ST.JOHN'S CHURCH (COFI)

The Department's description

Evaluation

St John’s (CoI) is a relatively small, suburban late Victorian parish church in Decorated Gothic style by noted Belfast architect Henry Seaver. Built in 1894 with the nave lengthened in 1905, it has walls of Scrabo sandstone and sharp red Dumfriesshire sandstone dressings and follows a standard cruciform plan but with a squat tower (originally intended to be considerably taller), between the chancel and north transept, and an open porch near the western corner. Tucked away to the south-west west is a contrastingly modernist mid-1960s parish office extension linking to a more visible sympathetic rustic brick hall of 1938.

Overall, externally the church is a neat and unfussy example of late Victorian Gothic Revivalism which though prominently located on a corner site, remains a well-mannered component of this largely residential leafy streetscape; but what is particularly special about the building is the quality and survival of the interior. Here the style is more distinctly Arts & Crafts influenced with warm red brick walls and exposed roof timbers, medieval inspired floor tiling to the chancel (based on that at St Patrick’s and Christ Church Cathedrals in Dublin), alternating pink and grey stonework to the arches, a decorative gothic oak pulpit, reredos paneling and choir stalls, and a wealth of striking stained glass windows of various dates by renowned late 19th and 20th century names such as Mayer of Munich, Ward & Partners, Clokey, William MacBride, Wilhelmina Geddes, Katherine O’Brien and Evie Hone. Largely untouched since the extending of the nave in 1905, the effective combination of materials and quality of workmanship within St John’s has rendered it amongst the best examples of its type in the Belfast area and a building special architectural and historic interest.