John White Memorial Congregational Church Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-bay two-storey red-brick church hall built in 1896 to designs by Thomas McCaul and located to the south side of Matchett Street in North Belfast. Square on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on corbelled red-brick eaves. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on a concrete plinth with dog-tooth string-course between floors and under eaves (punctuated between floors by a lozenge-shaped terracotta panel); red-brick string-course with egg-and-dart frieze and painted concrete lintel above ground floor openings of entrance bay; cement render to south. Replacement fixed timber-framed windows in plain brick reveals with red-brick voussoirs and projecting painted concrete sills; Venetian-style window to first floor of entrance bay surmounted by a cogged brick hood mould, having continuous sill on red-brick corbels with dog-tooth frieze.

The principal elevation faces north and is almost symmetrically arranged with corner pilasters to north; gabled entrance bay to centre rises above eaves line and is flanked by brick pilasters with moulded concrete or corbelled brick heads. Venetian-style window to first floor over double-panel timber-sheeted doors surmounted by a large four-paned transom light and a window at right. Left and right bays each have window at first floor and two at ground floor; those to ground floor left are partially infilled with brick and surmounted by a chamfered sandstone lintel and red-brick relieving arch.

The east gable has four windows to first floor and five at ground floor; roundel with yellow-brick keyblocks to apex of gable.

The south elevation was partially concealed (see surveyor’s comments); window to first floor centre.

The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining church (HB26/36/008A).

Setting

Situated in a residential area to the south side of Matchett Street, abutting John White Memorial Congregational Church (HB26/36/008A) to west. To rear of building is a modern red-brick single-storey church hall. Car park to rear accessed from Matchett Street via modern metal gates on square concrete piers.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: brick
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present church hall, formerly a school, was constructed by the committee of Donegall Street Congregational Church in 1896-7 and is shown on the third edition OS map of 1901. The building was designed by Thomas H McCaul, also the architect of renovations and improvements to Donegall Street Congregational church shortly afterwards. The cost of construction was £850 and the school was valued at £50 in 1897. A church was then added to the school building in 1903.

Congregationalists or Independents first emerged in the early seventeenth century and were initially heavily persecuted for their belief in liberty of conscience and the independence of each congregation. By the 1640s Congregationalists had appeared in Ireland, Cromwell describing himself as ‘both Puritan and Independent’ and bringing many like-minded soldiers with him, but they remained a minor dissenting sect until the Ulster revival and its aftermath (Campbell).

Valuer’s notes of the 1930s record the school as ‘old-fashioned’ with wood staircases and no central heating and in rather a poor state of repair. There was accommodation for 306 junior scholars and the ground floor were two classrooms, on the first floor a large room with a platform and a small room off and a playground at the back. It was thought that there were too many classes for the number of rooms and new classrooms were added in 1950 (Valuation records). The former school is now in use as a church hall.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS Map (1901)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1920-31)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 Fifth Edition OS Map (1920-38)
4. PRONI VAL/12/A/7/L/5 Valuer’s Notes 1896
5. PRONI VAL/12/A/7/N/7 Valuer’s Notes 1906
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/M/2 Annual Revisions
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/L/48 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/1/L/206 First General Revaluation (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

1. Campbell, P “Independent but never alone. A History of Coleraine Congregational Church, 175 years 1836-2011”
2. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-bay two-storey red-brick church hall built in 1896 to designs by Thomas McCaul. Although much historic fabric survives, including the brick detailing, it is two-dimensional and not among the best examples of the type and has been compromised by modern alterations. Primarily of interest for its relationship with the neighbouring church (HB26/18/008A), the two are of some significance locally but not do not meet the statutory and policy tests as a buildings of special architectural or historic interest.