St. Judes Parish Church of Ireland Hall, 340 Ravenhill Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 2GE

St Judes Parish Church of Ireland Hall is an attractive symmetrical-fronted red-brick parish hall built between 1933 and 1934 to designs by Robert Hanna Gibson. Designed in a distinctive blend of Lombardic and Art-Deco styles, it was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Ulster Medal in 1938 for the best public building erected in the province over the preceding three years. The hall remains in continuous use by the Church of Ireland and represents a rare twentieth-century example of its type, as most parish halls date from earlier periods.

The building is prominently situated on the west side of Ravenhill Road between St Jude's Crescent and St Jude's Avenue in a mainly residential area of early twentieth-century semi-detached and terraced housing, facing the grounds of St Joseph's College. It is set back from the street with a small lawned area and paved pathway to the front, enclosed on all sides by hedgerow. Original wrought-iron gates with Art-Deco motifs flank the front and north approaches.

The hall has a T-shaped plan comprising a two-storey central block with lower single-storey side blocks projecting to the north and south. The principal elevation faces east and is dominated by a central round-headed casement window to the entrance bay set within a decorative tiled triple recess on a corbelled brick apron featuring a central diamond motif in brick. The ground floor has a slightly projecting porch containing original double-leaf Art-Deco-style panelled timber doors in a masonry panelled recess with brick surround, accessed via three masonry steps with modern metal handrails. A projecting porch was added to the north elevation around 1940, also designed by Gibson, containing an original Art-Deco style timber-panelled door and accessed by four modern masonry steps with modern metal handrail incorporating disabled ramp access.

The walling is stretcher-bonded red-brick with header-course to sill level at ground floor. The roof is pantiled with pitched design, raised gables, and overhanging timber-sheeted eaves on exposed rafter ends. Tall red-brick chimneystacks with gabled pantiled tops are prominent features. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with cast-iron hopper and downpipes serve the structure. Windows comprise small metal-framed casements to the ground floor and round-headed slender multi-paned paired windows to the first floor, with brick reveals and voussoirs and tiled sills throughout.

The south elevation features a slightly projecting bay at the left with two windows to attic level, two to first floor, and two square-headed windows to ground floor. The right bay contains four sets of paired windows; ground floor has two blind windows at the left. To the far right is a single-storey projecting block with paired windows and decorative wrought-iron Art-Deco grilles to the east and south elevations. The rear west gable has a central breakfront with an oculus to the gable and two sets of paired windows to each floor including attic level. To either side are slender double-height blind openings with square-headed windows beneath to ground floor, the right of which is blind. The north elevation mirrors the south elevation with a projecting porch to the right at ground floor abutting an exposed section of the projecting bay.

Architectural detailing is largely intact, and the interior is well-preserved with good Art-Deco-style detailing. The building was constructed from County Tyrone rustic brick and could accommodate five to six hundred people. The hall was opened by the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Abercorn, in March 1934, at a construction cost of £5,600. Contractors William Dowling began work in July 1933. The church records note that the hall provided two badminton courts and was greatly admired by visitors throughout the Northern dioceses.

The setting remains unspoiled and relatively unchanged since the 1930s, and the hall makes a significant contribution to the architectural character of the area. It has group value with St Jude's Parish Church. Of distinctive quality and character, the hall is an important local landmark with considerable local and social importance to the parish.