DR COOKE STATUE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A memorial statue to Dr Henry Cooke, erected 1876 to designs by Samuel Ferris Lynn, and located at the junction of College Square E and Wellington Place, in Belfast City Centre. The statue is cast in bronze (heavily patinated) and consists of a standing figure in academic robes with a pile of books at his heel and clutching papers. The base of the statue bears two signatures: at south ‘S.F. Lynn, A.R.H.A. Sculpt. / London 1875’ and at north, ‘H PRINCE, FOUNDER / SOUTHWARK’. The statue is mounted on a slightly tapered polished red granite corniced plinth, with inscription on each side; to east: ‘HENRY COOKE / D.D.L.L.B. / BORN 1780 / DIED 1868’; to west: ‘ORDAINED IN / DUNEANE 1808 / INSTALLED IN / DONEGORE 1811 / KILLYLEAGH 1818 / BELFAST 1829’. The plinth is mounted on a polished grey granite pedestal mounted on a stepped platform of unpolished stone.

Setting: Built-up urban
setting on a pedestrian island at the centre of a busy city centre traffic junction, fronting Belfast Academical Institution (HB26/50/023) and Belfast College of Technology (HB26/50/222). Tarmcadam hardstandings and metal railings to pedestrian island.

Statue: Bronze
Plinth: Granite

Historical information

The Dr. Henry Cooke Memorial Statue, located in College Square East in Belfast City Centre, was erected outside the gates of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution in 1876, replacing a previous statue dedicated to the Earl of Belfast. The first monument erected outside ‘Inst’ was a statue erected in memory of Frederick Richard (1827-53), son of the Third Marquis of Donegall who died at a young age. His statue was set up in 1855, two years after the subject’s death, on the same plinth now occupied by Dr. Cooke’s effigy. Richard’s statue can be seen on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1858 which simply depicts a small square structure captioned ‘Earl of Belfast Monument.’

The Earl of Belfast Statue was designed by Patrick McDowell (1790-1870) in Bronze and was painted black becoming known locally as the ‘black man.’ The monument stood on College Square East until 1876 when it was decided to move it to the Town Hall on Victoria Street (the ‘Black man’ would later be moved to the public library and then to its current position within Belfast City Hall. Richard’s statue was replaced by the current memorial to the Rev. Henry Cooke which was installed in 1876 but had been planned since 1872.

The Irish Builder notes that the statue to Cooke was designed by Samuel Ferres Lynn (1834-1876), brother of the Belfast-based architect W. H. Lynn and a student of Patrick McDowell who had designed the Earl of Belfast’s statue. Lynn, who originally intended to become an architect, became interested in sculpture after winning prizes for modelling at the Belfast School of Art; residing predominantly in London, Lynn returned to Belfast in 1873 where he completed his statue of Cooke, becoming his final major work to be completed before his sudden death in 1876. The statue to Dr. Henry Cooke was installed on College Square East in April 1876 as part of a large Orange Order procession, including Orange lodges from all over Ireland (Irish Builder, p. 83; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The subject, Dr. Henry Cooke (1788-1868), one of Ulster's most influential religious figures, was born on 11th May 1788 in Maghera, Co. Londonderry. Cooke commenced his studies for ministry in 1802 and was called to his first congregation, Denain Presbyterian in Co. Antrim; affected in his youth by the turmoil of the 1798 rebellion, Cooke was strongly imbibed with conservative principals from his early education and ministry and became a champion of Presbyterian orthodoxy. Cooke’s career was predominantly defined by his struggle against the Arian denomination, a pervading sect of the Christian faith that denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Cooke was first publically drawn into the debate between orthodoxy and Arianism in 1821 when an Arian, William Bruce was appointed to Royal Belfast Academical Institution as professor of Greek and Hebrew; ‘Inst,’ already suspected as a breeding ground for radical thought in the city, was targeted by Cooke who called the establishment a ‘seminary of Arianism’ Elected as moderator of the Presbyterian Synod in 1824, Cooke persuaded the Synod to demand increased control over the appointment of lecturers to ‘Inst.’ Ultimately Cooke failed in this endeavor as public opinion turned against him whilst the Academical Institution strongly resisted any coercive moves by the Synod. Having failed to remove Arianism from Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Cooke moved to eradicate the denomination’s influence from the Presbyterian Synod and in 1827 succeeded in persuading the assembly to reaffirm its conviction in the Trinitarian faith, thus isolating avowed Arian members who later left the organization; these included Henry Montgomery (1788-1865) who subsequently became Cooke’s greatest debating opponent.

Cooke was appointed the first minister of May Street Presbyterian Church (HB26/30/031A) in 1829; the church was especially constructed to give the fiery preacher a pulpit in the centre of the town. In his later years Cooke maintained his stance against pervading influences to the orthodox faith and also against the coercion of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland; becoming increasingly involved in the political arena, Cooke opposed Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the National Education System in the 1830s; one of Cooke’s greatest oratorical accomplishments came in 1841 when he challenged Daniel O’Connell to a debate on the Repeal of the Union, however O’Connell refused to attend, resulting in the Minister being hailed ‘the cook who dish’d Dan’ without having uttered a single word. Henry Cooke resigned his position at May Street Presbyterian Church in 1867 before dying on 13th December 1868; the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that ‘few have articulated as effectively as Henry Cooke the distinctive and emotive emphases of nineteenth-and twentieth-century Ulster protestantism-evangelicalism, anti-Catholicism and unionism in politics’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Cooke’s statue, erected eight years after his death, was placed outside Royal Belfast Academical Institution; Cooke stands with his back to ‘Inst,’ commentators suggest that this was intended as a deliberate snub to the educational establishment Cooke spent much of his career attacking. Interestingly, the effigy to Cooke is now known locally as ‘the Black Man,’ however this was the original moniker of the Earl of Belfast’s statue. Upon replacing that statue in 1876, Cooke’s monument also inherited the formers nickname, despite the natural green colour of the bronze sculpture (Heatley, p. 16; Patton, p. 74). Henry Cooke’s statue was listed in 1971 and has become one of Belfast’s best known public statues and popular tourist sights. In 1985 a proposal was made to relocate Cooke’s statue from College Square East, however the proposal concluded ‘while the ‘Black Man’ is no doubt physically capable of resiting anywhere in the central area of Belfast it is surely one of the best known and loved landmarks in the City Centre in its present position and any proposal to move it would probably provoke an outcry’ (NIEA HB File).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
5. Irish Builder, Vol. 18 (15 Mar 1876)
6. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)
7. First Survey Record – HB26/50/049 (1971)

Secondary Sources

1. NIEA HB File – HB26/50/049.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
3. Dixon, H; Walker, B., ‘In Belfast Town: 1864-1880’ Belfast: The Friar’s Bush Press, 1996.
4. Heatley, F., ‘Belfast: Paintings and stories from the city’ Donaghadee, Cottage publications, 1998.
5. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
6. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography –
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6168?docPos=3

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A memorial statue to Dr Henry Cooke erected 1876 to designs by Samuel Ferris Lynn and located at the junction of College Square E and Wellington Place in Belfast City Centre. The history of the site is also of interest. The statue is finely executed in bronze, commemorating one of Ulster’s most prominent Nineteenth century churchmen.