St Matthias' RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Unusual single storey church of 1892 in plain gothic style, but whose whitened corrugated iron façade gives it the appearance of an archetypal frontier church of the Old American west. Originally Church of Ireland, the building now belongs to the RC diocese. The church sits on the N side of Glen Road, in the SW suburbs of Belfast.

The front gable faces roughly S and is symmetrical. To the centre at ground level is a relatively small gabled porch with pointed arch doorway to front (S) with timber sheeted door. Above this (to main gable) is a roundel window with plain glazing. Modern wheelchair access to the door.

To the W façade there are three pointed arch windows with double lancet timber frame with quatrefoil. The E façade is similar but has three tall, pier-like, buttresses (this façade has experienced structural movement). The windows to both sides have obscured glazing with small lattice panes (expanded metal tracery).

To the centre of the rear there is a five-sided hipped roof chancel with a pointed arch window to the three ‘N’ sides. To the W side a short ‘corridor’ links to a small hipped roof vestry (added post c.1960), with small boarded up window openings to E and W (two to E one to W). There is a metal sheeted door to the W side of the corridor.

The façade is in white painted corrugated iron with short red brick base (the latter to main church building only). The main roof is also covered in (brown coloured) corrugated iron and has a slight overhang with pierced barges and finials. To the S end of the ridge there is a metal sheet constructed bellcote with splayed base and tall spire with cross finial. The rw goods appear to be mainly PVC.

The church grounds are bordered to the S by a low, rock-faces stone wall with simple rectangular gabled piers and simple wrought iron railings interspersed with more ornate wrought iron ‘panels’. The vehicle gates are in similar style.

Historical information

This church was built in 1892 apparently as an extension of the Church of Ireland’s St Luke’s Mission. A gradual diminution of the congregation meant that the church was never replaced with a more ‘permanent’ structure, and eventually resulted in its being acquired by the RC diocese in c.1970.

A vestry section was added to the rear some time after c.1960.

The piers were probably added later following structural movement. The bellcote may have been added when the church was taken over by the RC Diocese.

References- Primary sources
1 EHS OS map, sh 146-3, c.1959

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Rare example of a corrugated iron clad single storey church of 1892 in plain gothic style. Its appearance is of a frontier church of the American west.