St James C.o.I, 202/206 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT36 7QX

St James Church of Ireland

St James Church of Ireland is a gabled sandstone church in Gothic Revival style, originally constructed between 1869 and 1871 to designs by William Henry Lynn of the architectural practice Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon. The church suffered significant damage during German bombing raids in the Second World War; whilst the original tower survived, the remainder of the building was damaged and subsequently rebuilt between 1946 and 1954 to designs by R. M. Close.

The church has a rectangular plan form oriented east to west, comprising a central nave with gabled north and south side aisles and a large gabled projecting chancel to the east, abutted by a gabled vestry with an attached flat-roofed porch. A three-stage square tower topped with a broached spire projects from the southeast end of the nave. Gabled entrance porches project from both the northwest and southwest ends of the nave.

The walling is laid in random-coursed rock-faced Coursehill sandstone with smooth sandstone dressings and quoins, set on a double plinth course. The roof is covered in natural Westmoreland slate with terracotta roll-top ridge tiles and leaded valleys. Cast iron rainwater goods with ogee guttering discharge to rectangular hoppers and circular section downpipes. Raised stone verges with moulded stone finials mark the gable ends.

The original three-stage tower features angle buttresses to its corners. The first stage contains a small door opening to the northeast corner buttress, with a hood mould bearing carved head stops and a timber four-panelled door set behind a metal screen. The second stage has small lancet windows, with the belfry occupying the third stage. The hexagonal broached spire is set on a moulded dentilated cornice and features a cross finial and lucarnes, with Gothic pointed arch louvered traceried openings to the belfry.

Windows throughout are Decorated Gothic pointed arch openings with stop-chamfered sandstone surrounds and splayed cills, containing fixed window lights with clear leaded glass composed of small square panes, though some windows feature stained glass.

The principal south elevation presents a square tower with the chancel extending slightly beyond to the east, and the central nave extending one bay beyond a gabled five-bay aisle to the west. The aisle comprises three gabled bays to the centre, flanked by a single tracery window with leaded stained glazing to the east and a gabled shallow projecting main entrance porch to the west. The entrance features a pointed arch doorway with a hood mould and square label stops, moulded surround and flanking plain colonettes, leading to a square-headed two-leaf twelve-panel timber door with a fanlight above divided by decorated timber Y-tracery, recessed behind a decorative metalwork screen. The three gabled bays feature decorated tracery windows to their centre, moulded stone trefoils within indented roundels to the gable faces, and single-stage buttresses between each bay.

The west elevation is dominated by a large fourteen-light decorated Y-tracery window in the nave gable, with smaller tracery windows to both north and south aisles. The south aisle features a small Gothic ogee-arched window to its bottom right, now blind. Raised stone verges with coping and moulded kneelers mark the gables.

The north aisle runs the full extent of the nave, with the south aisle set back by one bay. The north elevation comprises a gabled aisle running the full length of the nave and a gabled projecting eastern chancel, abutted on the north by a parallel lower gabled vestry projecting from the eastern end of the side aisle. The vestry has a flat-roofed porch attached to its north, with buttresses and a pointed arch doorway housing a timber-panelled door. A gabled entrance porch projects from the northwest end of the aisle, housing a pointed arch doorway and a small tracery window on its east side. Three central bays of the north aisle, corresponding to those of the south elevation, have gables with tracery windows and separating single-stage buttresses, with a single tracery window to the east.

The east elevation features the square tower to the west with corner buttresses and small pointed arch windows with carved head hood stops to the first stage, depicting two faces—one young and one old—to greet worshippers. Two small lancet windows occupy the second stage, with large tracery openings at belfry level topped by the broached stone spire. The projecting central chancel features a large tracery stained glass window with a tripartite pointed arch window to the vestry gable at ground floor level and a two-part pointed arch window to the vestry porch gable at ground floor level. Angle buttresses to the corners have a moulded cill course running from the chancel window across the chancel and vestry. Cinquefoil detailing appears on the chancel and side aisle gables.

The church stands within its own grounds to the north of the junction between Cliftonville and Antrim Roads, on a triangular piece of land bounded by dwarf sandstone walling topped by wrought iron arrow-head railings set between square section pillars with roll-top coping. The boundary walling is of random-coursed rock-faced sandstone with smooth-faced sandstone dressings. Mature trees line the boundary of the interior setting, with the area to the south set to lawn and truncated by a wide tarmacked path linking gates on Cliftonville Road to gates on Antrim Road. A second set of gates to the north on Antrim Road provides access to a tarmacked area to the north of the church. The boundary walling continues north along Antrim Road with a pedestrian gate to the front of the former national school, converted to use as a church hall in 1957. The church grounds also include a former school with a smaller spire built in 1872 to designs also by William Henry Lynn, which is separately listed.