All Souls Church Hall (aka Rosemary Hall), Elmwood Ave, Belfast, BT9 6AZ

Rosemary Hall (All Souls Church Hall), Elmwood Avenue, Belfast

Arts and Crafts style red brick hall with adjoining Sexton's House, built in 1908 to designs by Belfast architect W. J. Gilliland, for the second congregation of Protestant dissenters in Belfast. The hall sits tucked behind All Souls' Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church on Elmwood Avenue, within the Queen's Conservation Area of south Belfast. The church itself was also designed by Gilliland and built in 1895–96; though the hall is very different in style, the two buildings share group value and together illustrate the diversity of architectural approaches in play during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The hall takes its name from the congregation's original meeting house on Rosemary Street, built in 1708, and was conceived specifically to celebrate the congregation's bicentenary.

The building was constructed by Messrs W. J. Campbell and Son of Ravenhill Road. Subsidiary work was carried out by a number of specialist firms: Messrs Ward and Co. for the leaded glass, Ebner and Co. for the terrazzo flooring, Mr John Clements for plumbing, Musgrave and Co. for heating, and Buick and Co. for electric lighting. The hall was officially opened on 3 October 1908 by Mrs W. H. Drummond, wife of the then minister, Reverend William Hamilton Drummond.

The building is rectilinear on plan and composed of intersecting gables, with the main gable running north to south, a lower gabled projection to the west, and the adjoining two-storey Sexton's House tucked into the north-west corner, also gabled. A later flat-roofed extension to the east, added in 1957, is of little historic interest. A single chimneystack to the east is joined to the main roof by a chimney cricket.

The upper parts of the gables are finished in roughcast render on shallow curved sandstone corbel brackets, with the remainder of the walls in red brick laid in Flemish bond. The large square-headed windows have sandstone heads, cills, and mullions with leaded glass panes. The original Rosemary roof tiles have been replaced with black concrete tiles, though the carved timber bargeboards and exposed rafter ends at the deep overhanging eaves survive. An entrance porch occupies the south-west re-entrant corner, where the main roof slope extends as a cat-slide supported on carved timber posts, beams, and curved brackets, with some half-timber work to the west. The terrazzo flooring from inside extends out to cover the area enclosed within the porch, and the porch's roof soffit is sheeted in timber and painted. Rainwater goods include profiled uPVC guttering with cast iron hoppers and downpipes.

The west elevation presents the gabled projection to the right (south), the Sexton's House to the left, and the set-back side face of the taller north–south gable behind. The gable's upper section is in roughcast render (painted), projecting on shallow curved sandstone brackets, with carved bargeboards and exposed rafter ends; the lower brick walling is filled mainly by a large window divided into five vertical lights with a flush sandstone head and splayed cill, and terracotta vents below. The Sexton's House rises to the same height as the main gable across two storeys, with one window centred on each floor of its gable face. A splayed string course (painted) between floors is cantilevered over a chamfered south-west corner at ground level, with a curved sandstone bracket below. The first-floor window is divided into three equal casements and projects as a square bay on curved brackets, tucked below a beam to the rendered upper part; the ground-floor window is also divided into three lights, with night vents, a moulded timber surround, and a moulded stone cill. An inward-opening multi-paned hopper light is set into the chamfered corner with metal bars fixed to the outer reveal. The door on the far north side of the house has been replaced with a rendered surround and timber sheeting above. In the set-back section between the gabled projections, the side face of the taller gable is filled with a window divided into three vertical lights with red brick walling below. Beyond the porch, a further window on the side of the taller gable is divided into two lights with toothed surrounds. A commemorative plaque is recessed into the wall below the porch, with a sandstone surround and moulded hood, inscribed: '1708 – 1908 / This stone was laid by / John Campbell MD FRCS / on the 9th May 1908 / to commemorate the / bicentenary of the / second congregation.'

The south elevation shows the main gable projecting to the centre, the side face of the lower gable to the left partly protected by the porch, and the flat-roofed extension set back to the right. The main gable is detailed as the west elevation, except that the large window on this side is divided into four vertical and three horizontal lights with a toothed surround. The leaded panes in the lower far-left and far-right lights have been replaced with double-glazed etched panels depicting two former congregants: Mary Graham McGeown (1923–2004) and Joseph Maxwell Freeland (1908–1982). McGeown, who became a CBE, was a biochemist noted for pioneering research into organ transplants; Freeland was her husband. The side face of the lower gable is blank except for timber-framed double entrance doors set within a segmental arched recess with a chamfered sandstone surround at the corner where the gable meets the hall. The flat-roofed extension is in red brick laid in stretcher bond, with a lean-to open porch over an entrance door with a glazed upper panel and side lights, and coping to the flat roof above. A moulded cast iron hopper and downpipe are fixed near the west corner of this elevation.

The east elevation comprises the east face of the main gabled hall and the flat-roofed extension. The side face of the hall has timber-framed five-panelled double doors with paired leaded glass over-lights to the south, and a window to the right divided into three lights with inward-opening hoppers above a transom. The east face of the flat-roofed extension is built in close proximity to the east boundary wall and is difficult to access. It is constructed in concrete brick with precast concrete cills at equally spaced horizontal openings near the eaves; the windows have been removed and the openings bricked up. A gutter runs along the top edge.

The north elevation is also difficult to access owing to the proximity of the east boundary wall. The main gable is largely blank with a single vent at its base. The flat-roofed extension has a painted timber fascia board and a single boarded-up window opening with a precast concrete cill. The Sexton's House and ancillary rooms section, read from west to east, includes a large window that has been bricked up (with a concrete lintel remaining), four windows of differing heights all with soldier-coursed brick headers and projecting stooled sandstone cills with metal security bars, and a ledged and braced sheeted timber door with a small window over, now boarded up.

Internally, the hall retains many original features. The principal space has an open timbered roof executed entirely in pitch pine and is lit by mullioned windows glazed with clear glass in strong leads. One side wall is broken by a large fireplace recess containing a handsome chimneypiece and dog grate. A platform with a covered front occupies one end, designed to allow the introduction of a proscenium for dramatic entertainments. A committee room, cloakrooms, and lavatories were provided, along with facilities for catering. The basement contains a heating apparatus chamber, fuel, and other stores. Hot water radiators heat the building throughout.

The question of whether the Sexton's House formed part of the original scheme is somewhat ambiguous: the 1908 newspaper account of the opening makes no mention of it, and the section sits slightly awkwardly with the overall composition. However, 'sexton's apartments' are mentioned by valuers in 1910, the 1920 Ordnance Survey map confirms the house was present by that date, and the 1911 census records a caretaker, William R. Gilbert, living there with his wife Emily and their two infant sons — the dwelling noted as a second-class house containing four rooms, as it remains today. Subsequent sextons recorded in street directories include Joseph Russell (1918), A. E. Webb (1924), John Adams (1932), and J. Derby (1943). The 1951 directory records the building as housing the Ministry of Agriculture's Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Division, though this arrangement appears to have been short-lived or possibly an error, as the hall reverted to its former use within a few years and the sexton continued to occupy the dwelling into the 1960s at least.

The hall is set within the wider All Souls' Church complex. The church is surrounded by soft landscaping enclosed by railings to the east. The hall is bounded by a tarmacked car park to the south and west, rubble-stone basalt walling and metal railings to the north, and brown brick walling to the rear of a Queen's University of Belfast building on Fitzwilliam Street to the east. An electronic vehicular barrier marks the car park entrance on Elmwood Avenue, at the west side of All Souls' Church.