Berry Street Presbyterian Church, Berry Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 1FJ

Berry Street Presbyterian Church is a gabled brick-fronted double-height Presbyterian church built between 1857 and 1859, located on the south side of Berry Street in Belfast city centre. The building is rectangular on plan with modern single-storey extensions to the east and west.

The exterior is constructed of English garden wall-bonded red-brick, painted on the north elevation and with dentilled brick coursing under the eaves and decorative painted carved stone plaques. The lower half of the south elevation is finished in painted smooth render, while the east and west elevations are rendered in painted roughcast. The pitched natural slate roof has raised masonry verges with dog-tooth and corbelled brick cornice on the principal gable, with plastic rainwater goods on a smooth rendered eaves band.

Windows are round-headed replacement multi-paned timber casements with projecting painted masonry sills. The north-facing gabled front is simply detailed and framed by piers. It features three staged windows over a central entrance door at ground floor, flanked by round-headed chamfered niches containing timber notice boards with round-headed hoods resting on painted masonry corbels. The three staged windows to the north have brick voussoirs and relieving arches over, with a continuous sill and corbels beneath. Double-leaf timber-sheeted entrance doors set into a chamfered brick reveal are surmounted by a fixed timber-sheeted tympanum. The east elevation has four windows at gallery level over two at ground floor, with double-leaf timber doors with glazed panels and a round-headed fixed timber tympanum. The south gable contains two round-headed leaded-and-stained glass windows. The west elevation is partially concealed, with three windows visible at gallery level.

Presbyterian worship on Berry Street dates back to 1782, when minister William Carmichael built the First Seceding Meeting House. The current building replaced an earlier structure and was rebuilt and enlarged by minister Hugh Hanna between 1857 and 1859. A third congregation, originally gathered at Academy Street as part of Town Mission work in 1869, moved into the church in 1876. A heating chamber was added in 1928 to designs by James Scott, and the pulpit, choirbox and pews were removed in 1968. The congregation has dwindled significantly in recent years and shares a minister with Richview.

The church is situated in the heart of commercial Belfast city centre, facing the rear entrance of Castlecourt Shopping Centre at the east end of pedestrianised Berry Street. The area is characterised by an incoherent mix of post-war architecture, with plain two-storey red-brick commercial units lining Chapel Lane to the east. St Mary's Church stands to the southeast, and a brick paviour courtyard used for parking is located to the rear. The building is an important survivor in an area significantly degraded by post-war redevelopment and is of significant local historical interest.