Trinity Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland, BT20 5AF

Trinity Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Bangor, County Down

This is a double-height Gothic-style cruciform church with an unfinished tower, built in 1888 to designs by the Belfast architect Samuel Patrick Close. It stands mid-way along the east side of Main Street in the centre of Bangor town, set back slightly from the building line of the adjacent shops on an elevated site. The building is of robust character with some interesting details, though its exterior composition is somewhat awkward. It has largely retained its original character, though it is a late example of the type and not among the finest of its kind.

Architectural Description

The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, cast-iron rainwater goods, ogee-moulded gutters and box-section downpipes. The walls are of squared, rock-faced sandstone laid in courses, with chiselled draft margins to the corners and a slightly battered base. The plinth course and dressings are ashlar sandstone. Gothic windows have long-and-short chamfered sandstone surrounds and sills; the principal windows have central mullions with cusped arches and panel tracery. The entrance door is a replacement timber sheeted door set within chamfered long-and-short ashlar sandstone jambs, with a moulded Gothic arch with cusped tracery and a sandstone label moulding above.

West Elevation (Principal)

The principal elevation faces west and takes the form of a central symmetrical projected gable flanked by abutments to the north and south. The central gable has moulded roll-top saddleback coping stones with two intermittent kneelers, gable shoulders and a square-headed apex-stone detail, and three-stage lateral buttresses to either side. At low level are four diminished lancet-arched windows with a string course above. The upper section has tripartite windows comprising a large central window flanked by smaller diminished windows, with hood mouldings and moulded figurehead stops. Square-headed timber ventilation louvres are set into the gable head. The principal entrance is located on the south elevation rather than the west gable face (see below).

North Elevation

The north elevation is asymmetrically arranged. To the right it is abutted by a double-height, single-stage, square-plan truncated tower with lateral buttressing to the northeast corner. An abutting projected octagonal stair-tower with alternating lancet windows and a diagonal buttress occupies the northwest corner. The east cheek of the tower is blank; there is a single lancet window at ground floor level and a bipartite cusped-tracery window above. The north entrance is on the north face of the tower, positioned between the buttress and the stair-tower, with a door and overlight matching the front elevation, embraced by an ashlar sandstone three-stage moulded Gothic opening surmounted by a gable head with spandrels and a central quatrefoil. Three windows serve the nave, and a subservient projected gabled north transept projects from the elevation with lower eaves and ridge levels, two paired windows to the gable end, and blank cheeks.

East Elevation (Rear)

The rear gable has a single square-headed timber-louvred opening at high level and is surmounted at the apex by a chimney. The centre of the gable is abutted by a diminished gable-ended bay containing a large cusped tracery window. At ground floor level, the east elevation is largely abutted by a series of asymmetrically arranged single-storey extensions with lean-to, pyramidal and hipped roofs, generally matching the main building in style and proportions but with more subdued detailing. The minister's room has replacement uPVC windows.

South Elevation

The south elevation broadly mirrors the north, with the exception of a double-height gable-ended abutment to the left-hand side. The gable face matches the detailing of the west gable, with a single bipartite cusped tracery window at high level, a diagonal buttress to the southwest corner, and a blank east cheek. The principal entrance is located on the west cheek of this abutment, with a tripartite square-headed window with cusped openings above.

Materials

The roofing is natural slate; the walls are sandstone; windows are leaded and stained; rainwater goods are cast iron.

Setting

The church occupies an elevated site midway along Bangor's principal commercial street, which slopes from left to right. To the right are two- and three-storey Victorian buildings; to the left is a modern shopping centre. The church is set back from the building line of its neighbours and is bounded to the front by a masonry plinth surmounted by wrought-iron railings. The principal entrance is reached from the right via a wrought-iron gate hung from masonry piers with pyramidal caps surmounted by light fittings. A further gate to the right, with matching ironmongery, gives access to the rear of the church. A Tudor-arched gated entrance to the left, embraced by a gable surround matching the detailing of the front elevation, serves the north entrance. All gates have associated steps with wrought-iron handrails leading up to the elevated ground level. To the north of the site is a large modern building incorporating the remains of the wall of a former historic building. Immediately to the east stands a large double-height church hall and office accommodation. The south boundary adjoins modern commercial premises.

History

The present church replaced an earlier Presbyterian building of 1830 situated to the southwest of the town, in what is now Brunswick Road. That earlier church was later remodelled as a schoolhouse, with a school built adjoining it and a manse nearby. Its construction reflected the rapid growth of Bangor's population, which rose from 3,025 in 1764 to 9,139 in 1834, the vast majority of whom were Presbyterians.

By 1884 the earlier church was in need of expensive repairs, and the continued expansion of Bangor's population — accelerated by the arrival of the railway in 1865 — made a more centrally located church necessary. The Main Street site was obtained from Robert Ward of Bangor Castle in 1885, and valuation records show that a rent of £13 was paid for it from 1886. Dwelling houses on the site were demolished and construction began in 1887. The church opened for worship on Sunday 12th August 1888. It was constructed of Yorkshire stone with dressings from the Glebe quarries of County Down. At the time of opening, it was intended that the upper stages of the tower would be completed at a later date — they never were.

The architect, Samuel Patrick Close, was articled in the 1860s to the firm of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, and opened his own practice in Waring Street, Belfast in 1872. Over the following forty years he designed a large number of buildings in Counties Antrim and Down, including Methodist, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian churches.

The total cost of the completed church was £4,370, including the heating system supplied by Messrs Clements and Acheson, wrought-iron work by Mr Alfred Webb of Ballymacarrett, and stained glass by the London and Glasgow Stained Glass Company. The general contractors were Henry Laverty and Sons of Carrickfergus.

The church first appears in the valuation records in 1889 at a valuation of £150, with no changes noted up to 1930. In 1891 it was named Trinity Presbyterian Church. In 1894 a lecture hall was built to the rear at a cost of £620. The church and Trinity Hall are shown together, captioned, on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901.

In 1921 an organ by Evans and Barr of Belfast was installed as a memorial to those who fell in the First World War. The installation required alterations to the choir area, including moving the pulpit to the centre of the new choir platform. A minor hall was added in 1931 as the needs of the congregation grew. The church was renovated in 1946, when the organ, choir stalls and pulpit were repositioned. Further renovations were carried out in 1971 to designs by Gordon McKnight. In 1960 a site adjoining the church, formerly occupied by the Adelphi cinema, was purchased for new church halls, and repairs and renovations to those halls were carried out in the early 1980s.