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

St Aidan's Church of Ireland is a detached, asymmetrical Gothic Revival church built in 1894–95 to designs by the architect Samuel P Close, situated on the north side of Blythe Street, to the west of Sandy Row, Belfast. The contractor was T McMillan and the cost of construction was between £3,000 and £4,000. Close was a prolific church designer whose other works include Fisherwick Presbyterian Church and St Peter's Church of Ireland on the Antrim Road. The church has retained much of its original detailing and character both externally and internally, and is a building of considerable social importance to the community it serves.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The church was built as part of a Church of Ireland extension movement into working-class areas of Belfast. By the late 19th century, Sandy Row had become densely developed with terraced housing for workers employed in local mills and commercial enterprises. Informal bible classes had been held in the area for some years, followed by open-air services, with formal Services for Divine Worship being held from June 1893 at Linfield Mill School. In July 1893 the Diocesan Council resolved to form a new parish. A site was secured on Blythe Street, and a Parochial School was erected opposite and opened in April 1894, serving as a place of worship during construction of the new church.

St Aidan's was the first of four new churches to be completed as part of the Belfast church extension scheme. At the foundation stone laying ceremony on 27th October 1894, attended by the architect and builder, the Lord Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore drew attention to the rapid growth of Belfast and the inadequacy of existing church provision: in 1871 the Church of Ireland population stood at 46,423 served by 15 churches; by 1891 it had grown to 81,106 with only 19 churches available. The church was intended to seat 800 worshippers. The site itself, only a few decades earlier, had been undeveloped gardens and was described at the time of construction as unmistakably retaining the appearance, if not entirely the outstanding features, of an orchard.

The church was dedicated on 23rd March 1895. The Belfast Newsletter recorded on that occasion that "the building is most conveniently arranged and is an ornament to the locality." A carved oak pulpit was presented to the church by William Baird Esq of Avonmore in memory of his mother. The building first appears on the 1901–02 Ordnance Survey edition and entered valuation records in 1895 at a valuation of £180, with no significant changes recorded in subsequent Annual Revisions. It had initially been anticipated that the church would eventually be extended by the addition of aisles.

A memorial window commemorating Thomas Moore, killed in France in 1918, was added to the church at a later date. Fundraising in 1922 enabled the purchase of an organ and also the acquisition of the site itself from the Ulster Spinning Company Ltd, owners of Linfield Mill. In 1935 the upper portion of the tower was rebuilt under the supervision of James Corden Stevenson.

EXTERNAL DESCRIPTION

The church is rectangular on plan, double-height, and faces south. The principal south gable contains three pointed arch-headed windows with cusped heads, the central window being the largest, with diagonal buttressing with offsets to the corners.

The chancel projects from the north gable as a semicircular apse. The re-entrant angles where the chancel meets the main body of the church are each filled by lower gabled structures: the organ room to the west, and the vestry to the east, the latter having a semi-basement below. The vestry's main elevation contains a central window surmounted by a sandstone quatrefoil oculus, flanked to the left by a square-headed vertically sheeted timber door with a transom light above, accessed via five stone steps bounded by brick walling, and to the right by a single window that is sheeted over. The north elevation of the vestry contains a vertically sheeted timber door at the left (giving access to the boiler house) and a square-headed window to the right. The organ room has a single window to its west gable, with its north elevation left blank and its south elevation abutting the north face of the west transept.

Double-gabled transepts project from both the east and west elevations. Each transept gable contains a pair of pointed arch-headed windows surmounted by a multifoil oculus. The re-entrant angle of the west transept is occupied by a single-storey porch with a hipped roof, containing a double-leaf vertically sheeted timber door set in a chamfered reveal surmounted by a red sandstone shouldered lintel, with a single square-headed window to the south elevation of the porch. The south elevation of the west transept is blank. The north elevation of the east transept is abutted by the vestry, while its south elevation contains a single window. A single-storey gabled porch is positioned at the south-east corner of the church, containing pointed arch-headed double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors set in a rebated red sandstone opening surmounted by a hood mould with label stops and brick voussoirs; oversized diagonal buttresses are positioned to left and right, and each of the north and south elevations contains a single square-headed window.

A three-stage tower stands at the south-west corner. The first stage has angled buttresses at the lower level; the south elevation contains a central square-headed vertically sheeted door in chamfered reveals surmounted by a red sandstone lintel and pointed segmental arch-headed voussoirs, with two windows to the west elevation and a single window to the north elevation. The second stage has a single window to each elevation, surmounted by a flush chamfered sandstone string course leading to the third stage. The third, bell stage consists of three pointed arch-headed openings on each face containing timber louvres with brick voussoirs, set within a recessed panel surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice and a crenulated parapet with sandstone copings. This upper portion of the tower was rebuilt in 1935.

The west elevation, between the transept to the left and the tower to the right, shows a small window above the porch and two pairs of windows separated by buttressing in the exposed central section. The east elevation, between the porch to the left and the transept to the right, contains three pairs of windows separated by buttressing. The north gable, occupied by the chancel apse, contains three cusped windows to the centre separated from single cusped windows to left and right by buttressing.

Walling throughout is English garden wall bonded red brick with a chamfered plinth and cornice, and buttresses with offsets between windows. All windows are pointed arch-headed, containing leaded stained glass, set in chamfered brick reveals with flush chamfered stone sills and heads surmounted by double brick voussoirs, except where otherwise noted; galvanised security screens are fixed over all windows. Roofs are pitched natural slate with roll-top red clay ridge tiles, raised red sandstone moulded verges with kneeler stones at the base, mid-point and apex. There is a stepped brick chimney with clay pots to the north gable. Rainwater is handled by moulded cast-iron gutters on a cavetto moulded sandstone eaves cornice, with round cast-iron downpipes.

INTERIOR

The interior retains much of its original timber panelling and decorative work. Notable features include decorative hammer-beam roof trusses, a curved timber roof structure over the chancel, and the large double-gabled transepts. The chancel is enhanced by original intricate leaded stained glass windows.

SETTING AND BOUNDARY

The church is set within private grounds with a small garden to the east. The site is bounded to the west, north and east by brick walling with recessed panels surmounted by concrete coping. To the south, fronting the street, a red brick plinth wall with flush painted sandstone coping carries 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 also supported on brick piers. The listing extends to the church, the railings and the boundary wall.