Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church, Ormeau Road, Belfast, County Antrim

Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church is a free-standing, double-height Gothic Revival Presbyterian church with a two-stage square tower and Chapter House, designed by architect W.J. Fennell and built between 1890 and 1892. It stands prominently on the east side of Ormeau Road between Park Road and North Parade, near Belfast city centre, on a landscaped site formerly part of the demesne of the Marquess of Donegall at Ormeau Park, acquired from Belfast Corporation in 1889. The site was partially occupied by a former gate lodge to the demesne, which is now gone. The building is largely early French Gothic in character with some Early English detailing, and its architectural fabric is largely intact both inside and out.

The church is cruciform in plan, facing west, with an almost full-height extension to the rear. A two-storey gabled Chapter House is attached to the east, with a single-storey lean-to extension to its southeast. The principal west gable is flanked by a two-stage entrance tower to the northwest (opening to the north) and a polygonal full-height stair bay to the southwest. The transepts are each abutted to the west by a lean-to porch.

The roof is covered in natural slate, with raised stone skews and gable finials, decorative terracotta ridge tiles, and a finial to the polygonal stair bay. Lead valleys and cast-iron rainwater goods sit on a moulded sandstone corbelled eave band. There is a rubblestone chimneystack to the gable of the rear extension. The walls are built of rubblestone laid in rough courses with a chamfered plinth course, and rubblestone buttresses with masonry offsets run to all sides, with angled buttresses to the tower. The stone used is white sandstone from the Glebe quarries near Newtownards.

Windows throughout are leaded and stained glass. Paired lancets in sandstone surrounds have chamfered sills, hood moulds, and carved head stops. The second stage of the tower has a single lancet. The transepts feature geometric plate tracery rose windows surmounting five Gothic lancets, and the stair bay has quatrefoils.

The principal west elevation is dominated by a double-height pointed arched recess, infilled with paired entrance doors and a Gothic leaded-and-stained glass five-pane mullioned window with rosettes. This sits within a moulded Romanesque-style surround with semi-engaged colonnettes. Above the entrance doors is an ornate Gothic-style moulded screen with carved insets: the Gothic-headed panels read, from left, "CENTENARY YEAR 1888" and "ERECTED 1890-1", and above these is a carved roundel with a wreath and banner inscribed "COOKE CENTENARY CHURCH". A pointed-arch pierced screen with quatrefoil and cross finial surmounts the whole panel. The entrance doors themselves are replacement timber-sheeted doors flanked by semi-engaged colonnettes on chamfered plinths. To the left of the gable is a decorative pinnacle with semi-engaged corner colonnettes, a moulded cornice, and a decorative finial to the apex.

The north nave elevation is divided by buttresses into five bays, all with paired windows except the leftmost bay, which has a single window. The two-stage tower abuts to the right and the north transept to the left, with a single-storey vestry filling the re-entrant angle. The transept porch has original double-leaf timber-sheeted doors set in a chamfered Gothic reveal, accessed by a single masonry step, with a diminutive round window to the cheek wall. The south nave elevation is seven windows wide, abutted on the left by the polygonal stair bay and on the right by the south transept with its lean-to porch, matching that on the north side.

The east elevation is abutted by a series of two-storey extensions of varying height. A sandstone rose window sits at the centre of the main extension, which is fronted by the two-storey gabled Chapter House — slightly lower and projecting at the left — with a single-storey lean-to extension at the far left. Windows are generally lancet-headed, some paired; the north elevation of the Chapter House has a five-paned window at ground floor level.

The original timber-sheeted entrance door to the stair bay survives in its Gothic-headed chamfered reveal.

The interior is well preserved and retains much of its original Gothic Revival character. The gallery is supported on Newry granite columns with Glebe stone caps and bases. The church is fully pewed and all the joinery is of yellow pitch pine with walnut mouldings, all French polished. An organ installed in 1913 obscures one of the rose windows that would originally have been visible from inside the building, and its installation also required the relocation of the pulpit. The present organ is understood to be composed of sections taken from the Conacher organ belonging to Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, brought to Cooke Centenary when Carlisle closed in 1980. The Chapter House similarly retains much of its original character.

The building was conceived on an ambitious scale, originally intended to seat 1,100 people, though the committee chose to prioritise generous spacing per seat, wide aisles, and ample space for Communion services. The original design also included a spire that, together with the tower, was intended to rise to 150 feet, though this was not executed. The contractors were Messrs Henry Laverty and Sons of Whitla Street, Belfast. The first sod was cut on 31 May 1890 by William McCausland of Cherry Vale, who had done more than any other committee member to promote the undertaking, including identifying the site, paying its ground rent, contributing the largest subscription, and raising further funds. Two foundation stones were laid on 9 July 1890 by Mr Samuel Lawther JP on behalf of the Mayor, and by Mr Edward Macrory QC — one for the church and one for the tower — with newspapers and coins of the day sealed in glass bottles within specially made cavities. The church first appears in valuation records in 1891 at a valuation of £240. Opening services were held on Sunday 1 May 1892. The eventual cost of the building was £6,667. The considerable debt was cleared during the 1890s. A new school to designs by Young and Mackenzie was opened in 1903. In 1956 the organ was refurbished and the church redecorated and rewired. A new suite of church halls in Park Road was completed in 1962.

The church is named in memory of Dr Henry Cooke (1788–1868), a highly significant and somewhat divisive figure within Irish Presbyterianism. Bitterly opposed to the Unitarian elements within the church, he ultimately brought about their separation from it. His followers built him a church in May Street, Belfast, where he preached until his death. He became Moderator of the Synod of Ulster in 1824 and served twice as Moderator of the General Assembly, in 1841 and 1862. He was also politically active, campaigning against the policies of Daniel O'Connell. Cooke had lived in the Ballynafeigh area for a very long period, and the decision to erect the church in his memory was taken in December 1888, the centenary of his birth. A congregation had been formed at Ormeau in 1887 in response to rapid population growth, initially holding services in the newly built Ballynafeigh Orange Hall. The surrounding neighbourhood had seen over 220 new houses built in the four years prior to 1888, adding more than 1,100 people to the local population, the majority of them working class.

The architect W.J. Fennell was a prolific and versatile designer whose other works include the Water Commissioner's Office in Royal Avenue and the Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Belfast.

The church sits on a prominently landscaped site opposite the former Ormeau Bakery, with parallel entrance paths and disabled parking to the front, and landscaping to the south. It is enclosed by cast-iron railings; the north side has a rock-faced plinth with piers and masonry coping. Decorative cast-iron entrance gates to the northwest and southwest are set on rock-faced square piers with pointed masonry caps. The listing extends to the church, boundary walls, gates, and railings.