Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/08/006

Address :
Westbourne Presbyterian Church 149A Newtownards Road Belfast County Antrim BT4 1AB

Townland:
Ballymacarret

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
13/03/1987 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:
130/14 SW

IG Ref:
J3548 7435

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

A double-height Celtic-Revival Presbyterian Church with paired transepts and round bell tower, built c.1880 to designs by Young and McKenzie and enlarged c.1890; located to the south side of Newtownards Road east of Belfast city centre. The church is constructed of rubble-stone with pink sandstone dressings and red-brick. T-shaped in plan with projecting porch to east and west transepts; abutted by a two-storey red-brick school house (1886), also to designs by Young & MacKenzie, to southwest. Pitched natural slate roof with raised stone verges and sandstone kneelers; fishscale slates to tower. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walls are uncoursed rubble-stone with pink sandstone dressings, including a chamfered plinth, windows and door surrounds, and string courses. Transepts are Flemish-bonded red-brick. Single stage buttress to east and west elevations. Windows are Y-tracery lancets in pink sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills. Tripartite Gothic mullioned windows to transepts and paired geometric windows with cusped oculus at north elevation. Slender Gothic lancets to third stage of tower (blind to south); diminutive square-headed openings at second stage. North-facing, comprising gabled bay with paired geometric windows and paired entrances below; abutted by round tower at right. Replacement double-leaf half-panelled timber doors with Gothic transom lights, each in pink sandstone Gothic surrounds surmounted by hood moulds and carved head-stops; flanked by paired pink sandstone semi-engaged columns on plinths with ornately carved capitals. The east elevation has slightly projecting bay at right with cusped oculus surmounted by cusped lancet. The nave is two sets of Y-tracery lancets wide; transept at left has three lancets surmounted by a tripartite mullioned window. Transept at far left (higher) has tripartite mullioned window; north elevation contains an oculus and is abutted to ground floor by the projecting porch containing a timber-sheeted double-leaf door accessed by two masonry steps. The south elevation was inaccessible and not viewed. The west elevation has two sets of Y-tracery lancets; transept at right has three lancets surmounted by a tripartite mullioned window; transept to far right (higher) has a tripartite mullioned window, abutted at ground floor by modern brick extension which is further abutted to the Presbytery to south (of no interest). Setting: Set back from the street with tarmacadamed parking area to front enclosed by rubble-stone and sandstone boundary wall with decorative metal railings and sandstone piers; Gothic gate piers to centre supporting original decorative gates with folding hinge. Early buttressed red-brick boundary wall to east. To southwest is a high modern metal gate attached to the wall of the school house and enclosing the rear yard. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Uncoursed rubble stone Windows: Y-tracery lancets RWG: Cast-iron ogee

Architects

Young & Mackenzie

Historical Information

Westbourne Presbyterian Church was constructed between 1877 and 1878 to designs by Young & Mackenzie; the builder contracted to undertake the construction of the church was a Mr. J. Russell of Belfast and the cost of construction was an estimated £3,000. The Celtic Revivalist Church with its round bell tower was designed for the Belfast Church Building Society to accommodate a congregation of 700; the foundation stone was laid on 17 December 1877 and the church was not opened until 1880 (Irish Builder, Vol. 20, 1 Jan 1878, p. 4). The associated schoolhouse was constructed less than ten years after the opening of the church; in 1884 Young and Mackenzie were again contracted to design a school at the rear of the church. The two-storey redbrick schoolhouse was constructed in 1886 and opened on 17 September of that year. It cost an estimated £800 and was designed to accommodate 600 children in two schoolrooms and four classrooms; the contractor hired to carry out the work was a Mr. William Kerr (Irish Builder, Vol. 28, 1 Jan 1886, p. 4; 1 Oct 1886, p. 7). The Annual Revisions first record Westbourne Presbyterian Church from 1882 when it was valued at £150. The church continued to be valued at this amount until 1905; however in 1906 (after the creation of a separate valuation book for Pottinger Ward) the value of the church was increased to £252 which it remained until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland indicated that the value of the church had then risen to £400 in 1935; by the beginning of the second revaluation in 1956 this value had again risen mainly due to inflation to £1,250; however this was reduced to £1,000 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act. Kirkpatrick records that Westbourne Presbyterian Church was opened on 10 October 1880 and originated from 1874 when subscriptions for the erection of a new church in Ballymacarrett were first collected from Presbyterians in the area (Kirkpatrick, p. 168). The Church was designed in a distinctive Celtic Revival Style; in the 17th and 18th century ecclesiastical design in Ireland had been greatly influenced by English and European styles, however in the mid-19th century there was increased interest in Irish Celtic culture and mythology (later to be more fully expressed in the Irish Literary Revival and the resurgence of the Gaelic Language and sport at the end of the 19th-century). Westbourne Presbyterian Church is an early example of Celtic Revivalist Architecture in Ulster; its bell tower an imitation of the medieval round towers, over 120 of which still survive throughout Ireland (Walker, pp 135-6). During the ministry of the Rev. William Witherow (1883-1919) it became necessary to enlarge the church with the addition of the transepts and the side galleries; funding for this work, as with the construction of the church, was collected from the congregation. The current manse was purchased during the ministry of the Rev. John Montgomery McQuitty (1920-1925); with partition, control of the school passed from the National School System to the Belfast Education Authority. The church’s website records that the building was redecorated and the current church organ was installed during the ministry of the Rev. John Henry Carson who was installed as minister in 1931 and retired from the position upon his death in 1959 (Westbourne Presbyterian Church Website). Westbourne’s congregation at its highest point consisted of almost 900 families; however from 1969, civil unrest greatly affected the membership of the church which dropped to just over 200 by c. 2000. As a result of this decline in numbers in 2001 the congregation was linked with Bloomfield Presbyterian Church which had also experienced a decline in numbers between the 1970s and 2000 (Kirkpatrick, pp 168-169). References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902 4. PRONI OS/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-21 5. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/21 – Annual Revisions 1882-1896 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/30 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/6 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/11 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930 10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/12 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/30 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972 12. PRONI D2194/9/3 – Specifications of works to be done at new school buildings for Committee of Westbourne Presbyterian Church (1884) 13. PRONI D2194/96/7 – Detailed estimate for erection of school buildings (1884) 14. Irish Builder, Vol. 20, 1 Jan 1878; Vol. 28, 1 Jan 1886; 1 Oct 1886. Secondary Sources 1. Kirkpatrick, L. ‘Presbyterians in Ireland: An illustrated history’ Dublin: Booklink, 2006. 2. Walker, S., ‘Historic Ulster Churches’ Belfast: Queens University Belfast, 2000. Online Resources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie 2. Westbourne Presbyterian Church - http://westbournepresbyterian.org

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Westbourne Presbyterian is a double-height Celtic-Revival Presbyterian Church of rubble-stone; built c.1880 to designs by renowned architects Young and McKenzie and enlarged c.1890; located to the south side of Newtownards Road east of Belfast city centre. An early and important example of the Celtic Revival style of architecture in Ulster. It suffered some bomb damage during the 1941 Blitz, architectural detailing is otherwise well-preserved, housing a typical late nineteenth-century interior. The adjoining schoolhouse, also to designs by Young & MacKenzie, adds to the architectural interest of the building. An important local landmark, the church is of significant interest and social importance to the surrounding community.

General Comments

Date of Survey

18 July 2011