Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A gabled red-brick Presbyterian Church with four-stage square tower to designs by David Wright Boyd, dated 1953 and built off the foundations of an earlier church; located to the south side of Crumlin Road at the junction with Tennent Street in north Belfast. Rectangular-plan gabled hall abutted to northeast by a single-storey entrance vestibule; square tower to north corner and lower two-storey stairwell bay to east corner; abutted at southwest by adjoining church hall (HB26/36/009B).

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and raised sandstone verges to gables; shallow copper pyramidal roof to tower. Plastic rainwater goods. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a rock-faced and ashlar sandstone plinth (possibly original church fabric) with red sandstone dressings. Round-headed replacement leaded-and-stained glass windows in plain brick reveals with projecting concrete sills, arranged in groups of two or three; windows to fourth stage of tower in moulded sandstone reveals with keyblock and oblique sills.

The principal elevation faces northeast comprising central gable flanked by stairwell bay to left and tower to right. Gable has three staged windows and is abutted at ground floor by the flat-roof entrance vestibule lit by an arcade of five windows; inscribed granite plaque reads “THIS STONE WAS LAID ON/ 14TH FEBRUARY 1953 BY/ MRS MARY K. ENTRIGAN/ ELDEST DAUGHTER OF THE LATE/ REVEREND DEANE KNOX MITCHELL/ FIRST MINISTER OF THE CHURCH/ BUILT ON THIS SUTE IN 1972 AND/ DESTROYED BY ENEMY ACTION ON 15TH-16TH APRIL 1941”. Stairwell bay projects slightly and has three windows over recessed double-panel twelve-panel timber doors with metal fanlight in a moulded Romanesque-style sandstone surround; southeast elevation has three windows over two oculi set into sandstone reveals. Top stage of tower is chamfered, set back with concrete offsets and lit by a window to each face. Northeast elevation has group of two windows over group of three and entrance doors (as described at stairwell bay) accessed via two concrete steps; northwest elevation has two sets of paired windows over oculus.

The southeast elevation has five evenly-spaced windows.

The southwest elevation is fully abutted by the adjoining hall (HB26/36/009B).

The northwest elevation is as described at southeast.

Setting:

Situated to the south side of Crumlin Road at the junction with Tennent Street. Set back slightly from street and enclosed by low red-brick wall topped by red sandstone coping and metal railings; to entrance at Crumlin Road is a set of tall iron latch-gates. Enclosed yard to northeast accessed via Langley Street via a set of iron gates with square iron piers topped with decorative scrolled and finialed metal caps, supporting original gates.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Flemish-bonded red-brick with red sandstone dressings
Windows: Replacement leaded-and-stained glass
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

The Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church was completed in 1954 to designs by David Wright Boyd, replacing a previous church on the site that was destroyed in air raids in 1941. The present building is first shown on the OS map edition dating from the 1960s/70s.

A new congregation was established in this area of Belfast in 1867 by Deane Knox Mitchell, who was then ordained in 1869 and became the first minister. Mitchell had been dispatched by the Presbytery of Belfast to preach to the large numbers of workers flooding into Belfast from rural areas who had been attracted by the high wages offered by the new mills, Ewarts, Becks and Bloomfield. Linen mills were booming at this period as a consequence of the demand created by the American Civil War of 1861-3 (Belfast Newsletter).
Mitchell built a church school costing £500 for which Robert Young of Young & Mackenzie was the architect (Belfast Newsletter; www.dia.ie) but a new church building became necessary due to the rapid development and industrial expansion of the area. When numbers became too large for the school building the congregation began to meet in the school-room of the nearby Ewart’s linen mill while the new church was constructed (Belfast Newsletter; History of Congregations).

The new church was formally opened on Sunday 12th May 1872, at which time the building was nearing completion. The church was built to designs by Young & Mackenzie and contractors were John Lowry & Son. The ‘Presbyterian Church’ is first shown, captioned, on the large-scale map of Belfast dating from 1883-4 with a small ‘National School’ to the rear.

The building was constructed at a cost of £2,097 of which about half had been subscribed at the time of opening and was of Scrabo sandstone in the free Gothic style. The Belfast Newsletter gives a full description of the building at the time of opening.

The church buildings were completely destroyed during a German air raid on the night of 15th/16th April 1941 and the congregation met in the nearby Edenderry School for 13 years following this event. A replacement building was dedicated and opened on 18th September 1954, providing accommodation for 650 worshippers on the old site. A minor hall, committee rooms and a recreation hall to the rear also formed part of the design. The ceiling was covered with acoustic tiles, the internal fittings and furnishings were of oak and the porches and staircases were finished in terrazzo. Windows were of stained glass including three memorial windows in the west front. The building was heated by radiators and radiant panels and had an organ in a free-standing console beside the choir stalls (Belfast Newsletter). The architect, David Boyd, supervised the building of Clough Williams-Ellis’s First Church of Christ Scientist in University Avenue but is otherwise better-known for domestic work and for a number of schools designed in the late 1950s and 1960s (www.dia.ie).

The church has suffered from bomb damage on a number of occasions since, including in 1972 when a car bomb destroyed all the windows (History of Congregations). The congregation today numbers around 300 families (Kirkpatrick)
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. Belfast Newsletter 13th May 1872
5. Belfast Newsletter 18th September 1954
6. Irish Times 15th September 1954

Secondary Sources

1. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com)
2. Kirkpatrick, L “Presbyterians in Ireland” Booklink, 2006
3. www.dia.ie - Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A gabled red-brick Presbyterian Church dated 1953 with four-storey square tower to designs by David Wright Boyd and built on the site of an earlier church. Characterised by plain detailing and round-headed openings the design is dominated by a large four-stage tower. Some replacement fabric due to bomb damage, including fenestration, but otherwise retaining much of its original character. The neighbouring Mitchell Memorial Hall (HB26/36/009B) is of a similar style and the two are of some interest in the locale. . However, they are of a late date and not among the best examples of the type.