Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/27/009

Address :
Crescent Church 6 University Road Belfast Co Antrim BT7 1NH

Townland:
Malone Lower

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
02/03/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/1

IG Ref:
J3353 7297

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Owner Category

Church - Other

Exterior Description And Setting

Large, two storey French gothic (originally) Presbyterian church of 1887 by John Bennie Wilson in beige and red sandstone with impressive soaring bell tower and large rear two storey hall section. The building, now used by the Christian Brethren, is set on the E side of University Road The building is basically rectangular in plan form with the large hall off shoot to the NE. The large gabled nave is flanked to front by the tall half open bell tower to the N and a much smaller stair tower to the S, both capped with slated pyramidal and octagonal roofs somewhat too short to be classed as spires. The façade is in greyish-beige rock-faced sandstone with smooth red sandstone dressings and (‘in-out’) quoins. All sections of the roof are slated. The windows are mainly equilateral pointed arches set in bevelled ‘in-out’ reveals and filled with geometric leaded panes or pictorial stained glass. Front elevation The front (W) elevation is asymmetrical. The church is entered via a large but shallow gabled porch bay to the ground floor of the front gable of the ‘nave’. Set within the gable of the porch is a large modern style flat arch doorway filled with plate glass double doors with large plate glass sidelights. The doorway is topped with a c.1970s mosaic signboard [‘Crescent Church’]. The door is set within a large bevelled pointed arch reveal in red sandstone with a series of boss mouldings to the reducing archivolt and a large decorative roundel panel flanked by cusped niches to the tympanum. The reveal is flanked by gabled reducing buttresses with pointed arch and roundel niches to the gables. To the apex of the porch are two slit recesses. Tiled steps to door. The gable of the nave is edged with full height buttresses as the porch, with a similar (but slightly smaller) central buttress rising from the ridge of the gable of the porch itself. To each side, between the porch and the edge buttresses is a relatively small recessed pointed arch window. Above each of these windows is a shallow lean-to roof with a low ‘balustrade’ with pointed arch piercings. The upper level of the gable of the ‘nave’ is dominated with large twin recesses, each filled with three tall narrow pointed arch windows filled with pictorial stained glass. The middle window of each grouping is taller. To the apex of the gable are three slit recesses, with that to centre taller. The gable is topped with a decorative stone finial. To the left (N) of the gable is the tall bell tower. This is more than 1½ times the height of the nave with its upper half largely open. The ground floor level of the tower (which is only exposed to the N and W) has right angle reducing buttresses. To the W face of the ground floor of the tower is a relatively small flat arch doorway with modern partly gazed door. Above the doorway is a (pointed) relieving arch. There is a short staircase with low wall and railings in front of this doorway. To the ground floor of the N face of the tower is a slightly larger doorway which is no longer used, the door having been replaced with modern style partly glazed screen. This screen is set within a bevelled reveal similar to that around the main porch entrance, but with a label moulding with decorative stops and without the bosses. To the tympanum are three cusped slit recesses. To the second floor level of the N and W faces of the tower there is an ‘arcade’ with a row of pointed arch recesses with alternate recesses filled with narrow flat arch windows. The second tall third ‘floor’ of the tower is exposed to the N, W and E, where there are two high level slit windows to each face. As stated above, the upper half of the tower is largely open, with a pair of very tall narrow cusped openings to each face. The base of each opening is splayed with a tall ‘balustrade’ or ‘arcade’ feature rising from this. Between the openings is a plain buttress with steep pyramidal cap with slightly broader outer buttresses with gabled heads with cusped recesses and horizontally projecting crocket-like finials. The tower is topped with a steeply pitched pyramidal slated roof with lead finial with weathervane. The roof rests on a short base with arcade of pointed arch niches with octagonal corner pinnacles. To the right hand side of the front elevation (SW corner of the building) is a large but squat two storey four-sided stair tower projection with an octagonal slated steeply pitched roof. This is set some metres back from the line of the front gable. To the ground floor of the W face of the projection there is a recent partly glazed door set within a reveal similar to that on the N face of the ground floor of the bell tower (see above) but with cusped recess to the tympanum. To the S face is a narrow pointed arch window. To the second floor there is a complete row of narrow flat arch windows set in pointed arch reveals. S elevation To the left end of the S elevation is the stair tower projection (see above). To the right the stair tower abuts a full height plain gabled buttress. To the right of this is the long S face of the nave, which has five pairs of pointed arch windows to its slightly projecting ground floor. To the first floor are four sets of two pointed arch windows with a large higher level (multi-foil) roundel window set in between. Each of these sets of windows is a plain pilaster. To the right hand side of these is a further set of similar windows, but with the two pointed arch windows much taller; this group is set within a large pointed arch recess with label moulding with stops, which in turn is set with a large gable with three slit recesses close to the apex. To the right hand edge of the elevation the façade is recessed (this is actually the S face of a gable ‘chancel’ projection- see below). To the ground floor is a shallow lean-to porch with plain sheeted timber door to its S face set in a bevelled reveal with small pointed arch niches to tympanum. Short flight of stone steps to door. To the short E face of the porch is slit window. To the first floor are three relatively small pointed arch windows. N elevation Left of the bell tower, the N elevation follows the same arrangement as the S, but to the left hand side (on the large gable) is abutted by the large two storey hall section (see below). E elevation To the gable of the nave is a large two storey gabled ‘chancel’ projection with a flat arch sash window to the ground floor and a large multi-foil roundel window to the second floor. To the right hand (N) edge of this section there rises a tall narrow chimneystack. To the right hand side the gable is abutted by part of the large two storey hall section (see below). The Hall section Stretching from the NE corner of the church is a large two storey (with basement) section which contains the church hall, offices etc. Front (W) elevation The front elevation is asymmetrical and consists of a large two storey gable to left, a three sided two storey tower section to its right and a small two storey flat roofed section to right which abuts the main body of the church. The entrance is set within a wide flat headed recess to the ground floor of the flat roofed section to right and consists of a large recent partly glazed double door with large pointed arch fanlight, all set within a relatively plain bevelled reveal. The area in front of the door is tiled and to the flat arch above are recent recessed lights. The two storey tower projection to immediate left of the entrance has a small narrow flat arch window to the ground floor of the W face, with a pair of pointed arch windows to the first floor. The projection is capped with a tall slated octagonal spire. The large gable to left has plain edge buttresses to ground floor level. Also to this level are two pairs of large flat arched two light windows. To the first floor are two pairs of pointed arch windows with transoms. The pairs liked dripstone moulding with decorative stops. To the gable apex are three slit openings. N elevation To the centre of this elevation is a large two storey gable as W elevation but with date panel to right on first floor (‘1886’) and tall stone chimneystack rising out of right hand (W) side of gable. The rest of the elevation either side of the gable is blank. E elevation To the right hand side of this elevation is a large projecting gable as W elevation, but with two pairs of windows to the ground floor. To the ground floor left of the gable there is a plain metal sheeted door (to boiler room) to far left with five flat arch windows to its right. These windows are of various size, most with plain sash frames and all with security grills over. Under the far right window is a small flat roofed projection which sets in the intersection of the large gable with the rest of the façade. This small projection has a small window to both its E and S faces. To the first floor are two pairs of pointed arch windows flanking a grouping of three similar windows. To far left is a much smaller single pointed arch window. The left hand (S) edge of the elevation is bevelled and on the ground floor of the bevel there is a small narrow flat arch window. To the first floor of the of the narrow S face left of the bevel there is a small narrow pointed arch window. Practically all sections of the roof are slated with stone parapets (with finials) to the gables and shaped red clay ridge tiles. The roofs of the towers have what appears to be Westmoreland slate. There is a tall tapering chimneystack to the E side of the hall section. The rw goods appear to have been completely renewed recently. They are metal and consist of shaped guttering and square downspouts. A gas pipe has recently been attached to the ground floor of the N and E faces of the hall section. There are tarmac covered car parking areas to the N and S of the building. Low sandstone walls with wrought iron railings to N, S and E of church grounds.

Architects

Wilson, John Bennie

Historical Information

Upper and Lower Crescent The selling off of much of Lord Donegall’s Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century opened up large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and lead to the building of the many fine late Georgian style terraces from the mid 1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen’s College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast’s professional and business classes, leaving their older residences in the centre of the town, which in turn were gradually turned into shops and offices. Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest terrace development undertaken to the south of the town, an elegantly curving row of three storey dwellings in a late regency style built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. The authorship is uncertain, but Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that the hand of Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house to the east end, and, for the first few years of its existence, the row was known as ‘Corry’s Crescent’. To the immediate south of the Crescent, where the church and small park now are, there was a large lawn which Corry held as a garden. Shortly after this garden was laid out, however, Corry had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of vegetables for relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this ran an old water course (which flowed northwards into the ‘Basin’- a reservoir east of the Dublin Road), to the east some smaller gardens (belonging to other occupants of the Crescent) and further to the east and to the north-east, ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace. In 1852 Corry built another terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old water course. This new development (the erroneously named Lower ‘Crescent’) was much in the same style as that to the south and was occupied by the same mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some of the properties were used as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut to the immediate north of Lower Crescent (along the line of the old water course), in 1873 the large sandstone building (originally Ladies Collegiate later Victoria College) was added to the west end of the terrace, with two houses added to the east end by the end of the decade, the most easterly of which, ‘Rivoli House’, (designed by William Hastings), originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and presaged the laying out of a new broader thoroughfare, ‘Botanic Avenue’. Upper Crescent also witnessed further building in the 1860s and 70s, with two large William Hastings designed properties erected to the west end in 1869, one of which, Crescent House’ (the present Bank of Ireland) also fronted on to University Road. In 1878-79 two further houses were added to this end, on the ground between those of 1869. In 1885-7 the large Presbyterian church (the present Crescent Church) was erected to plans by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson, on the west side of Robert Corry’s former garden, with a two storey terrace, the present ‘Crescent Gardens’, built on the site of smaller garden plots to the to east end in 1898. During the first half of the 20th century most of the properties of Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many were given over to business use others divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House (later named ‘Dreenagh House’) becoming the ‘Regency Hotel’. This trend continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none were occupied as private dwellings. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s to 70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and a modern office block built in their place, whilst in 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over, in preparation for a new development. Crescent Church This church was built in 1885-87 for the Linen Hall Street Presbyterian congregation, to designs by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson. In c.1976 it was acquired by the Christian Brethren. References- Primary sources 1 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1849- 2 PRONI VAL/2B/7/1d Second valuation, Belfast, 1860 3 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43a Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 43a, 1860 4 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43b Annual valuation revision town plan of Belfast, sh 43b, 1860-95 5 PRONI VAL/12B/43a/1-10 Annual valuation revision notebooks, Cromac Ward, Belfast, 1863-82 6 PRONI OS/8/30/2/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1871-73 7 PRONI OS/8/30/2/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1871-73 8 PRONI OS/8/30/3/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1883-84 9 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1883-84 10 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1894-95 Secondary sources 1 S.T. Carleton, ‘The growth of south Belfast’ (QUB MA thesis, 1967) 2 John Caughey, ‘Seize then the hour- A history of James P. Corry & Co. Ltd…’ (Belfast, 1974), pp.28-29 3 David Evans, ‘Historic buildings…Queen’s University’ (revised ed., 1980), p.11 4 Alison Jordan, ‘Margaret Byers, pioneer of women’s education…’ (QUB Inst. of Irish Studies, ?1988)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, two storey French gothic (originally) Presbyterian church of 1887 by John Bennie Wilson in beige and red sandstone with impressive soaring bell tower and large rear two storey hall section. As well as intrinsic architectural interest the church has great townscape importance.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 January 2002