Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/04/005

Address :
Cregagh Presbyterian Church and Hall 102-104 Cregagh Road Belfast County Antrim BT6 9ER

Townland:
Ballymaconaghy

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
06/12/2013 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/2NW

IG Ref:
J3597 7243

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

Free-standing gable-fronted double-height redbrick and pale terracotta Gothic Revival church and hall, built c.1928. Rectangular on plan facing west with square-plan tower attached to north, gable-fronted hall to the south with connecting corridor. Various mid to late twentieth-century single-storey redbrick extensions arranged around a courtyard to the rear. Set back on the east side of Cregagh Road within its own site enclosed by redbrick walls and iron railings. Pitched natural slate catslide roof at a lower pitch to the side aisles with black clay ridge tiles and lead-lined ventilation dormers. Cast-iron guttering to moulded terracotta eaves course and plastic downpipes. Redbrick walling laid in English garden wall bond, redbrick plinth course with moulded terracotta trim and redbrick buttresses with terracotta offsets. Pointed-arched window openings formed in chamfered terracotta surrounds, terracotta Y-tracery and chamfered flush terracotta sills with leaded coloured or stained glass glazing. Square-plan three-stage tower abutting the north side elevation and containing one of two principal front entrances. Terracotta parapet wall with pointed-arched blind panels and octagonal finial bases all resting on a terracotta cornice. The bell-stage has redbrick octagonal piers to each corner with a large pointed-arched opening to each elevation containing Y-tracery, cusped openings with timber louvres and terracotta panels below. The middle-stage has redbrick angle-buttresses surmounted by gableted terracotta heads with finials. Terracotta machicolated course spans the space between gablets to the weathered terracotta base of the bell-stage. Two asymmetrically-place pointed-arched window openings to the middle-stage is repeated to the north elevation of the lower stage with a continuous moulded terracotta string course between stages. Pointed-arched entrance to front elevation of lower stage with hood moulding and splayed reveals housing diagonally-sheeted double-leaf timber doors and over panel with decorative iron hinges. Iron lamp mounted onto over panel with three concrete steps. Front west gable has roll-moulded terracotta coping and kneelers surmounted by poppy-head finial. Large pointed-arched west window to the upper level resting on a continuous moulded terracotta course with splayed reveals, hood moulding, geometric tracery formed in terracotta with quatrefoils, cusps and a transom with four trefoil-headed lights below, all glazed in leaded stained glass. At ground level is a series of four trefoil-headed openings with hood moulding and leaded stained glass. A further front entrance is located in a flat-roofed entrance porch abutting the south nave with a redbrick parapet wall with roll-moulded terracotta coping and poppy-head finial. The pointed-arched door opening detailed as per above with tripartite window opening to the south side elevation flanked by lateral buttresses. North side elevation is five windows wide with the three central windows having hood mouldings, Y-tracery and rising above eaves level with a wall-head dormer to each. Rear gable abutted by lower redbrick section housing the sanctuary with natural slate roof hipped to the rear and abutted to the north by modern flat-roofed redbrick block. South side elevation as per north elevation with the easternmost dormer located on the west elevation of a section set at a right angle to the nave and connecting the nave to the Allen Hall to the south. This section also has a small lean-to entrance porch with a Tudor-arched door opening and sheeted timber door with decorative iron hinges. Symmetrical gabled Allen Hall detailed as per church with the front elevation abutted by a lean-to vestibule with hipped slate roof. Vestibule has a weathered terracotta parapet wall with angle buttresses surmounted by gableted heads. A breakfront gabled entrance bay has terracotta coping and finial as per front gable and church gable with raised lettering stating; 'ALLEN / MEMORIAL HALL'. The pointed-headed door opening detailed as per church with a pair of trefoil-headed window openings to either side having hood mouldings and leaded glazing. Side elevations to hall have pointed-headed window openings formed in chamfered terracotta with Y-tracery and plain glazing, each flanked by redbrick buttresses. Setting; Set back on the east side of Cregagh Road within its own modest site having a large bitmac front area and lawn enclosed to the road by redbrick wall with terracotta coping and iron gates on redbrick piers. The north is enclosed by replacement redbrick wall and piers with iron railings. Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron / plastic Walling Redbrick Windows Leaded stained glass

Architects

Stevenson, J C Lucy, Anthony Frederick

Historical Information

The present church was built in 1928 to designs by James Corden Stevenson, replacing an earlier ‘Iron Church’ on the site. (Irish Builder; Barbour) The roots of the present congregation go back to 1874 when a Secession congregation was established composed largely of members who had come from country congregations to reside in Belfast during the period of the town’s most rapid growth. The congregation initially worshipped in the Music Hall at May Street and in 1875 a minister, the Rev, George McMahon was installed. Work was begun on a new church in Botanic Avenue in 1877 and the building was completed in 1879. Unfortunately the congregation was in constant difficulties, and in 1896 the church building was sold to the Kinghan Mission for the Deaf, although the congregation continued to worship there for a time until it was dissolved. A few members of the congregation wished to revive it and maintain a church in Belfast that professed Secession principles. They chose the Woodstock Road for a location for the new church, since Belfast was then expanding rapidly in that direction. A mission was inaugurated in a local school, the Brown Memorial School in Redcar Street, in 1900. The congregation was joined by members of the non-seceding church and eventually decided to drop their designation as a secession church and become re-absorbed into the General Assembly. In 1901 the building of an ‘Iron Church’ commenced on the present site in the Cregagh Road and the church opened in 1902 at a cost of approximately £600. In 1903 the first minister was installed, Rev David Stewart. (Barbour) This early Iron Church entered valuation records in 1906 at a valuation of £54.5s and is shown on the third edition OS map of 1902 captioned, ‘Cregagh Presb[yterian] Ch[urch]’. A building fund was established in 1906 and numerous fund raising events took place over the ensuing years but the intercession of war and economic depression meant that construction of the new church had to be postponed for some years. In 1919 a strip of ground adjacent to the church was acquired which made a building of adequate size possible and by 1925 sufficient funds had been accumulated, through fundraising and legacies such as that of Mrs Mary Allen who left a legacy to enable the building of the memorial hall. Cregagh had by this time become a flourishing suburb in contrast to its semi-rural character at the time of building the ‘Iron Church’. (Barbour) Plans by James Stevenson were passed by Corporation in May 1927 and in September work began, the contractor, John Elliott, being awarded the contract for £14,000 to build both church and hall. Foundation stones were laid in January 1928 and the church was opened in September of the same year. The opening of the new church was announced in the Irish Builder of 13th October 1928. ‘It is a large and handsome structure, built of Belfast bricks with terracotta dressings.’ The Allen Memorial Hall was opened in February 1929. Photographs of the church at the time of opening show that the tower was originally topped with a pinnacle at each of the four corners. These have now been removed. (Irish Builder; Barbour) By 1929 the new church had entered valuation records and the hall was included with it at a total valuation of £345. It is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1931. Stained glass windows in memory of those who died in the second world war were unveiled in May 1948. In 1949 the Allen Memorial Hall was redecorated and an electrical heating system was installed throughout the church and halls. During the 1950s the population of the area expanded dramatically with the building of the Cregagh estate and other housing developments and in 1950 the Allen Memorial Hall was rented to Down Regional Education Committee as a primary school. In 1953 a stained glass window depicting the Good Shepherd was installed on the north side of the church in memory of Mr and Mrs James Dunlop who had been foundation members of the church. (Barbour) In 1955 a temporary wooden hall was purchased from Glenburn Methodist Church and erected at the rear of the Allen Memorial Hall. Named the Stewart Hall it was later replaced by a permanent building of the same name. A building fund for expansion and renovation of church facilities was launched in 1959. Plans for enlargement and extension of the church were approved by the Corporation in November 1962 and Anthony Lucy appointed the architect. The refurbished church opened in September 1963. The additions included a three-light east window designed and executed by Frank Foster of Holywood, rearrangement of the apse, oak panelling and Elders’ stalls, a new pulpit, a south transept, a robing room for the Church choir, a choral gallery, a narthex screen and memorial vestibule, rearrangement of the pews to provide centre and side aisles, a minister’s room, session room and cloakroom, re-lighting, re-plastering and redecorating. A transept window was presented in 1963 by the Womens’ Missionary Association. Plans for erecting a wall and railings on the north side of the site were also approved in 1963. The contractors were Messrs Sloan Bros of Carryduff. A new organ was supplied by Messrs Peter Conacher and Co of Huddersfield and a new bell was dedicated in the memory of Rev Dr David Stewart. The additions and alterations to the church in the early 1960s resulted in a rise in valuation to £760 in 1965. Two new halls, the Stewart and Barbour Halls were opened in 1969. A new kitchen, store room and cloakroom were completed in 1979. A youth centre was completed in the 1980s, the Allen Hall was renovated and church brickwork treated. The Rev W A J Barbour memorial windows were unveiled in June 1980. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902 2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21 3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1931 4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/7 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K – Annual Revisions (1897-1930 6. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/17 – First General Revaluation (1936-57) 7. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/24 – Second General Revaluation (1956-72) 8. Irish Builder, Vol 70, 13th October 1928, p.74 9. Irish Builder, Vol 74, 19th November 1932, p.1052 Secondary Sources Barbour, Jessie C “The Rock in the Plain – Cregagh Presbyterian Church 1900-1993)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Free-standing gable-fronted redbrick and pale terracotta Gothic Revival Presbyterian church and hall, built c.1928 and designed by Belfast architect James Stevenson. Rectangular on plan facing west with square-plan tower attached to north, gable-fronted hall to the south with connecting corridor. Despite the loss of the finials to the tower this decorative church and hall retain a wealth of original fabric and good quality detailing both externally and internally. The Clokey windows to the entrance hall are of particular interest. The use of glazed terracotta for external dressings and internal columns is relatively unusual and the whole composition is enhanced by the adjacent Allen Hall constructed soon after in the same style. Thos church also has significant social interest for the local community and is enhanced by the front boundary gates and walling.

General Comments

Date of Survey

03 August 2011