Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/01/016

Address :
BALLYNAFEIGH METHODIST CHURCH ORMEAU ROAD BELFAST BT7

Townland:
Ballynafoy

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
26/08/1986 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:
147/6NW

IG Ref:
J3475 7161

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Large double-height, Eclectic Romanesque style Church and Hall built c.1898, located on the Ormeau Road in S Belfast, approx. 2 km from the city centre. Facing NE the church and hall are bounded to the NW and SE by Florenceville Drive and Whitehall Parade consecutively. Rectangular plan, multi-gabled building with a large square tower to SE corner, an octagonal tower to NE corner and 2 no. triangular bays with pyramidal roofs to each side elevation. Single-storey red-brick church hall attached to SW (see HB26.01.016B) Materials: Walls: Painted smooth plaster and painted sandstone. Roof: Natural Westmoreland slate Windows: Metal single- glazed with opaque roughcast glazing. Rwgs: Painted cast metal Front Elevation(NE) Comprises of a large, three-stage, square tower to SE, a smaller, three-stage octagonal tower to NE and a gabled central section with double-pitch roof and large round-headed arched window. There are 2 no. identical gabled porches at the base of each tower and a single storey canted bay at the base of the central section. A deep plinth runs along the perimeter at ground level. Square tower to SE has triangulated piers at corners and moulded course at second stage level. Porch at ground level gabled with Dutch style pediment and recessed segmental-headed arched doorway. Doorway flanked with pairs of pilasters with Doric capitals. Archway detailed with deep moulded courses on underside of arch and at impost level. Pediment featuring decorative moulded courses to face and coping; ornate fluted cone pilasters with circular capitals above impost level; scroll mouldings at eaves level and ball finial at apex. Doorcase consists of boarded varnished timber double doors with decorative metal hinges and arched glazed overlight. Tripartite round-headed arched windows at first floor level with deep moulded course at cill; 4 no. doric pilasters and ornate hood-mould with triangular pediment, scroll mouldings and finial at apex. At third-stage is a semi-circular opening to each face of tower with moulded surround with patera to base . Mouldings at cornice level. To top of tower is depressed arched coping with moulded capping abutting square coping sections at each corner with square capping stones and domed finials. Octagonal tower has circular doric pilasters to vertices and glazed clerestorey with Doric-style pilasters to third-stage. Plain glazing sections to clerestorey. Arrow-slit windows to faces of tower at second-stage. Deep course of mouldings at base of clerestorey and at eaves level. Copper dome roof. Central gabled section consists of canted bay at ground level and large central round-headed arched window at first foor level. Canted bay half-glazed with lean-to lead covered roof. Glazed upper section sub-divided into 5 no. sections flanked by doric-style pilasters. Moulded courses at cill and eaves. Plain glazing sections. Central gable with Giant order doric-style pilasters flanking central arched window with smaller doric-style pilsters inset into window opening; gable has deep moulded courses - at impost level, below apex of pediment and to underside of arched window opening. Plain glazing to arched window with margin panes subdivided. Other moulded string courses at floor and ceiling levels and at coping; Decorative stucco plasterwork to abutment above arch. The words ‘BALLYNAFEIGH METHODIST – CHURCH’ are applied in raised stucco lettering to base of window between the moulded string courses; and below this the date ‘1898’ , also in stucco flanked by scroll mouldings. Side Elevation(SE) Tower to SE and gabled central section, flanked by 2 no. 2-storey triangular bays with pyramidal roofs. N triangular bay consists of tripartite square-headed windows at ground and first floor level with doric-style pilasters to N face. Glazing plain. Moulded string courses at floor levels and cills and deep moulded course at eaves. Plain Giant order pilasters with conical capitals to corners. Blank façade to S face. S triangular bay consists of blind opening to first floor flanked by doric style pilasters and 1 no. plain square-headed window opening on ground level with plain glazing to S face. Plain Giant order pilasters with conical capitals to corners. Blank façade to N face. Red-clay ridge tiles and finial to apex of pyramidal roofs. Central gabled section consists of 3 no. square-headed windows at ground level and large central round-headed arched window at first foor level flanked each side by 1 no. square-headed window. Moulded courses at cill, floor and eaves levels. Gable featuring Giant order doric-style pilasters and deep moulded course at impost level and to underside of arched window opening. Plain glazing to arched window with margin panes subdivided. Plain glazing sections to square-headed windows. Side Elevation(NW) Detailed as per SE window with plain glazing to arched window; margin panes subdivided and plain glazing sections to square-headed windows. Rear Elevation (S) At ground level abuts a 20th C single-storey red-brick extension connected to the church hall (HB26.01.016B). At first floor level consists of a canted blank elevation at rear of chancel with hipped roof. Small canted single storey bay to NW with pitched roof and 2 no. rectangular square-headed windows with plain glazing. Church Hall Single story red brick, with reconstituted stone dressings, former national school built in 1905 and now extended and used as a hall for the adjoining Ballynafeigh Methodist Church HB26 01 016. Roughly T-shaped on plan it is located between Florenceville Drive and Whitehall Parade just off the Ormeau approximately 3km from the centre of Belfast. Materials Roof : natural Bangor blue slate with exposed rafter ends. Walls: red clay brick with reconstituted stone dressings to the projecting side bays Windows: largely original single glazed painter timber – hopper type with deep painted sills RWGs : mixture of cast iron and uPVC The side elevation facing South has a projecting gabled former classroom with three tall windows facing the road. The windows have segmental brick lintols and a keystone above which is a rectangular reconstituted stone plaque which reads BALLYNAFEIGH NATIONAL SCHOOL. To the right of this is the main hall which has two segmental headed windows and a double-leaf fire escape door between shallow brick buttresses. A slightly projecting flat roofed section is attached to a similar rendered projection, which is a modern extension linking the former school to the church. To the left of the former classroom is a flat roofed section containing an original door opening, with a decorative lintol. This has been partially blocked up and infilled with a smaller uPVC window. An original wall encloses a small yard to the left and further to the left is a two storey modern extension with doubled pitched slated roof in the same plane as the hall roof. Along this elevation several name stones have been inserted in the exterior wall recording some of those that contributed to the building of the school – Mrs H WHITEHEAD – IN MEMORY OF Mr HENRY WHITEHEAD – Mrs JOHN CONNOLLY – Mrs JB SKELLY – Mrs RB BRANDON – Mrs AC MARSHALL – Mrs TF SHILLINGTON. To the left of the former school building is a tall brick wall (partially rebuilt with concrete blocks) capped with a terracotta copings which would originally have bounded a playground. To the right is a similar dwarf wall with the original painted wrought iron railings and pedestrian gate. The East elevation is now attached by a new rendered link to the Methodist church. It’s original composition can still be read as a taller flat roofed middle section, containing the stage to the school hall, with lower projecting blocks on either side. The West elevation is now concealed by the addition of a two storey extension is similar materials, but with stained hardwood windows. The North elevation to Florenceville Drive is similar in layout to the South elevation. On the left a single storey projecting bay contains original painted steel windows and the main entrance to the hall. The entrance sits under a projecting flat-roofed hood and has 4 tiled steps. The entrance door has painted double doors (may be original) and has lower solid panels and upper glazed panels. There is a projecting classroom section, similar to the South, but it is more ornately detailed with semi-circular headed reconstituted stone kneelers, two string courses above the windows and a semi-circular apex over an oval oculus. The extension is more intrusive on this side as it overlaps and projects beyond the original classroom. The extension has a tall projecting triangular window to the first floor and two segmental headed windows on the ground floor. The boundary treatment has been changed with about half of the walling and railings replaced in modern materials but in a similar style to the original. This side also has a collection of name stones both from the original construction - FOUNDATION STONE LAID BY THE RT HON SIR DANIEL DIXO, BART MP DL(?) LORD MAYOR OF BELFAST 28TH OCTOBER 1905 – MRS(?) EDWARD BENNETT – MRS JGW REID – MRS S HERALD – MRS ST MERCIER – (?) HENDEERSON - and three commemorating alterations in 1951 – MEMORIAL HALL FOUNDATION STONE LAID BY REV RH GALLAGHER BA 9TH JUNE 1951 – TH MENARY ESQ – MRS GH STEVENSON Bounded by the Ormeau Rd, Florenceville Drive and Whitehall Parade, the church site is enclosed by a low wall and railings along all three boundaries. Walling is painted smooth rendered masonry with circular piers with rounded tops at regular intervals. Original painted metal railings mounted on the walling with 3 no. sets of original painted metal gates, (1 no. pair of gates at front entrance (NE) and 2 no. single gates at each side elevation). The church hall site is relatively tight with concrete paths around the former school and small areas of grass at each side of the hall. Apart from the Methodist church the other adjoining buildings in both streets are largely two storey early twentieth century houses.

Architects

Forman & Aston Hanna, James A

Historical Information

The plot is undeveloped on the OS second edition map of 1857 and appears to be occupied by an orchard associated with an L-plan building to the north. A small Methodist meeting house is marked to the north on the opposite side of the road. Ballynafeigh Methodist Church, built 1897-1898, first appears on the third edition map of 1901 shown as a plain rectangular block set within a perimeter. Comparison of the two maps makes clear the rapid development of Ballynafeigh in the nineteenth century such that the original Methodist chapel and school, founded in 1838 for the Willowvale Society, was no longer sufficient. A dedicated new church building was provided in the form of a corrugated iron hall designed by James John Phillips, opening on 3rd November 1893 (DIA). The minister in 1896 was recorded as Rev. M.J. Lewis and from 1889-1900 as Rev. L.H. Cullen. The replacement hall was described as “one of the neatest and most commodious churches in Belfast”, but was again quickly outgrown by its congregation and an architect was appointed and plans drawn up for a new church in 1897. The foundation stone, laid on 28th May 1898 by the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alderman James Henderson, records that the architects were Alfred Forman and Taggart Aston and the builders were Young and Dickson. The firm of Forman and Aston practiced briefly in Belfast at the Queens Buildings from foundation in 1897 until moving to the city of Derry in 1899. Forman, the son of a Dundee shipmaster, trained in Melbourne, Australia, before working across the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and South Africa; Aston was a civil engineer by training. The design of the church was described by the Belfast News Letter in 1898 as “an adaptation of the American-Romanesque style, having been designed to avoid the usual cruciform plan and long nave…the seating has a comfortable and uninterrupted view of the speaker” (Belfast News Letter). Forman is thought to have devised the plan through a combination of the crosses of St George and St Andrew; the Lord Major presiding over the opening felt it would have been more appropriately based on that of St Patrick (Mercer). However, Brett argues that the plan resulted from the architect’s interest in acoustics, which is suggested by Mercer to be the most successful aspect of the building thanks to the careful positioning of the pulpit and galleries. Larmour suggests that the style’s “best single label would be Queen Anne Revival” which would set the church alongside other buildings by Forman in Belfast, such as 130 Lisburn Road (HB26/28/085 B). Brett meanwhile, describes the church as “eccentric...a very strange adaptation of renaissance ideals to art-nouveau idioms”. The new church was constructed of cemented brick with stone finishings, and originally featured a spire above the tower, a fleche over the auditorium and various decorative finials. The spire, and presumably the fleche, were quickly found to be structurally unstable and removed, as were the finials. These may have been the alterations by James A. Hanna recorded in 1923 (DIA). The attractive original appearance has been obscured by the plastering of the exterior, probably an early-twentieth century attempt to keep out damp. A ‘sympathetic’ restoration and repainting took place in 1966 (Brett). The Methodist congregation at Ballynafeigh peaked in the late 1970s. The school and hall to the west were built around 1905 and are present on the fourth edition of the OS maps (HB26/01/015). The site to the west of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church is vacant on the third edition OS map of c.1900. Ballynafeigh National School was designed in 1905 by James John Phillips & Son, one of the last buildings attributed to the partnership (DIA), and first appears on the fourth edition OS map in 1907. The new school was to serve 350 children and was built to the rear of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church of 1897 (HB26/01/016). The foundation stone was laid by Rt Hon Daniel Dixon, Lord Mayor of Belfast, on 28th October 1906. The annual revisions show that Sir Robert J McConnell, a prominent speculative developer and Lord Mayor of Belfast, received the half-rent for the school of £18 3s. The school sits early in a context of educational reform in the National School system in Belfast and the review and new-building of school buildings in the 1920s, notably under noted school architect Reginald Sharman Wilshere. J.J. Phillips was the architect of choice to the Methodist Church in the north of Ireland, designing around seventeen Methodist churches, most of those in Belfast having accompanying schools. This included the predecessor to the existing Ballynafeigh Methodist Church, which was a “neat” and “commodious” corrugated iron hall that was quickly replaced due to the increasing congregation. The memorial hall extension was built later, in the 1950s, its foundation stone laid on 9th June 1951 by Rev. R.H. Gallagher. Resources Primary Resources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/2 Ordnance Survey Second Edition (1857) 2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Ordnance Survey Third Edition (1901) 3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Ordnance Survey Fourth Edition (1920-22) 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/4 Annual Revisions (1865-81) 5. PRONI VAL/7/B/3 Belfast Revaluation Records (1900) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/4 + 7 Annual Revisions (1906 - 1930) 7. Belfast Street Directories (1890-1900) Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C.E.B., “The Buildings of Belfast 1700-1914” Friar’s Bush (1985) 2. Larmour, Paul “Belfast: An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Friar’s Bush (1987) 3. Mercer, P., “Round the Churches 9: Ballynafeigh Methodist Church” Online Sources https://www.dia.ie/works/view/41092/building/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+BALLYNAFEIGH%2C+METHODIST+CHURCH https://www.dia.ie/works/view/46014/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+ORMEAU+ROAD+%28BALLYNAFEIGH%29%2C+METHODIST+CHURCH http://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/policy/supplementary_guidance/conservation/conservation_map/conservation-queens.pdf http://methodisthistoryireland.org/churches/Ballynafeigh%20Methodist%20Church,%20Belfast.pdf.pdf https://www.dia.ie/works/view/41094/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+BALLYNAFEIGH%2C+NATIONAL+SCHOOLS https://www.dia.ie/works/view/46015/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+ORMEAU+ROAD+%28BALLYNAFEIGH%29%2C+METHODIST+CHURCH+HALL

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form E. Spatial Organisation F. Structural System H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity S. Authenticity Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance X. Local Interest V. Authorship

Evaluation

Ballynafeigh Methodist Church is a distinctive and unusual ecclesiastical building, built 1897, located on the west side of Ormeau Road. Externally, it is characterised by its imaginative combination and reworking of architectural features which establish it as a prominent local landmark. The highlighting of structural details and additional flourishes of ornament enhance the attractive interplay of volumes to provide a sense of grandeur. The church retains much of its original external character but the loss of spire, fleche and finials has somewhat comprimised the style and proportions of the design. Internally, it has an exceptional church interior. The internal gallery and hammerbeam roof are of substantial technical and ornamental interest. The building retains its setting with a prominent frontage to Ormeau Road, while it has seen the development of a hall and school to the rear in the early-twentieth century (HB26/01/015). The church significantly enhances the streetscape of Ormeau Road, enlivening the residential and commercial area nearby and standing out from the plainer Neo-Gothic style of surrounding churches.

General Comments

Date of Survey

23 November 2016