Former Quaker Meeting House, 24 Portmore St, Portadown, Craigavon, BT62 3NF

Former Quaker Meeting House, 24 Portmore Street, Portadown

A two-storey former Quaker Meeting House constructed around 1905 in red clay brick with terracotta string courses, designed by Joseph Chandler March, a Belfast Quaker. The building stands in Portmore Street, a mixed development area approximately 200 metres from Portadown's centre, opposite the junction with Edward Street.

The plan form is roughly rectangular with a two-storey canted bay to the east side and two rear extensions—one built in the mid-twentieth century and another dated 2005. The front elevation faces north, set back from Portmore Street, and features an ornate projecting timber porch (possibly added in 1912) containing geometric coloured glass windows, with semi-circular headed windows either side and a Venetian window above. The ground floor windows have coloured glass leaded lights, while the first floor windows are separated by barley sugar colonnettes in a classical style with composite capitals, probably cast iron. All lintels and sills are sandstone. The roof is double pitched natural slate with a metal ventilation cowl on the ridge.

The west side elevation contains single and paired round-headed windows with similar detailing to the front, though lintels here are red clay brick-on-end to match the general walling. A moulded terracotta string course at sill level ties the window openings together. The east side elevation is similar to the west but features a large two-storey canted bay in the same materials, with shallow segmental headed windows to the ground floor and square-headed windows to the first floor.

At the rear stands a flat-roofed extension built in 1963 from grey concrete bricks, constructed on the site of the former coach house and containing a meeting room, classroom and kitchen. Its windows and doors are uPVC. A further flat-roofed extension in red clay brick was added to the south-east corner in 2005. Above these extensions, a blocked-up Venetian window opening is visible in the rear wall of the main building, similar to that on the front elevation.

The meeting house retains almost all of its early twentieth-century detailing both externally and internally, representing one of the finest buildings in this part of Portadown. Of particular interest are the ornate entrance porch, cast iron barley sugar colonnettes, and the timber and cast iron roof trusses.

Wrought iron railings topped by low red brick walling run across the entire site boundary to Portmore Street. Two sets of cast iron gates in the centre are supported on cast iron posts with pyramidal tops, stamped 'R J Boyd HENRY STREET BELFAST'. The remainder of the site is finished in gravel, tarmac and grass.

Within the site boundary, to the west of the meeting house but accessed from its grounds, stands a two-storey dwelling house built in Arts and Crafts style, slightly later than the meeting house. It has a red clay brick ground floor and roughcast first floor. Windows have been replaced with top-hung stained timber, and the roof is finished in fibre cement slates.

Also on the site is a two-storey caretaker's house, L-shaped on plan, with a red clay brick lower storey and painted roughcast upper floor, located to the west of the meeting house. Windows have been replaced with top-hung stained timber, but the original panelled front door, protected by a small glazed timber porch, survives. The roof is fibre cement slates.

Historical Context

The Portadown Quaker Meeting was established in 1903, with members initially gathering in a rented room. Plans for a permanent purpose-built meeting house were proposed shortly afterwards. By early 1906, over £1,375 had been raised, and work commenced. The building was completed in spring 1906 at a cost of £1,203 9 shillings and 5 pence, leaving surplus funds for construction of the adjacent dwelling house for a missioner or resident Friend. The meeting house opened for worship on 8 April 1906 and appears in the valuation book the following year. The dwelling house was not completed until around 1910–11, though according to a former congregation member, it was constructed a year after the meeting house and funded by penny subscriptions from Quakers throughout the British Isles.

Joseph C. Marsh, a Belfast Friend and estate agent operating from Donegall Street who also served as Secretary for the Royal Victoria Hospital's Board of Management, designed the new meeting house. It is not clear whether he was a formally trained architect, as little record exists of him in connection with other works. The building's frontage onto Portmore Street was improved in 1912 according to contemporary newspaper notices. The coach house to the rear was demolished in 1963 and replaced with a small meeting room, classroom and kitchen.

The building remained in use for worship until November 2014, when declining attendances forced its closure. It has significant architectural interest as a fine example of an early twentieth-century Quaker meeting house and considerable social and cultural interest to the local community.