First Ballymacarrett Presbyterian Lecture Hall, Paulett Avenue, Belfast, BT5 4HD

First Ballymacarrett Presbyterian Lecture Hall, Paulett Avenue, Belfast — built 1928 to designs by architect John McGeagh.

This is an attached, double-height, seven-bay red brick Presbyterian lecture hall situated at the end of Paulett Avenue, to the south of the First Ballymacarrett Church. It forms part of an interesting group of associated buildings on the site, alongside the First Ballymacarrett Church and the Mountpottinger National Schools, together demonstrating the development of the site by the congregation over time.

The building is rectangular on plan. The roofs are pitched, covered in natural slate with angled red roll-top clay ridge tiles, with the roof hipped over the north bay; the roof over the south bay is flat. Lead roll covers the hips. Cast iron gutters sit on a precast concrete chamfered corbelled eaves detail, with replacement brown uPVC rainwater pipes. The walls are buttressed red facing brick with a precast concrete chamfered plinth and precast concrete detailing throughout. Windows are square-headed with precast concrete mullions and transoms, glazed with multi-pane leaded lights.

The principal elevation faces west and is seven bays long, symmetrical about the central bay. The central five bays form the main body of the lecture hall, flanked on each side by entrance bays. The main block has raised gables and copings with corbelled kneelers. Each of the five bays of the main block is divided by buttresses bearing plat bands and angled roll-top finials, with the buttress at the left-hand corner of the main block set diagonally. Each bay of the main block contains a single window at both ground and first floor levels. Ground floor windows have brick relieving arches over them. The windows to the central three bays are four lights wide; those to the two flanking bays are three lights wide.

The first bay, at the far left or north end, has a hipped roof set lower than that of the main block and a canted external corner. It contains a single central Gothic-arched door opening fitted with square-headed stained timber sheeted doors and a sheeted tympanum above, all set within a chamfered surround within a square-headed recess. The spandrels contain quatrefoil cusped ocular detail, and there is a hood mould with stop ends. A rectangular granite datestone inscribed "AD 1928" is positioned above the entrance, with a three-light-wide window directly above that.

The seventh bay, at the far right, has a flat roof with raised parapet walls and copings, and octagonal corner piers that extend above the parapet with plat bands and chamfered octagonal copings. It is otherwise detailed in the same manner as the northern bay.

The north side elevation has a bipartite window with flush chamfered cills at each floor level at the far right. At the far left there is a steel-framed casement window with a lintel and flush chamfered cill at both ground and first floor. A Tudor-arched door opening contains a stained timber sheeted door within a chamfered surround, with recessed triangular spandrels and a hood mould. This doorway is flanked to the right by two small windows with lintels and flush chamfered cills; the left of these has a timber hopper window and the right has a steel window. Above the doorway and the timber window are two further small windows with lintels and flush chamfered cills, the left with a steel frame and the right with a multi-pane leaded light.

On the rear, east elevation, the first bay at the far right has a single small opening at ground level, separated from a steel casement window by a lintel. Two windows appear above, one at each floor level, both with lintels and flush chamfered cills and three-light-wide steel windows. The five first floor windows of the main block on this elevation match those to the front elevation in shape and position, except that the mullions and transoms are plain rather than detailed, and the glazing is Georgian wired glass. There is a central Tudor-arched door opening with a stained timber sheeted door and chamfered surround, flanked by single small square-headed window openings (the left with a steel frame, the right with a timber frame), and a tripartite window above with a hood mould. To the right are two bipartite windows detailed as elsewhere. The ground floor to the left of the door is obscured by a snooker hall. The south side elevation of the main block is abutted to the rear by a neighbouring building. The exposed gable above the entrance bay is blank. The elevation of the south bay has an octagonal pier at both corners and is cement roughcast up to string course level. A large signboard with blue lettering reading "1st Presbyterian Church Ballymacarrett" and a strip light is mounted at the top left of this elevation, and there are no openings.

Roofing is natural slate, walling is brick and cement render, windows are leaded glass and Georgian wired glass, and rainwater goods are cast iron and uPVC.

The lecture hall does not appear on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, which instead shows a new road in progress on the Albertbridge Road. Buildings appear on both the Second Edition map of 1858 and the Third Edition map of 1901, but these are not the current structure. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that both the hall and the sexton's house were designed by John McGeagh.

The centenary booklet "1837–1937 Centenary Record of First Presbyterian Church Ballymacarrett, Belfast" by John Robinson, published in Belfast in 1937, records that the lecture hall was erected during the ministry of the Reverend W. J. McGeagh, BA, at a cost of £7,000, along with a sexton's residence built to the rear. The foundation stones were laid on Saturday 5th May 1928 by Alderman Mrs McMordie OBE JP, High Sheriff; Mrs R. T. Martin JP MSc; Miss McBratney, representing Robert McBratney Esq of New York; and Reverend W. McGeagh BA. The hall was opened on Saturday 6th October 1928 by Her Grace the Duchess of Abercorn, with the Moderator of Assembly, the Right Reverend A. Smyth MA LLB, presiding. The centenary record notes that a debt of £7,000 was entirely cleared within seven years of construction.

The lecture hall stands at the end of Paulett Avenue on the east side of the carriageway, immediately adjacent to the road frontage, and to the south of the First Ballymacarrett Church. It forms part of a complex of buildings on a site partially enclosed by a tall red brick wall and partially by adjacent buildings, enclosing a garden to the rear bounded by the hall, the church, a snooker room, and the former sexton's house.