Presbyterian Church, 32 Townsend Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 2ES

A free-standing gable-fronted double-height asymmetrical French Romanesque style Presbyterian church, dated 1875, built to designs by Young and MacKenzie. The building is rectangular in plan, facing east, with a central east-west aligned nave flanked by north and south gallery nave arcades. An entrance vestibule and double gallery stairwells occupy the east end. A single-storey extension at the west contains a ministers room and prayer room. The church is situated between the Lower Shankill and Lower Falls/Divis Street areas of Belfast, on the west side of Townsend Street.

The pitched natural slate roofs feature blue and black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, and stone verges supported on moulded skew-corbels. A chimney rises at the west verge, while the east verge is supported by a moulded corbel table. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are supported on exposed overhanging rafters. The walling is roughly coursed rock-faced red sandstone with ashlar dressings. The gallery nave arcades have angle buttresses with offsets and projecting gablets.

Nave windows at ground floor are paired cusped lancets with leaded glass. At gallery level, windows are bi-partite segmental arched leaded lights with cusped oculus over.

The principal elevation faces east and is asymmetrically arranged with a central gabled bay. At ground floor, a projecting gabled entrance comprises a multiple arcaded entrance consisting of five collonnettes with carved capitals and frieze supporting four torus-moulded segmental arches. The inner arch bears carved leaf detail. The outer collonnettes are surmounted by gablets. A central granite collonnette divides paired timber-panelled doors. The tympanum is carved with an oculus at the centre containing an open bible, with the burning bush depicted at right and left. A carved inscription on the tympanum reads: "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST / AND / ON EARTH PEACE GOODWILL TOWARD MEN."

The entrance is flanked by diminished segmental arched windows with torus-moulded architraves and splayed sills. Above the principal entrance is a Lombardy frieze located below a moulded stringcourse with fleuron detailing. This is surmounted by large paired leaded stained glass windows, each comprising three segmented arched lancets with seven oculus lights over, contained within a double segmental arched architrave supported on paired collonnettes. The paired windows are surmounted by an oculus containing a trefoil.

A tower at the north-east is detailed as the central nave with a bellcast pyramidal roof. It features set-back angle buttresses with ashlar offsets and shafts continuing to the roof. The east elevation of this tower contains an entrance at ground floor with two blind oculi over. The second stage contains paired segmental arched windows, while the third stage is blank. The entrance comprises a double segmental arched entrance with paired collonnettes bearing carved capitals supporting two torus-moulded segmental arches. The inner arch has carved leaf detail. The arches are surmounted by a segmental arched hoodmould with head-stops and a moulded tympanum.

A tower at the south-east is similarly detailed to the north-east tower as the central nave. Its east elevation matches the north-east tower at the first and second stages. The second stage is surmounted by a pyramidal roof behind a parapet Lombardy frieze with attached pinnacled clasping buttresses.

Triple entrances at the east are all accessed via five masonry steps running the entire length of the east elevation, with replacement handrails at the centre.

The south elevation is six windows wide with the south-east tower attached at the right. Each bay contains a single window at ground floor and gallery level, with bays divided by set-back angle buttresses bearing ashlar offsets and gablets projecting through the roof. The tower's south elevation features paired windows (diminished) at half-landing level at the left and a single window at the right. An entrance porch abuts the nave at the second bay from the left. This entrance porch is detailed as the nave with pitched natural slate roof and stone verges, replacement rainwater goods, and segmental arched openings at east and west with ovolo moulding. The flooring comprises polychromatic geometric tiles, and double timber-panelled doors provide access to the nave.

The west elevation comprises triple gables abutted at ground floor by a curved single-storey lean-to extension. The gallery nave arcade gables contain a single window each. The west extension contains a replacement glazed timber-panelled door with two timber sashes at the left and three timber sashes at the right. A timber-panelled door at the south accesses the boiler house via two masonry steps.

The north elevation, with entrance porch, is detailed as the south elevation with some replacement rainwater goods.

The church is situated on the Peace Line between the Lower Shankill and Lower Falls/Divis Street areas of Belfast, beside the main cross-city motorway and 5–10 minutes walk from the city centre. A former schoolhouse is located to the west. A memorial hall, dated 1939–1945, stands to the south. A car park to the north is enclosed at the north by rendered walling. The church ground is enclosed at the east by cast-iron railings with the initials "JH" on decorative cast-iron piers.