Vaults, Belfast City Cemetery, Falls Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT12 6DE

Gothic Revival vaults and steps, Belfast City Cemetery, built in 1869 to designs by William Gay, an English landscape designer from Bradford, and constructed by the local firm Monk & Co.

Situated in the central part of Belfast City Cemetery on the Falls Road, the vaults and their associated steps form one of the most prominent features of the cemetery. The structure consists of steps leading up to a row of seven memorial vaults. The walling is of coursed, rock-faced sandstone basalt with square-plan piers and sandstone dressings and quoins, all in Giffnock sandstone. The memorial plaques are engraved polished granite slabs in Newry granodiorite, set within pointed arches of Giffnock sandstone and divided by red granite columns with Corinthian capitals. Two-stage sandstone buttresses punctuate the composition. A sandstone quatrefoil balustrade runs along the top of the vaults, though much of this is now missing and has been replaced with simple metal railings. The stone carving — comprising sixteen small bosses, twelve capitals, eight finials and twelve spandrels — was executed by Fitzpatrick Brothers of Great Victoria Street, Belfast, under a separate contract valued at £33, accepted in June 1868.

The seven vaults, numbered consecutively from north to south and now commonly known as the Gallaher Steps, commemorate the following individuals and families:

Vault 1 commemorates Thomas Gallaher, born in 1840 at Templemoyle, near Eglinton, County Londonderry, the son of a farmer and miller. After an apprenticeship with a firm of general merchants in Derry, he entered tobacco manufacture, establishing his own business there in 1857. He transferred the business to Belfast in 1863, and by 1881 employed 600 people, with further factories in London and the United States. His new headquarters in York Street, Belfast, opened in 1896, was said to be the largest tobacco factory in the world. He died on 3 May 1927 at Ballygoland House, Greencastle, Belfast. Note that the spelling of the family surname was amended from Gallagher in the 1870s.

Vault 2 commemorates James Gallaher, a younger brother of Thomas and a wealthy grain merchant. His wife, Jessie Robertson Gallaher, died in 1890 at the age of 37. James died at his home, Malone Park House, on 4 February 1929, aged 87.

Vault 3 is blank and was possibly one of two vaults purchased by James Carlisle.

Vault 4 commemorates James Carlisle, born at Castledawson, County Londonderry. Beginning his career as a journeyman carpenter, he rose to become one of Belfast's wealthiest building contractors, responsible among other projects for the courthouse on the Crumlin Road. He served on Belfast Corporation from 1859 until his death in 1882, representing Dock Ward. A strong Methodist supporter, he contributed £25,000 towards the construction of the Carlisle Memorial Church at Carlisle Circus, built in memory of his son James who died in 1870. He lived at Enfield House in north Belfast.

Vault 5 commemorates John Browne, a merchant who lived at Ravenhill House, Belfast, and who made his fortune in the timber trade while also acquiring an extensive property portfolio in Belfast and elsewhere in Ireland. He served on Belfast Corporation for nearly two decades, acting at one point as chairman of its Improvement Committee, and was mayor in 1879–80, during which time he hosted a visit by former United States President Ulysses S. Grant. He was noted for his philanthropy, particularly during the severe winter of 1885–6. Originally a member of May Street Presbyterian Church, he later joined Ballymacarrett Presbyterian Church, which was closer to his home. He died on 16 September 1893, aged 76.

Vault 6 commemorates the Reverend Robert Knox, born around 1815, the son of a ruling elder in Urney Presbyterian Church, near Strabane, County Tyrone. He studied in Belfast and Glasgow and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Strabane. After a short period as a missionary in the south of Ireland, he was ordained minister of New Row Presbyterian Church in Coleraine in 1842, moving the following year to Linenhall Street Presbyterian Church in Belfast. He is credited with being a major influence on the formation of three Presbyterian churches in Belfast and one at Ballynahinch, County Down, and with founding at least five National schools in Belfast. He established the Sabbath School Society of Ireland and was active in the Belfast Town Mission. His death on 16 August 1883 was attributed to overwork.

Vault 7 commemorates Edward Harland, born in 1831 in Scarborough, Yorkshire. With a lifelong interest in engineering, he served an apprenticeship at an engineering works in Newcastle upon Tyne before developing an interest in ship design. In the mid-1850s he became manager of a shipyard in Belfast, and in 1857 Gustav Wolff became his assistant. Having acquired control of the shipyard, the two went into partnership to create the world-famous firm of Harland and Wolff. Harland served as chairman of Belfast Harbour Commissioners, mayor of Belfast, and Member of Parliament for North Belfast. He died on 24 December 1895.

The construction of the vaults and steps arose from the rapid expansion of Belfast during the 19th century. As the city's population grew, its existing burial grounds — including Shankill graveyard, Friar's Bush graveyard, and the New Burying Ground at Clifton Street — became overcrowded, a situation made worse by outbreaks of cholera and the Great Famine. The opening of a new Presbyterian cemetery at Balmoral only partly eased the pressure. In the autumn of 1865 Belfast Corporation accepted Thomas Sinclair's offer of 101 acres on the Falls Road for municipal purposes, completing the purchase in December of that year for £12,000, with an annual ground rent of £73 5s. 4d. Of the site, 45 acres were set aside for the cemetery, with most of the remainder becoming Falls Park. On 25 January 1867, the Cemetery Committee of Belfast Corporation awarded the contract to design the new cemetery to William Gay of Bradford. A dispute subsequently arose with Dr Patrick Dorrian, Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, over the ground reserved for Catholic burials. No satisfactory settlement could be reached, and as a result a new Catholic cemetery — Milltown — was opened a short distance away on the opposite side of the Falls Road in November 1869. The cemetery, the name of which had been agreed on 29 September 1868 as 'The Belfast Cemetery', opened on 1 August 1869, with the first burials taking place three days later.

In December 1867 the Cemetery Committee advertised for tenders for various works, including the 'central steps'. Although the vaults were not specifically mentioned at that stage, tenders submitted did include both the steps and the vaults. William Gay appears to have prepared the plans for the vaults; he had in any case argued that the topography of this part of the cemetery made it suitable for vaults in connection with the steps, and these features were intended to form the centrepiece of the new cemetery. In February 1868 it was clarified that the vaults were to be faced with polished granite slabs. In his report to the Cemetery Committee of 13 May, Gay made clear that the central steps and vaults would need to be built at the same time as the laying out of the grounds, since without them communication between the upper and lower portions of the cemetery would be very incomplete. For reasons that are not entirely clear, there was a delay, and it was not until May of that year that Monk and Co. were asked to produce a tender for the steps and vaults, exclusive of capitals, finials, panels and similar elements. The firm's tender of £1,138 19s. was accepted, with the Cemetery Committee confident that vault sales would cover the construction costs. The separate stonework tender from Fitzpatrick Brothers, valued at £33, was accepted in June 1868. A dispute later arose when the Fitzpatricks complained that Monk and Co. was employing another party to carry out the carving. The Town Solicitor was instructed to ensure that the Fitzpatricks were able to complete this work unhindered, and as no further mention of the dispute appears in the records, it is assumed they did so.

On 21 September 1869 the Cemetery Committee agreed to sell the seven vaults at auction on 5 October. It appears that only vault number 4 was sold at this time, purchased by James Carlisle for £150. Further advertising in February 1870 produced no buyers. In May the Committee reduced the asking price to £110 for the three central vaults and £100 for the others. By August 1870 the Committee decided to stop public advertising and instead display a notice within the Cemetery. In late 1870 and early 1871, vaults were sold to William Spotten, James Carlisle (adding to his earlier purchase) and John Browne junior, each at £110. In August 1876 Edward Harland purchased a vault for £80. The income from sales fell well short of the cost of construction.

The vaults have group value with the other listed structures within the cemetery: the entrance gates, the gate lodge, the fountains, and the other memorials within the cemetery complex.