Kirkpatrick Memorial Presbyterian Church, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 3JF

Kirkpatrick Memorial Presbyterian Church is a gabled Gothic Revival church completed in 1923 to designs by the architect Stephen A. Orr, situated on the south side of Upper Newtownards Road at the corner of Eastleigh Avenue, in the Ballyhackamore area of Belfast.

The building has a rectangular plan aligned north to south, with towers at its north-east and north-west corners and a modern double-height hall abutting the south end. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled red-clay ridge tiles. To the side elevations, projecting eaves carry metal half-round guttering discharging to circular downpipes; the principal elevation has decorated cast iron hoppers discharging to rectangular-section downpipes.

The principal (north-facing) elevation is built in random-coursed rock-faced Scrabo Sandstone on a chamfered plinth course. The side elevations are red brick laid to English garden bond with buff sandstone dressings, also on a chamfered Scrabo Sandstone plinth. This contrast between the sandstone front and the predominantly brick sides is a notable disjuncture in the overall composition.

The principal elevation is arranged as three sections: a square-plan three-stage tower to the east, a gabled recessed double-height bay to the centre with a single-storey lean-to three-bay porch in front of it, and a square-plan three-stage tower to the west. The eastern tower has two-stage angle buttresses, cornicing and a raised battlemented parapet. The western tower has two-stage diagonal buttresses, paired louvred pointed-arched openings to the belfry stage, a raised battlemented parapet, and a stone spire with a metal finial. A memorial plaque above the second stage records the name and date of completion of the church.

The porch has a pointed arch door opening to its centre, with a moulded surround and hood on foliated stops. The door is a double-leaf diagonal-sheeted painted timber door with black iron door furniture, opening onto a single stone step. The gable above the central bay contains a four-part traceried window with a splayed cill and moulded hood, glazed with stained leaded glass.

Throughout the principal elevation, pointed arch windows have cut-stone surrounds, splayed cills, and moulded hoods on foliated stops, all with stained leaded glazing. At ground floor level there are paired trefoil windows set within flat-arched openings with splayed cills and stained leaded glazing; at first floor level, three-part trefoil windows sit within segmental-arched openings, also with stained leaded glazing.

The west elevation consists of the three-stage tower at its north end and the double-height seven-bay nave elevation. A square-headed door opening in the tower has a double-leaf painted timber sheeted door. The nave bays are separated by two-stage buttresses and have a moulded string course between ground and first floor. The nave is attached at its south side to a two-storey link abutting the modern hall.

The south elevation is abutted by a two-storey red-brick hipped-roof modern hall dating from the 1960s. The east elevation fronts onto Eastleigh Crescent and consists, from south to north, of the two-storey modern hall, the double-height seven-bay nave elevation with two-stage buttresses and a moulded string course between ground and first floor, and the east tower. The east tower also has a square-headed door opening with a double-leaf painted timber sheeted door.

To the north and west of the church is a tarmacked yard. The boundary to the north is formed by a dwarf wall of irregular-coursed rock-faced stone with cut-stone coping with chamfered top corners, topped by wrought iron square-section railings with curved railing heads. A double-leaf cast iron gate to the north is supported on thick square-section piers of irregular-coursed rock-faced stone masonry, topped by pyramidal coping with gablets. To the south-west of the church, fronting onto Hillview Avenue, is a double-height hall in buff brick with a shallow pitched roof dating from the 1970s. A single-storey flat-roofed wedge-shaped porch has been added to provide access to the two halls from the west yard.

The congregation that built this church grew from local missions initiated by the Reverend James Tolland in 1893 in the Ballyhackamore area. Worship initially took place in a temporary portable iron church known as the Ballyhackamore Iron Church, erected on this same site in 1908 under Reverend Tolland's leadership. The mission hall was valued at £27 and was administered by the Trustees of Dundela Presbyterian Church prior to 1914.

The church was originally designed by Edwin Riddell Kennedy (1881–1930), a Belfast-based architect who later served as president of the Ulster Society of Architects from 1928 to 1930, and who resided on the Upper Newtownards Road in 1911. Kennedy produced designs for Ormiston Presbyterian Church in March 1913, but only a small portion was ever built: three bays were added to the eastern side of the existing iron church before it opened for worship in 1914. This partial extension raised the valuation to £80. The design work was among the last contracts Kennedy completed before enlisting to fight with the 36th (Ulster) Division in the First World War.

The church remained incomplete until the 1920s, when Stephen A. Orr, a local architect who predominantly designed houses, was contracted to finish the building. Funding for a grander scheme became possible through a legacy left by the Reverend James Kirkpatrick of Dunluce, who died in 1896 and whose bequest to the General Assembly was allocated to Ormiston in 1916. Orr abandoned Kennedy's original plan entirely and submitted a new design in January 1922; tenders were invited in April of that year. The iron church and Kennedy's additions were subsequently demolished, and the present Gothic Revival church erected in their place. The congregation was renamed the Kirkpatrick Memorial Presbyterian Church in memory of the Reverend James Kirkpatrick, and the completed church was dedicated on 29 June 1924. It was valued at £300 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57).

A redbrick hall to the rear was added in 1955, raising the valuation to £350. A second redbrick hall facing Hillview Avenue was constructed in the 1960s, and by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72) the total value had risen to £944. During the second survey period the church served a congregation of around 200.

The church retains the majority of its original detailing and character, and its site has a continuous history of Presbyterian worship stretching back to the humble beginnings of the temporary iron church of 1908.