Hall to Belmont Presbyterian Church, 92 Sydenham Avenue, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT4 2DT

Hall to Belmont Presbyterian Church, 92 Sydenham Avenue, Belfast

This is a good example of an early 20th century church hall, designed in the Gothic Revival style to complement the adjacent Belmont Presbyterian Church. Built in 1931 to designs by Belfast-based architect James Corden Stevenson, the hall retains its historic character, style and proportions externally, while internally the layout is largely unchanged, though some original detail has been lost. It has group value with the listed Belmont Presbyterian Church and the former Gate Lodge.

The building is double-height, rectangular on plan, set on a north-south axis, with a projecting gabled entrance porch to the south. It is connected to Belmont Presbyterian Church by a modern single-storey lobby added in 2001. The hall sits within the church grounds fronting onto Sydenham Avenue.

The roof is covered in natural slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles and a metal finial. Chamfered brick corbels at the eaves support cast-iron ogee-moulded guttering discharging to rectangular section downpipes. The walls are red brick laid in English garden wall bond with buff brick dressings and quoins, and stone coping to the gables. Lancet windows throughout have sandstone keystones and splayed sills, with stained glass leaded glazing and fixed secondary external glazing.

The principal elevation faces west and is arranged in five bays, each separated by a single-stage buttress, with double lancet windows to each bay. The projecting gabled entrance porch at the south end has raised stone verges and a carved trefoil to the apex, with single-stage buttresses topped by stone pinnacles at either end. The entrance itself has a square-headed door with a segmental arch hood and tympanum, fitted with vertical-sheeted double timber doors that open onto a concrete platform reached by eight steps. Dwarf red brick walls with buff brick detail and chamfered stone coping support painted metal handrails on each side of the steps, which also have a painted metal handrail to the centre.

The south elevation is gabled, with two three-stage buttresses, a three-part lancet window, and a small louvred lancet opening at high level. The projecting porch on this elevation is arranged in three bays. The west bay is gabled with a carved trefoil to the apex and a lancet window, with single-storey buttresses topped by stone pinnacles at either end. The middle bay has paired shouldered-arch windows. To the east there is a three-sided canted bay with a raised parapet and a shouldered-arch window to each face.

The rear elevation faces east and is also arranged in five bays, each separated by single-stage buttresses, with double lancet windows to each bay. A small modern flat-roofed entrance porch is located at the north end. The rear yard is enclosed by a red brick boundary wall and a metal gate. The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining modern single-storey lobby, which is of little architectural interest.

The church and its associated buildings sit within their own grounds. The hall and a Gate Lodge are to the southeast of the main church, with car parks to the west and north. The site fronts onto Sydenham Avenue and is partly lawned and partly concrete paved. To the south, the site is enclosed by a red brick wall with stone coping topped by cast-iron railings. Square red brick gate piers with buff brick quoins and single-stage buttresses are topped by cast-iron finials and support cast-iron gates at the main entrance. A cast-iron gate and hedge mark the southwest pedestrian entrance.

Historically, the congregation of Belmont Presbyterian Church grew out of local missions organised by Ballymacarrett. Sir Thomas McClure of Belmont House provided the land and personally financed the construction of the original church in 1860–61. That building was originally a simple rectangular hall and was extended several times during the Victorian and Edwardian periods — gaining transepts, aisles and a square tower — to reach its current cruciform form. The first church hall on the site was constructed in 1904 by John Fraser and Son, located on Belmont Avenue and recorded on Ordnance Survey maps from the fourth edition of 1920–21 as a Lecture Hall. The present hall was built in 1931 and recorded in the Irish Builder, which notes Stevenson as the designer. Prior to this commission, Stevenson had designed Cregagh Presbyterian Church and its hall in 1929. A clock mounted on a section of timber panelling on the hall's south wall was also installed in 1931. Beneath it, a memorial plaque records that it was erected in memory of Frederick Archibald and Susan Ross Boucher, members of the congregation, by their son. Following the hall's construction, the combined rateable value of the church and hall was assessed at £520 in the First Revaluation of 1935. A second church hall was added to the east side of Belmont Presbyterian Church in the 1960s, after which the rateable value rose to £1,684 by the end of the Second Revaluation (covering 1956–72). The church and hall were physically connected in 2001 when the modern single-storey linking corridor was erected between them. The church continues in use as a place of worship with a membership of over 700 families.