Catholic Chaplaincy QUB, 28-38 Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, BT9 6AY

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three storey with attic storey six bay building, set into a gap in the historic Victorian brick terrace which runs along the southern side of Elmwood Avenue.

To the front (NW) elevation the brickwork palette of the adjacent terraces carries into and between the six canted, steel framed single glazed bays at first and second floor in dark brown coloured brick. Large, single glazed plate glass and steel framed windows at ground floor are interrupted where 'support’ is offered to the black steel framed canted bays in the form of secretlt fixed masonry sculpted panels by Ray Carroll. One of the panels holds a central circular signage panel. Originally, these panels were finished in bronze effect, but they are now painted in a matt cream colour. The exception is the first bay which houses the glazed aluminium original entrance doors, accessing the ground floor entrance lobby.

As described by David Evans in 'Modern Ulster Architecture' (First Edition, P 14), "The form of the Victorian canted bay window is .. Employed but in a daring and un-Victorian manner; raised above street level and cantilevered out, these prismatic steel and glass forms march along in rhythm with their brickwork neighbours. These two storey height bays are raised above a flat glazed façade at street level which express the form of the large main hall within. The floor to ceiling windows establish a sense of spatial continuity between the street and the cloistered courtyard and chapel beyond the main hall. The ground floor can be perceived as a series of visually-linked spaces."

The ground floor is slightly elevated from street level, corresponding to the raised floors at three steps to each of the front doors in the terraced buildings adjacent. A raised concrete foreground platform which runs full length along the building frontage is accessed via two concrete ramps which have more recent tubular steel handrails.

The roof is standing seam metal as are the six regular and heavily framed squared single glazed dormers which correspond with each bay.

The NE and SW elevations of the main block are blank, facing toward the adjacent terraced buildings.

Brown brick plain and flat-roofed stair towers flank the rear (SE) elevation of the main block. Aluminium RWGs/overflow pipes run symmetrically don the rear façade.

The depth of the main block aligns with the depth of the terraces adjacent, stepping down immediately from the rear of the main accommodation to single storey in the same manner as its neighbours and the street as a whole. The rear comprises a covered cloister, roofed in standing seam copper (but repaired with modern materials which appear to be failing), surrounding an external courtyard. The chapel itself faces NW onto this courtyard, with clerestory glazing and standing seam bronze roof and a deep bronze fascia which raise the mono-pitch roof by another half storey from its eaves facing the shared alleyway, reflecting the volume of the chapel behind, and following the urban grain of the Queens Conservation Area.

To the rear of the main block, second and third floors facing SW comprise alternating brick and steel framed glazed ‘ribbons’ of continuous material to each storey. These have black steel framed single glazed screens, flush with the brickwork, with high level opening lights all having original ironmongery and fenestration. The concrete structural columns are visible behind the glass to each level. This ribbon of glazing also applies to the ground floor but is faced to cill level in patinated vertical standing seam copper panels.

Ground floor elevation faces into the courtyard.

Courtyard

Ground floor of main block facing SW, E, W and NE have a small upstand in brick with full height single glazed steel framed windows faced in copper and with a copper cill. The NE face of the chapel has additional half storey - clerestory single glazed band below a deep standing seam bronze fascia. There are paired glazed ventilated slats to alternating panels at clerestory level; ventilation is controlled using levers within the chapel.

To the north-west at roof level, a small brick parapet wall divides the ancillary spaces from the cloister, and three fibreglass pyramidal roof lights wash this dividing brick faced wall with light internally. The roof has a copper lined ‘secret gutter’; to the SW of the courtyard roof, a projecting needle-shaped copper hopper supported by a slim metal pole feeds run-off rainwater into a concrete pool, containing a solid black cross. The remainder of the courtyard is hard landscaped in gravel with a small number of sculptural plants.

Service yard

To the rear of the northernmost bay, there is a single storey block of ancillary accommodation in brown brick, with high level single glazed windows puncturing the brickwork at intervals, as well as timber slatted plant rooms and access doors to the yard which extends to the shared alleyway to the rear.

Materials:
Roof - standing seam metal - copper/bronze and lead
RWGs - heavy gauge aluminium and copper
Walls/windows - a mixture of full height single glazed screens with metal frames, bands of brown brickwork in stretcher bond and a number of in situ concrete panels to front elevation

Setting

The building occupies a section of what was once a continuous Victorian terrace on Elmwood Avenue, part of the Queen's Conservation Area. Though uncompromisingly modern, the large steel framed glazed bays and eaves line maintain the rhythm and scale of Elmwood Avenue which is made up of numerous historic and listed buildings. The depth of the building, the use of brick between canted bays, the employment of dormers and the carefully scaled subservient 'mews' buildings to the rear ally with the rhythm, pattern, materials and scale set up by the historic buildings adjacent and in the wider context.

Historical information

Built to serve Roman Catholic students attending Queen’s University, this chaplaincy was constructed in 1970-72 to designs by Laurence McConville of the firm of Rooney and McConville, then of 81 Botanic Avenue, Belfast.[1, 7]

RC Chaplaincy duties at QUB appear to have been formally established in 1909 [10]. Until the late-1940s, however, the Chaplain’s role was carried out on a part-time basis by a local priest who visited student lodgings. A bequest enabled the first Chaplaincy centre to be opened at 14 Fitzwilliam Street in 1949 with Fr Michael Kelly as Chaplain. These facilities were expanded in 1951 when neighbouring 16 Fitzwilliam Street was purchased and adapted to provide a small oratory as well as lounge and kitchen facilities. In the late-1950s, nos.18-20 were acquired, although neither was integrated into the existing arrangement. Fr Patrick Walsh (later Bishop of Down and Connor) was appointed chaplain in 1964, assisted by Fr Ambrose Macaulay. [9]

The site for the present Chaplaincy (previously occupied by a terrace of six houses built in 1880) was purchased in 1968.[5, 9] Work appears to have commenced on the new building in mid-1970 and the Chaplaincy was opened in October 1972. Fr Macaulay took over as Chaplain in 1970 and was assisted from then until 1975 by Fr Anthony Farquhar (later Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor). Fr Macaulay was succeeded in September 1984 by Fr Joseph Gunn.[9] The present Chaplain, Fr Dominic McGrattan, succeeded Fr Gerard Magee in 2018.[11]

The front elevation facing into Elwood Avenue, dominated by the series of canted bays, was designed to echo the late Victorian buildings it replaced and pay deference to the neighbouring properties. The ground floor, in contrast, was a departure from the existing streetscape featuring distinctive abstract panels designed by Ray Carroll [7].

A mass held in the Chaplaincy was broadcast on BBC1 on 16 December 1972, shortly after the building opened.[4]

References – Primary sources
1 Belfast Telegraph, 27 February 1970 p.17
2 Belfast Telegraph, 26 May 1970 p.13
3 Belfast Telegraph, 4 November 1971, p.9
4 Belfast Telegraph, 16 December 1972, p.7

Secondary sources
5 Carleton, S.T., ‘The Growth of South Belfast’, (MA thesis, QUB 1967)
6 Hugh Dixon et al, Historic Buildings…Queen’s University of Belfast’ revised ed., (UAHS, Belfast, 1975), p.29
7 Evans, David, ‘An Introduction to Modern Ulster Architecture’, (UAHS, Belfast, 1977), p.14, 55-56
8 David Evans et al, ‘Modern Ulster Architecture’, (UAHS, Belfast, 2006), p.62-63
9 Walker, Brian and McCreary, Alf, ‘Degrees of Excellence – The Story of Queen’s, Belfast 1845-1995’ (QUB Inst of Irish Studies, Belfast, 1994), pp.109, 196
10 https://www.facebook.com/pg/CatholicChaplaincyQUB/about/?ref=page_internal [accessed 11 Dec 2019]
11 https://www.irishcatholic.com/a-university-chaplain-on-a-mission/ [accessed 11 Dec 2019]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A two storey plus attic, 6 bay building, carefully scaled, planned and built using contemporay materials, by Rooney and McConville; an infill to a gap in a Victorian terrace on Elmwood Avenue; situated within the Queen's Conservation Area of south Belfast.

As described by David Evans in 'Modern Ulster Architecture' (First Edition - p. 14), "A spirit of respect and architectural good neighbourliness is evident in this elegant example of 'infill' designed by Laurence McConville."…."The form of the Victorian canted bay window is .. employed but in a daring and un-Victorian manner; raised above street level and cantilevered out, these prismatic steel and glass forms march along in rhythm with their brickwork neighbours. These two storey height bays are raised above a flat glazed façade at street level which express the form of the large main hall within. The floor to ceiling windows establish a sense of spatial continuity between the street and the cloistered courtyard and chapel beyond the main hall. The ground floor can be perceived as a series of visually-linked spaces." The proportions of the building, its scale and plan form are unique to Belfast if not Northern Ireland.

The building, by known architect Lawrence McConville, has external panelling designed by Ray Carroll, whose work also features internally in the liturgical furnishings and detailed design of the chapel. Both men were part of the Catholic Churches Advisory Committee on Sacred Art and Architecture in the 1960s and contributed to the Irish Episcopal Commission for Liturgy's 'Place of Worship' Directory - the Church's own guidance on Designing Places of Worship. The Catholic Chaplaincy embodies the recommendations made by the Committee, which requires that '..space and light, materials and furnishings, suitable places for the various liturgical activities, ambience and atmosphere - all must combine to help Christians become what they are when they worship'. The guidance mentions the Architect and Artist - 'All the liturgical elements in the church, as well as images and shrines should be designed by artists and the work coordinated by the architect…Architects and artists give glory to God through their work.' All of the original ornament and craftsmanship remains in situ throughout the building and also within the chapel, from the fixed liturgical furnishings through to the artist designed copper hopper which feeds rainwater into the pond within the courtyard.

The building and chapel in particular are fine examples of the design quality which was required of the building. Though form follows function where necessary, the deliberate attention to detail and craftsmanship and the high quality materials such as copper, bronze and steel used throughout the building embody the aim of the Catholic Church at the time of the building's construction to 'mediate presence'. Much importance was placed on the details of the building: ' The place of the artist can never be taken by the craftsperson or by the provider of 'religious' goods. Art builds upon craft, giving to merely practical objects a quality of transcendence that links the material and the spiritual world. The work of the artist is not a superfluous luxury.'

As such, this is an authentic, intact building of not only architectural but historical, social and cultural importance in its demonstration of the intention of the Catholic Church to embody both inward and outward, the spirit of worship of its time through art and architecture combined, using materials which were cutting edge in Belfast in the 1970s.

The building occupies a section of what was once a mainly residential Victorian terrace on Elmwood Avenue. Though uncompromisingly modern, the large steel framed glazed bays and eaves line maintain the rhythm and scale of the terrace. The views outwards from these large windows are unique and designed to maximise visibility and appreciation of the Avenue and of the high quality buildings captured in each vista. The spatial organisation and layering of spaces from street to chapel allows a large public space to be quietly slotted in amongst its neighbours. The scale and depth of the building, the use of brick between canted bays, the employment of dormers and the carefully subservient 'mews' chapel to the rear ally with the rhythm, pattern, materials and scale set up by the historic buildings adjacent and the wider context of the Queen's Conservation Area.