First Presbyterian Church, 41 Rosemary Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 1QB

First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast

This is a free-standing, double-height brick Presbyterian church dating from around 1781–1783, designed by Roger Mulholland — the first native architect to have a significant influence in Belfast. A symmetrical stucco and stone-fronted two-storey entrance block was added around 1833, and the building was further extended to the rear between 1906 and 1907 to plans by Young & Mackenzie. It is now the earliest surviving place of worship in the city and contains one of the very few Georgian church interiors in Belfast.

Historical Background

The site has a long Presbyterian history. A first meeting house was built here in 1672, a second congregation built another behind it in 1708, and a third Presbyterian church was added to the east in 1722. The congregation who built the present church and its immediate predecessor was established as far back as 1644, originally meeting in John Street or Hercules Street. In 1719, the Reverend Samuel Haliday refused to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the church has been non-subscribing ever since.

The present building was constructed for the Unitarian congregation of Dr Crombie — himself the son of a Perth stonemason and, according to the historian Patton, an enthusiastic Volunteer who sometimes preached in uniform — at a cost of £2,300, opening on 1 June 1783. Francis Hiorne of Warwick, who was also involved in the design of St Anne's Church, contributed plans, for which he was formally thanked; he may have designed the interior layout of the pews. Mulholland, who is thought by Brett to have learned his craft from the Gibbsian architect Michael Priestley of Derry and to have been familiar with classical pattern books, produced an elliptical plan form, though the minutes of the building committee record both a clear desire for an elliptical structure and the considerable difficulty of roofing it. The building attracted great admiration: John Wesley, who preached here in 1789, called it "the completest place of worship I have ever seen… so finely proportioned that it is beautiful in the highest degree." The Earl Bishop of Derry, himself engaged in constructing a number of curved structures, donated fifty guineas towards the building fund.

Exterior

The church is elliptical on plan, with a two-storey entrance block to the south front elevation and a double-height rear projection. Natural slate roofs cover the building throughout — elliptical with a flat central section over the sanctuary, and hipped behind a balustraded parapet over the entrance block. A moulded eaves cornice runs throughout, supporting cast iron rainwater goods on large iron brackets.

The main elliptical body of the church is built in handmade red brick laid in English garden wall bond; the side walls of the entrance block are in machine-made red brick in Flemish bond. The façade is finished in stucco, with band-rustication to the ground floor separated from the upper floor by a plain tooled stone platband simply incised with the words "First Presbyterian Church."

Windows are round-headed throughout, with the exception of those to the classically detailed first floor of the entrance block, which are square-headed with plain stucco architraves and drip moulds. Original windows to the entrance block are one-over-one timber sashes with horns. The sanctuary windows have stained glass with rendered reveals, brick voussoirs, projecting painted masonry sills, and margin panes to the gallery level.

The symmetrical entrance block faces south and is three openings wide at each floor. At its centre is a round-headed double-leaf timber-panelled entrance door incorporating a semicircular transom; the central voussoir is inscribed "FOUNDED XVII CENTURY / REBUILT 1783." The flanking ground floor windows are set in recesses. At first floor level, each opening is framed by paired Ionic pilasters supporting a plain entablature with dentil moulding to the cornice. The returning elevations of the entrance block retain original flush-panelled doors to the ground floor and a window to the first floor.

The elliptical west side elevation is six windows wide, with plain glazed windows incorporating margin lights at the upper level and stained glass windows with weather glazing over at the lower level. The rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey red brick projection, built around 1900, housing the organ, the minister's room, and the dais, with lean-to projections to either side. Its upper level has a Venetian-type window opening with stone sills and weather glazing over stained glass. The elliptical east side elevation matches the west.

A partial original 19th-century railing on a moulded plinth wall survives to the west of the front area.

Interior

The interior is an assured exercise in church design. Larmour judges it "delightful," noting the "curving and swaying balcony on Composite columns," while Brett describes the church as "an enchanting boat-like composition." The oval plan form and full balcony together create a generous, well-proportioned volume. The present pulpit was a gift from the "Ladies of Belfast" of various denominations in 1783, costing £27 18s 4d.

The church contains a number of fine neoclassical monuments. The monument to the Reverend William Bruce (d. 1841) was designed by Charles Lanyon. Patrick MacDowell of Belfast — who carved the figure of Europe on the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park — carved the William Tennent (d. 1832) memorial. Tennent is described on it as having been "firm when exposed to the reactions of power," a reference to the 1798 rebellion, when meetings of United Irishmen are said to have taken place in the church. There is also a monument to John Holmes Houston, who died in 1843. The First World War memorial was carved by Rosamund Praeger.

The stained glass is thought to be the work of Meyer of Munich and includes a memorial window to Samuel Martin, founder of the Sick Children's Hospital. Two lights dating from the 1920s are by Ward & Partners. A more modern window behind the organ is a replacement following bomb damage in the 1970s.

The organ, by Messrs Lewis of London, was a gift from the Misses Riddel and was designed and "played in" by the blind organist Dr Alfred Hollins. It has a rare tubular pneumatic action, originally powered by mains water but later converted to an electric blower following complaints from the water authority. The church had installed an organ as early as 1853; before that, music was provided by an unaccompanied choir.

Alterations and Repairs

The original pedimented portico was replaced in 1833 — the pediments over the windows were also removed at that time — the new, deeper portico allowing easier access to the gallery and sessions room. A Venetian window, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination of the Reverend William Bruce, was installed in 1862 but was later replaced due to bomb damage. The sounding board behind the pulpit was removed at the same time to allow the window to be more easily seen; it was reused as a table, which has been retained in the sessions room.

Boundary walls and gates (now gone) were built to designs by Samuel Patrick Close in 1899. The rear extension of 1906–7 by Young & Mackenzie was built to accommodate the organ. The church was listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 at £550.

Restoration under the supervision of G. F. Ellis took place in the mid-1970s following bomb damage, during which the varnish was removed from the oak fittings and the flagstones in the aisles were replaced with carpet. By 1984 the wooden floor was suffering from severe rot, and Heritage Repairs Ltd were engaged to dismantle and replace the box pews, replace the rotted timbers, and lay a new concrete floor.

Setting

The church stands on the north side of Rosemary Street in the centre of commercial Belfast, now encroached upon by taller and later commercial buildings. To the rear is a walled bitmac parking area; to the front is a railed bitmac forecourt. The building lies within a conservation area.