St. Aidan's Church of Ireland, Blythe Street, Belfast, County Antrim

St. Aidan's Church of Ireland

St. Aidan's is a non-symmetrical, detached double-height Gothic church built around 1895 to designs by Samuel P Close. It is located on the north side of Blythe Street in Belfast, to the west of Sandy Row.

The church is rectangular on plan and faces south. The principal architectural composition comprises a semi-circular apse chancel to the north gable, with re-entrant angles occupied at the west by a lower gabled organ room and at the east by a lower gabled vestry with semi-basement below. Double-gabled transepts project to the east and west elevations. A re-entrant angle at the west transept accommodates a single-storey porch with hipped roof, while a single-storey gabled porch stands at the south-east corner. A three-stage tower rises at the south-west corner.

The roofs are pitched natural slate with roll-top red clay ridge tiles. Raised red sandstone moulded verges feature kneeler stones at base, mid-point and apex. A stepped brick chimney with clay pots rises from the north gable. Moulded cast-iron gutters sit on a cavetto moulded sandstone eaves cornice.

The walling is English garden wall bonded red brick with chamfered plinth and cornice. Buttresses with offsets separate window bays. Windows throughout are pointed arch-headed containing leaded stained glass (now protected by galvanised security screens). They sit in chamfered brick reveals with flush chamfered stone sills and heads surmounted by double brick voussoirs.

The principal south-facing gable contains three cusped-headed windows, with the larger window at the centre; diagonal buttressing with offsets reinforces the corners. The west elevation is abutted by the transept and tower. At its centre-left sits the single-storey porch with a double-leaf vertically sheeted timber door in a chamfered reveal, surmounted by a red sandstone shouldered lintel, and a single square-headed window to the south elevation. The exposed section of the west elevation contains a small window above the porch and two pairs of windows to the right, separated by buttressing. The west transept contains a pair of windows surmounted by a multifoil oculus on each gable; its south elevation is blank and abutted by the south-east porch.

The three-stage tower at the south-west corner has angel buttresses at lower level. Its south elevation contains a central square-headed vertically sheeted door in chamfered reveals surmounted by a red sandstone lintel and pointed segmental-arched-headed voussoirs; two windows sit on the west elevation and one on the north elevation. The second stage contains a single window to each elevation surmounted by a flush chamfered sandstone string to the third stage. The bell stage consists of three pointed-arched-headed openings containing timber louvers with brick voussoirs, set within a recessed panel surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice and crenulated parapet with sandstone cops.

The north gable is abutted by the chancel, which contains three cusped windows at the centre separated from a single cusped window to the left and right by buttressing. The west re-entrant angle is occupied by the organ room, containing a single window to the west gable and a blank north elevation; its south elevation abuts the north elevation of the west transept. The east re-entrant angle is occupied by the vestry, which contains a central window surmounted by a sandstone quatrefoil oculus and flanked at the left by a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door surmounted by a transom light (accessed via five stone steps bounded by brick walling) and at the right by a single window (sheeted over). The vestry's north elevation contains a vertically-sheeted timber door at the left (to the boiler house) and a square-headed window at the right; its south elevation abuts the east transept.

The east elevation is abutted by the south-east porch at the left and the east transept at the right. The exposed central section contains three pairs of windows separated by buttressing. The east transept contains a pair of windows surmounted by a multifoil oculus on each gable; its north elevation is abutted by the vestry and its south elevation contains a single window. The south-east porch contains a pointed-arched-headed double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors in rebated red sandstone surmounted by a hood-mould with label stops and brick voussoirs. Oversized diagonal buttresses flank the opening. The north and south elevations of the porch each contain a single square-headed window.

The church stands within private grounds with a small garden to the east. The site is bounded at the west, north and east by red brick walling containing recessed panels and surmounted by concrete coping. The southern boundary fronting the road comprises a red brick plinth wall with flush painted sandstone coping surmounted by wrought-iron railings. Vehicular access at the south-west is through double-leaf wrought-iron gates supported on brick piers; pedestrian access at the south-east is through narrow double-leaf wrought-iron gates supported on brick piers. Rainwater goods consist of moulded cast-iron gutters and round downpipes.