat-roofed semi-circular bay with a multi-part window; three-part window to first floor. Two-storey two-bay projecting gable directly to east with a canted bay timber-mullioned oriel window to first floor. Three one-and-a-half storey hipped roof projecting bays with four-part windows to high level. Single-storey three-bay flat-roofed outshot to the western of the three-bays with a square-headed door to first bay and a two-part window to the rest. Modern single-storey flat-roofed outshot to east end.

The rear elevation faces east and has a single canted bay with a large one-and-a-half storey timber-mullioned bay window.

The building is located to the northwest end of St. Mark’s Church grounds (listed under HB26.12.017A) on the south side of Holywood road. The former rectory (HB26.12.017C), a red brick two-storey gabled building currently used as parish offices, is located between the hall and the church . Partly lawned and tarmaced, with a car park to the northwest side, the site is enclosed by a dwarf sandstone wall with iron railings and rectangular piers to north and a red brick dwarf wall with stone coping to west; hedge and fencing to south and east.

Materials:
Roof: natural slate
Walling: red brick
RWG : uPVC
Windows: timber casements

Historical information

The Heyn Memorial Hall, a two-storey Tudor-style parish hall for St. Mark’s Church on the Holywood Road (see HB26/12/017), was constructed in 1928-29. The Irish Builder and Larmour record that the hall was designed by Robert Hanna Gibson (1890-1979), a Belfast-based architect who received his architectural training in the offices of Henry Seaver with whom he later became a partner. The Heyn Memorial Hall was one of Gibson’s early contracts and as a result the design has been attributed to both Gibson and Seaver although Larmour believes that Seaver’s role ended once the firm gained the commission and that ‘the design was surely the work of the younger man … the big bay window in particular shows his declared admiration for Lutyens.’ Construction of the design was undertaken by the building firm of F. B. McKee & Co. of the Shore Road (Larmour, p. 82; Irish Builder, p. 1052; DIA).

The Parish Hall was opened on Saturday 12th October 1929. The Belfast Newsletter attributed the design of the building solely to Henry Seaver with no mention of Gibson. The periodical noted that the building was constructed of Buckley Junction Jacobean bricks and that the roof was tiled with Voss Norwegian silver-green slates; the main hall of the building measured 60ft by 30ft and ‘follows the treatment of one of the Oxford College halls.’ The newspaper further recorded that construction of the hall cost approximately £6,000; a sketch of the building shows that the original layout and form of the building has not been significantly altered since 1929 (Belfast Newsletter).

Cuttings from an unknown newspaper archived on St. Mark’s Church’s website record that the hall was opened by the Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore who dedicated the building saying: ‘here will be a central home for all parochial organisations, here the power of the Gospel to strengthen and enlarge all that is truly human will be exemplified; here also will be enshrined a very precious memory, the memory of F. L. Heyn … one who loved St Mark’s with a great love, and served it with life-long devotion.’ The Heyn Memorial Hall was named for Frederick L. Heyn, a steamship owner who was also a local magistrate and Justice of the Peace (Census of Ireland; Ulster Town Directories). A second uncited newspaper cutting on the church’s website noted that Heyn was a churchwarden to St. Mark’s and represented the parish at the Diocesan Synod. In the aftermath of his death, Heyn’s family wrote to the church vestry proposing the construction of, and offering to fund, a memorial to their late relative; the family contributed £6,500 to fund ‘a building to be erected which should meet the requirements of the Parish for many years to come and be a worthy memorial to one who all his life loved his church and who always thought a parochial hall would complete the church building.’ A portrait of Heyn and a plaque to his memory were installed within the hall during its opening in 1929 (St. Mark’s Church website).

The hall was constructed to the south-west side of the church and first appears on the fifth edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1931) which depicted the building along its current layout. The building was first valued in the Annual Revisions which set the rateable value of the new hall at £115 in 1930, noting that the parish hall was administered by the Select Vestry of St. Mark’s Church. Upon its completion the Heyn Memorial Hall was awarded the Ulster Architectural Medal and was described as ‘one of the best buildings of its kind belonging to the Church of Ireland in Ulster’ (Irish Builder, p. 1052). The building was increased in value to £200 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) and was subsequently raised to £470 before being combined with the value of St. Mark’s Church as part of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1987 Larmour described the Heyn Memorial Hall as ‘one of the finest parish halls in the country … in Tudor style with red brick walls, green Norwegian slates, wood panelled rooms, and timber mullioned windows.’ Few major changes have been made to the building since its completion in 1929. However, the most significant change has been the replacement of the hall’s casement windows with simple single panes which Larmour states spoils some of the original charm of the Tudor-style building (Larmour, p. 82).

The Heyn Memorial Hall was listed in 1993 and continues to be utilised as St. Mark’s Church Hall. In October 2013 the hall was reopened after a recent renovation.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N/9 – Annual Revisions (1916-1930)
3. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/20 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/48 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
6. Ulster Town Directories (1901-1918)
7. Belfast Newsletter (12 Oct 1929)
8. Irish Builder (19 Nov 1932)
9. First Survey Record – HB26/12/037 (1993)
10. First Survey Image – HB26/12/037 (No Date)
11. NIEA HB Records – HB26/12/037 (Missing)

Secondary Sources
1. Hayes, E. C., ‘St. Mark’s Dundela Diocese of Down: Its annals and archives’ Great Britain: S. P. C. K, c. 1932.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

Online Resources
1. St. Mark’s Church website - http://dundela.down.anglican.org/
2. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/

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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A two-storey red-brick Tudor-style parish hall, dating c.1928, to the designs of Belfast-based architect Robert Hanna Gibson. A good example of an early-20th century church hall, characterised by its overhanging eaves, half-hipped green slate roof and multiple dormers. The exterior has retained its character, style and proportions, despite the replacement of the original leaded windows and surviving interiors fittings include the original stairs and wall panelling. In its original setting adjacent to the former St. Mark's Rectory and St. Mark's church on Holywood Road (HB26.12.017 A & C), it has group value with the other parish buildings and is of local importance. Its gates and raiings are also of interest.

General comments

This record was previously recorded as HB26/12/037.