Parish Hall, 2 Church Walk, Lurgan, BT67 9AA

Parish Hall, 2 Church Walk, Lurgan

A double-height, gable-ended red brick parish hall built in 1898-99 for Shankill Church of Ireland parish, designed by the Belfast architects Young & MacKenzie. The main contractor was Thomas McMillan of Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, with building costs of £1,730. The foundation stone was laid in September 1898 and the hall, described at its opening on 7 April 1899 as "the splendid assembly room and largest hall in Lurgan", was officially opened that date. Its construction was largely due to the efforts of the then Rector, Rev. R.S. O'Loughlin, who channelled his energies into realising a project that, though previously mooted, had never been seriously entertained by the parish finances committee.

In its original form, the hall was accessed via a commodious vestibule roofed with coloured glass, a single-storey projection attached to the left side of the south-western gable. This extended into Shankill Buildings, a two-and-a-half storey mansard-roofed terrace block built in 1879 as a parish-run temperance hotel, which in effect acted as the frontage for the hall.

The front (north-west) elevation displays a formal arrangement with seven tall, high-level pointed arch windows with bevelled sandstone sills, set within shallow recesses formed by plain pilasters rising from a tall base topped with bevelled bricks. Above each window is a moulded terracotta stringcourse with egg and dart moulding near the eaves. The windows currently have replacement frames from around the 1960s-70s with security glazing. To the far left is a ground-level pointed arch pedestrian doorway with a deeply recessed panelled timber double-leaf door. The current main entrance is contained within a modern extension to the right.

The north-east elevation is gabled. A timber-clad upper-level extension from around the 1960s is attached to this end, supported on steel uprights. At ground level to the left is a doorway leading to the boiler room; patching in the brickwork indicates several original windows and another doorway once existed at this level.

The south-east elevation largely mirrors that to the north-west, but includes a doorway (now with a modern door) occupying one of the recesses to the right. A single-storey kitchen extension from around the 1960s to the far left has resulted in the blocking of the window at this end. A metal stair runs against the façade to the left, rising over the roof of the extension to provide access to an upper-level doorway on the rear of the 1978 extension.

The double-pitch roof is covered in natural slate with a large area of glazing along the ridge. The gable features sandstone kneelers, a parapet also in sandstone, and a brick chimneystack at its apex.

A two or three-storey modern style office and shop addition was constructed in 1978, replacing Shankill Buildings which had suffered severe damage in a bomb attack on the nearby police station in November 1973. The original vestibule projection was demolished as part of this replacement, and the hall is now entered through the extension. The 1978 addition is of no architectural interest.

The building is set in an urban street front location close to Lurgan town centre, on the south-east side of Church Walk facing directly onto the street, with the extension at the south-west end at the junction of Church Place. To the north-east is a walled yard enclosed from the street by a tall rendered wall with a vehicle gateway featuring plain wrought iron gates. A cast iron corner protector stands at the north corner of the hall next to the gateway. To the south-east side of the yard is a small disused flat-roofed single-storey building.

Following the 1973 bomb attack, in which the adjacent parish church sustained roof damage, the hall was used to hold services for several months whilst repairs were carried out.

The Church Walk itself was a formal, tree-lined avenue created in the later 1700s between Church Place and the Brownlow House demesne. Following the sale of the latter in 1893, the area began to be developed for housing, with present-day Wellington Street laid out across its path in the early 1900s.