St. Mary Magdalene

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Double-height seven-bay Gothic-Revival church built c.1898-1900 to the designs of Samuel Patrick Close. Plan form; barn-style with north and south lean-to side-aisles; north transept; chancel with adjoining vestry and side chapel. The adjacent church hall is a two-storey Gothic-style hall, built 1923-24 to the designs of James St John Phillips. Located on Donegall Pass east of the Georgian terrace 56-70 Donegall Pass (HB26/30/083 A-G).

Pitched natural slate roof; clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron ogee moulded rainwater goods with circular downpipes. Walling is snecked uncoursed square rubble rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with chisel draughted margins to quoin stones; ashlar dress stone to plinth course, buttress offsets, copings and corbel course. Came-lights and stained glass windows embraced by bipartite and tripartite pointed (centred) arched windows with cusped tracery; long-and-short surrounds with chamfered cills. Timber sheeted double-leaf doors with filigree wrought-iron strap hinges, set into two-stage chamfered pointed-arched archivolt with chamfer-stops; long-and-short surrounds.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. Diminished bipartite clerestory windows. Abutted at ground floor level by full length lean-to aisle; seven-bays wide comprising bi and tripartite windows separated by diminutive two-stage buttresses. Gabled entrance porch to the left with diagonal buttressing; pointed arch opening with ashlar surrounds and hood mouldings. Moulded coping with skew-tables and shoulders. The right hand side of the aisle rises to a gabled vestry comprising central positioned bipartite window with sexpartite oculus over and vestry entrance to the left; the east cheek comprises a single and bipartite square-headed windows. The west face of the aisle comprises a bipartite window with a lateral buttress to the right.

The west gable is symmetrically arranged; tripartite stained glass ground floor window to the baptistery; west window comprises tall pointed (lateral) arched window flanked by diminished cusped pointed arched windows. Gable detailing matches porch.

The north elevation is asymmetrically arranged and constructed from red-brick laid to English garden wall bond; dress stone as per south elevation. Paired bipartite clerestory windows at upper level. Ground floor abutted by lean-to north aisle. The west face of the aisle is abutted by a two-storey irregular-plan stair-well comprising squared-headed came-lights and a rear entrance door. Double-height gabled north transept to the left; gable elevation comprises three bipartite windows at ground floor, three pointed arched came-lights with plain chamfered brick surrounds at the upper level with oculus over; projected chimney-stack to the right breaking through coping. Flat-roofed basement located at the re-entrant of the north aisle and north transept. Far left is a single-storey side-chapel; symmetrical gable comprising wide central segmental arched came-light with plain brick surrounds, flanked by narrow segmental arched windows matching in style; entrance door to the west cheek; four matching segmental arched windows to the east cheek.

The east gable is symmetrically arranged; east window comprises tall pointed (lateral) arched window flanked by diminished cusped pointed arched windows. Gable detailing match west gable with exception of a chimney located over the left skew-table.

Setting:

Immediately north of the church is the two-storey, dry-dashed, church hall with a half-hipped slate roof; square-headed timber casement windows with smooth surrounds; stilted square-headed door openings with moulded masonry surrounds embracing tall over lights. The east elevation is abutted by a two-storey castellated parapet entrance and stairwell comprising Gothic-style fenestration. Internally the hall has retained much of its original fabric work including doors, architraves, wainscoting, flooring, cornicing and stair details. The upper hall has an exposed steel-truss. East of the church is a Georgian terrace (HB26/30/083 A-G). The site is bounded to the south by wrought-iron railings and gates with moulded finials and vermiculated sandstone piers. Car park to the west with modern two-storey terrace housing beyond.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Sandstone/red brick
Windows: Came-lights
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present church was rebuilt in its current form, dedicated and opened in1900 as a replacement for a previous church on the site and forms part of an Irish tradition of Magdalene asylums and chapels, most of which were established during the nineteenth century. (Belfast Newsletter; McCarthy). The original Magdalene Asylum and Episcopal Church was destroyed by fire in 1898.

Lady Arabella Denny (1707-92), philanthropist, established the first Magdalen [sic] asylum in Ireland in 1766, in Leeson Street, Dublin. It became one of Dublin's most fashionable charities, and the attached chapel which was opened in January 1768 in order to raise funds for the asylum became a popular place of worship for Dublin’s ruling classes. (Dictionary of Irish Biography) Magdalene asylums were subsequently established throughout Ireland but it was not until 1838 that a committee was formed to collect subscriptions in aid of the establishment of a Magdalene asylum and chapel in Belfast. In 1839 a grant of £1000 was made by the Down and Connor Church Accommodation Society and a church was erected to the designs of William Moore which opened in December 1839. The asylum and laundry to the rear of the church was not opened until 1849. Magdalene asylums were originally intended to provide a refuge for women who had fallen into prostitution and would also often provide a laundry, both for the purposes of rehabilitation through hard work and in order to sustain the institution financially. Magdalene asylums were run by both Catholic and Protestant denominations in Ireland, the last such institution closing in 1996. (McCarthy)

St Mary Magdalene was also a parish church, the fifth in the ancient parish of Shankill, and the fourth to be built in the early decades of the nineteenth century, partly as a response to Belfast’s rapid growth in population. (Belfast Newsletter; St Mary Magdalene Parish Church) The church of 1839 is listed in Griffith’s Valuation of 1859 as a ‘Magdalene Episcopal Church and Asylum’ valued at £160.

In December 1898 a serious fire destroyed the belfry and organ of the church and extensively damaged the body of the church. A replacement church was designed by Samuel P Close, a prolific architect responsible for much ecclesiastical, commercial and municipal work in Antrim and Down. The contractor was James Kidd. (www.dia.ie) The foundation stones of the new building were laid in October 1899 and the church was dedicated in October 1900. It remains today much as originally designed. Sitting accommodation was provided for 900 people at a total cost of £5,000. Scrabo stone was used with Scottish white stone dressings for the windows and Bath stone in the interior. A vestry or schoolroom was positioned at the rear of the church, opening by double arcades into the church giving extra seating room. The brass eagle lectern donated by Mr W T Coates JP, a Belfast stockbroker, was especially admired at the time, and thought to be ‘one of the finest now in Ulster’. (Belfast Newsletter) Stained glass windows were made by Messrs Carlisle and Wilson to the designs of the architect. A gallery was built where the organ pipes are now situated for the use of inmates of the asylum during services, keeping them out of view of other parishioners. The gallery was connected by a passageway to the asylum itself. The new church appears in Annual Revisions at a valuation of £260 and is first shown on the 1901-2 ordnance survey.

The asylum and laundry became increasingly costly to maintain and was closed in 1916, the building being demolished two years later. When the former church hall and schoolhouse sited in Shaftesbury Square was sold in 1919 the decision was taken to build a new hall on the ground behind the church that had previously been occupied by the asylum. The foundation stone of the parochial hall was laid in December 1923 and the building was opened in 1924. The architect was James St John Phillips, whose ecclesiastical work was often commissioned by the Methodist Church but who also designed numerous commercial and domestic buildings. (Irish Builder; www.dia.ie)

As well as its links with a Magdalene laundry, St Mary Magdalene is significant in the history of the Boys’ Brigade, an organisation which was formed in Glasgow in 1883. The first Irish company originated in St Mary Magdalene due to the efforts of William McVicker, who was a Sunday School superintendent. Having visited Glasgow to talk with the founder of the movement, McVicker established a company in Belfast in December 1888 and the movement then spread throughout Ulster. The 1st company of the Boys’ Brigade was temporarily transferred to St Columba’s in Knock during the 1980s but returned to St Mary Magdalene in 1997. (Parish History)

In 1979 the former Church Room at the rear of the church was refurbished to form the ‘Chapel of the Holy Spirit’. The chapel was refurbished and redecorated in 2006. Due to dwindling numbers of parishioners in the Belfast inner city area, the parishes of St Mary Magdalene and St Aidan’s Sandy Row were grouped in 2007, sharing a joint ministry while maintaining separate services and Select Vestries. (Parish History)

In 2013 the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Rev Alan Abernethy appointed a Minister-in-charge to each parish.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1/D –Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1-45 – Annual Revisions (1863-1930)
7. Belfast Newsletter, 3rd December 1839
8. Belfast Newsletter, 2nd October 1899
9. Belfast Newsletter, 11th May 1900
10. Belfast Newsletter, 22nd October 1900
11. Irish Builder, Vol 65, 15th December 1923, p.972
Secondary Sources

1. Dunwoody, C; Irving, C, Stephenson, J “St Mary Magdalene Parish Church, A History 1839-2010”
2. McCarthy, R L “Origins of the Magdalene Laundries: an analytical history” North Carolina: McFarland and Company Inc, 2010
3. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009
4. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Double-height seven-bay Gothic-Revivial church built c.1898-1900 to the designs of Samuel Patrick Close, replacing an earlier church that suffered severe fire damage. Externally the present building has retained much of its original fabric and character including the railings to the front. The interior has undergone some minor alterations that do not detract from the special interest of the building. The church has a significant historical association with the Irish Magdalene tradition and associated formation of the Boys Brigade in Ireland and also of notable local historic interest. The church hall to the rear, built in 1923 to the design of James St John Phillips has also retained much of its internal and external character adding interest to the historical and architectural context of the site.