St. Judes Church of Ireland, 340 Ormeau Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 2GE

St Jude's Church of Ireland

A sandstone Gothic Revival church of Ireland designed by Thomas Drew and dated to 1873, with extensions added in 1887 and again in 1898–9. The church is prominently located on the east side of Ormeau Road south of Belfast city centre, at the junction with St Jude's Avenue.

The building follows a traditional cruciform plan comprising a central nave aligned east–west with extended side aisles to the north and south, adjoining transepts, and an apse to the east end. The round tower, which exhibits Irish Romanesque characteristics, projects from the northwest of the central nave.

The exterior is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with Dundonald pink sandstone string courses. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles, raised stone verges incorporating kneelers and cross finials to the gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run throughout.

The northwest elevation features an entrance porch that abuts the nave, opening to the north with a double-leaf timber-sheeted door in an equilateral-headed sandstone moulded surround, accessed by two stone steps and surmounted by a moulded roundel with quatrefoil. The round tower adjoins the porch, displaying slender lancets and a belfry with an equilateral arch-headed opening flanked by semi-engaged colonettes with ornately carved capitals. Pierced quatrefoils occupy the spandrels, with a carved dog-tooth frieze band and moulded cornice completing the composition.

The west gable of the nave contains a five-paned lancet window of various heights, mullioned with semi-engaged colonettes having round capital heads. The apse to the east end comprises three gables, each containing a tracery window of paired lancets with an apex rose. The south face of the apse is lit by two lancets with cusped arch-heads.

The north side aisle features a transept to the right; the left bay contains paired lancets to the right and a projecting gabled porch to the left. This porch has an offset equilateral-headed timber-sheeted door with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges in a chamfered sandstone surround, flanked by slender lancets with hood moulds and carved label stops. The west gable displays two slender lancets, while the east gable contains two diminutive square-headed windows with cusped tracery surmounted by a central lancet.

The south side aisle features a transept to the right of centre. The right bay contains two lancets, while the left bay is lit by a single lancet, paired lancets, and an equilateral-headed timber-sheeted door with decorative cast-iron strap hinges in a chamfered sandstone surround with hood mould and carved label stops. The east gable contains a triple mullioned window in Scrabo stone with cusped arch-heads. The west gable displays a four-paned lancet window with taller panes to the centre, mullioned with slender semi-engaged colonettes in recesses with round capital heads.

The transepts are lit to the north gable by four lancets and to the south gable by five lancets, with the centre panes being taller.

The church is set back from the street with lawned grounds on three sides, enclosed by a rock-faced sandstone boundary wall with saddleback sandstone coping stones. Mature trees frame the setting. The main entrance to the northwest is positioned at the junction of St Jude's Avenue and Ormeau Road; secondary entrances serve the northeast and west elevations. Tarmacadamed pathways lead to wrought-iron larch gates mounted on sandstone ashlar square piers with polygonal pointed caps. St Jude's Avenue itself is an attractive tree-lined residential street comprising red-brick semi-detached three-storey houses dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century.