Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/05/008

Address :
Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church Prospect Road Bangor Co. Down BT20 4LN

Townland:
Corporation

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
08/09/1987 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:
115/12

IG Ref:
J5094 8178

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

A double-height Victorian Presbyterian church with tower built in 1898-9 with extensions and tower dating from 1966 and 1990; located on the corner of Hamilton Road and Prospect Road in the centre of Bangor. Rectangular on plan; gable fronted flanked by three-stage tower to southwest and gabled stair-wing to southeast; M-profile projections to east and west abutted by quadrant extensions to south re-entrant angle. Modern extension (of no interest) to north, accessed by single-storey linking block porch. Pitched natural slate roof with raised stone skews with kneelers. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting sandstone eaves. Walling is uncoursed rock-faced ashlar (reconstituted stone to later extensions) with angled buttresses having stepped masonry offsets. Windows are a variety of stained glass set in sandstone ashlar surrounds (reconstituted stone to later extensions) with chamfered sloping sills. The principal elevation faces south and has gothic five-pane mullioned window with label mould; to ground floor are paired portals in neo-Romanesque style, inset with half-engaged colonnettes having round capitals arranged in groups of three. Tower has balustrade parapet and pinnacles; gothic louvered lancet vents in triple formation to belfry stage; exposed section has replacement timber door to ground floor with chamfered sandstone surround and label mould. To west elevation, M-profile block has a mullioned window to each floor at either side, set in recesses to ground floor arranged in 1-3-1 formation, and tripartite gothic transom-and-mullioned windows to first floor. Quadrant has paired windows (gothic to first floor) with continuous sandstone surround; divided by central buttress. The north elevation is completely abutted by modern extension. The east elevation is a mirror of the west elevation, projecting wing to left having gothic tracery window to first floor and replacement timber door having chamfered sandstone surround and label mould, accessed by single stone step. Setting Prominently located to the west of Bangor town centre; entrance to south dominated by stepped access. Reconstituted stone wall to either side of steps extending round to west; having saddleback copings and square piers with squared masonry caps, surmounted (to south only) by cast-iron railing. Roof: Natural slate Walling: stone and reconstituted stone Windows: Stained glass RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Knox and Markwell Roome, WJW Lamont, E P

Historical Information

The church was built in 1898-9 to designs by William John Waterman Roome but the original design was only partially executed. It is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1900. A church history carries an ‘artist’s sketch of proposed church’ which shows that the original conception included a tower with spire. The tower and a vestibule were added later, but the spire was never built. (Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, p.1) Roome designed several notable buildings in the north of Ireland, including industrial, domestic and commercial architecture but by 1914 he had given up architectural practice and devoted the rest of his life to missionary work in Africa, retiring only to write several books about his African travels. (Perspective, 1997) Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a third Presbyterian church in Bangor was thought necessary due to the rapid growth of the town and its large Presbyterian population. (Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, p.11) The congregation formed in 1897 and initially held services in Good Templar Hall, laying the foundation stone for the new church in June 1898. The contractors were McLaughlin and Harvey and the cost £4,000. Steel work was by Messrs Richard Moreland & Sons of London and glazing by Messrs James Campbell & Co. On October 1st 1899, the Irish Builder carried a lengthy description of the new church which had ‘lately’ opened, calling it a ‘departure from ordinary church architecture’. (Irish Builder) The church is large and of an unusual polygonal plan, seating 1,000. A church history states, “In order to avoid the structural necessity for columns or pillars, the roof has been carried on steel girders in one span, and the galleries have been carried out on steel cantilevers, anchored into the walls, without any supporting columns. The design gives an uninterrupted view and adds to the light and airy appearance of the building.” (Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, p.19) It enters valuation records in 1900 as a Presbyterian church and yard, exempt and valued at £170. In 1908 a Mason-Hamlin organ was gifted to the church and in 1922 a pipe organ installed as a war memorial. The gallery and seating was completed in 1923 and accounts for a rise in valuation in 1924 to £200. (Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, p.21) A hall to the rear was built to the designs of Ferguson & McIlveen in 1932. The planned vestibule and tower were added in 1966 and stained glass windows by York House Studios were also installed at this time. Patton states the architect to have been Gordon McKnight but the church history, written less than 10 years after the event, has the architect as E.P.Lamont. The contractors were Messrs Connor and Beattie and the cost £26,000. Extensive repairs were carried out to the stonework in 1969 at a cost of over £2,000. (Patton, p.92; McClune, p.18, 24; Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, p.22-7; NIEA file) In 1990 Knox and Markwell of Bangor added a two-storey structure to the rear to provide church offices and a committee room. In 2001 an extensive internal remodelling of the vestibule was begun by Hall, Black, Douglas, during the process of which, a first floor committee room was removed and steel-framed galleries inserted. A masonry wall between the foyer and the church was replaced in glass and the lantern light reglazed at ceiling level with opal white rather than red glass. The box pews were removed from the interior and the choir area redesigned. (Perspective, 2004) References: Primary Sources 1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833 2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858 3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901 4.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26 5.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939 6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/2 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40) 7.PRONI VAL/1/B/31 – Townland Valuation (1828-40) 8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64) 9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 10.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99) 11.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923) 12.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930) 13.Irish Builder, Vol 41, 1st October 1899, p.140 14.Perspective, May/June 1997, p.45-7 15.Perspective, Mar/April 2004, p48-52 16.NIEA file HB23/05/008 Secondary Sources 1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999 2.Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church Bangor, Jubilee 1897-1947 3.McClune, George P “Chapters in the History of Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, Bangor County Down, 1948-1972” Belfast: 1972

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A double-height Victorian Presbyterian church built in 1898-9 to designs by William John Waterman Roome. Although, extended to the rear and modernised, it historic character survives. The unusual polygonal plan form, large single span roof with central lantern and cantilevered galleries are of note. It is a good example of a late Victorian ecclesiastical building.

General Comments

Date of Survey

16 July 2010