Cavehill Methodist Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey rustic red brick hipped roof church in modern style dating from 1955-57 to designs by the architects Young & Mackenzie. Cruciform plan with a three-stage hipped roof tower to E, a single-storey hipped roof Hall to SW, single- and two-storey flat roof extensions to rear. The church is located on a site fronting onto Cavehill Road.

Gabled natural slate roof to main body of the church and hipped roof to Hall to W with overhanging eaves and semi-circular black-clay hips and ridge tiles. Swept hipped natural slate roof to side wings at E and tower which has a lead rolled ridge and hips. Flat roofed extensions. Tall square section chimney to Hall with concrete coping
Cast iron half-round guttering and hoppers discharging to circular downpipes. Red brick walling laid to English garden bond on projecting rustic red plinth. Square headed window openings with projecting concrete cills, brick soldier arch with horizontal cut-tile detail over and stained leaded glazing (unless noted otherwise).

Principal elevation:
The symmetrical three-bay wide principal elevation faces E. Three-stage rectangular plan tower to central bay flanked by two-storey hipped roof bays to ends.

Projecting single-storey hipped roof porch to centre having three windows to E and square-headed door openings to N and S face having double-leaf timber panelled doors. The door to S is accessed by four steps, the door to N by a ramp. The porch is flanked by paired windows to first stage of tower; three windows to second stage. Shallow recessed third stage has simple splayed corner buttresses and central square-headed opening to each face with diamond-patterned cast stone openwork, flanked by recessed brick panels with stepped brick cills. Copper spike to tower.

The two end bays have paired windows to GF and three-part windows to FF.

North elevation:
The N elevation consists of a two-storey hipped roof bay to E, seven-bay wide double-height elevation of the nave and a two-storey flat roof three-bay wide elevation to W.

Paired windows to GF and FF to E bay. Tall windows to nave.

The elevation to W has a square-headed door opening and three-part window to GF to first bay to E. Five windows to GF. The second bay is slightly projecting with chamfered corners. Square-headed door opening to GF and three-part window to FF. Last bay to W has five windows to GF and FF and a square headed door opening to W end having a timber panelled door with multi-paned glazing and fanlight.

West elevation:
The W elevation consists of a two-storey flat roof bay to N and a single storey eight-bay wide elevation of the Hall.
Three windows to N bay, wider to centre, and tall windows to Hall.

South elevation:
The S elevation consists of a two-storey hipped roof bay to E, seven-bay wide double-height elevation of the nave, a projecting single storey flat roof bay and the projecting single-storey S elevation of the Hall.

Paired windows to GF and FF to E bay which is abutted to W by a single-storey lean-to bay with two windows facing W. Window to FF to E bay facing W.

Tall windows to nave.

Five windows to single storey bay facing E and a projecting doorcase facing E with a square-headed door opening having a double-leaf sheeted timber door with glazing, fanlight and side lights. The door opens onto a low platform accessed by a ramp.

Setting:
The church is located within its own grounds on a site fronting onto the W side of Cavehill Road. Tarmaced parking to the W and S, lawns and tarmaced pathways and driveways around. The site is enclosed to E by dwarf red brick walling and rectangular section red brick piers with concrete coping. The walling is topped by plain painted metal railings. Two identical driveways, one to NE and one to SE, having double gates supported on rectangular section red brick piers with concrete coping and cut tile detail to corners.

Materials:

Roof : natural slate roof
RWG : cast iron
Walling : red-brick laid to English garden bond
Windows: stained leaded glazing

Historical information

Cavehill Methodist Church, a post-war red brick church located on the Cave Hill Road, was constructed in 1955-57. In the aftermath of the Second World War new suburban housing was developed in the rural land to the north of the city reservoir (and Belfast City & District Water Works). The church history records that the development of housing in the area began in 1947 and was projected to extend right up to Cavehill. The construction of Cavehill Methodist Church was necessitated by the local population increase in the area. The Superintendent of the local Methodist circuit, the Rev. J. B. Jameson, noted that ‘there is a great need for a place of worship in the neighbourhood. A great need for something to be done for the children in the district.’ The Cavehill congregation was originally formed in 1947 and met in Cavehill Preparatory School for a decade before the current church building was erected (A history of Cavehill Methodist Church).

Cavehill Methodist Church was designed by the local building firm, Young & Mackenzie. The plans for the church were drawn up in 1953 by James Reid Young (1884-1967), son of the original partner Robert Young. The Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that J. R. Young remained a partner in Young & Mackenzie until his death in 1967. The leading architects to the Presbyterian Church in the North-East of Ulster, Young & Mackenzie designed few buildings for the Methodist Church in Ireland. Larmour and the DIA notes that, apart from Cavehill Methodist, the firm designed only two other buildings for the denomination. The firm designed a Methodist Church on the Newtownards Road and a church on the Springfield Road Methodist Church that was contemporary to the church on the Cavehill Road having been erected in 1954 (DIA).

The memorial stones were laid in 1955 and the church was completed in 1957. Cavehill Methodist Church was officially opened on 25th April 1957. The Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) records that the hall to the rear of the church was also erected in 1955-57 and that the two buildings were jointly valued at £1,120. Paul Larmour described Cavehill Methodist Church in the following terms: ‘A dumpy towered symmetrical composition in brick with swept roofs, designed in that indeterminate style that was common just after the war, in which old and new were blended together. Probably of modern Dutch or Scandinavian inspiration’ (Larmour, p. 96).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/5 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
2. First Survey Record – HB26/44/067 (c. 1987)

Secondary Sources
1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987.
2. McCreary, W., ‘A new adventure in service: A history of Cavehill Methodist Church, 1947-1997’ Belfast, 1997.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects – http://www.dia.ie/
2. Cavehill Methodist Church website - http://www.cavehillmethodistchurch.org/107035.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

An idiosyncratic two-storey rustic red-brick hipped roof church in eclectic modern style dating from 1955-57 to designs by the architects Young & Mackenzie. One of the few Methodist Churches designed by the firm, one of the leading architects to the Presbyterian Church in Ulster and a late example of their work, which is typically more classical in style. Cruciform plan with a three-stage hipped roof tower to E and single-storey hipped roof Hall to SW. Featuring a distinctive tower to the centre of the principal elevation with a swept hipped roof, diamond-patterned cast stone openwork and copper spike. The church retains a fine interior with original panelled walls and original alter furniture. The building occupies a prominent site fronting onto Cavehill Road and has group value with Newington Presbyterian Church (HB26/48/010A), another 1950s Young & McKenzie church designed in a similar idiom, and located nearby on the Limestone Road.