Macrory Prebyterian Church, Duncairn Gardens, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 3LJ

Macrory Memorial Presbyterian Church is a late Victorian Gothic-style red brick church on Duncairn Gardens, originally built in 1894–95 to designs by local architect James Ferguson and erected by contractors Campbell & Lowry. The building was severely damaged during the Belfast Blitz on the night of 4th–5th May 1941, when German incendiary bombs reduced the church and its adjoining hall and schoolhouse to a burnt-out shell. A post-war survey found the foundations intact, and the church was largely reconstructed in 1952 — built on the original foundations by contractors Messrs William Logan & Son to designs by Hobart & Heron — at a cost of approximately £32,000. The church was officially reopened on 3rd May 1952. Although largely rebuilt in the 20th century, the building retains its original plan form and some internal joinery and flooring.

The congregation was originally formed in 1842 by the Reverend Thomas Toye, a prominent local minister and key figure in the 1859 Ulster Revival, who preached at the congregation's original home on Great George's Street until his death in 1870. As the majority of congregation members were drawn from the developing suburbs to the north of Great George's Street, a decision was made to construct a new church on Duncairn Gardens. The new church was built on land owned by Robert A. Macrory, a local solicitor, member of the congregation, and legal advisor to the General Assembly. His son Edmund laid the foundation stone on 17th February 1894. The church cost approximately £4,000 to build and was designed to accommodate a congregation of 900. When first opened it was known as Duncairn Gardens Presbyterian Church, the original name continuing in use at the mission hall on Great George's Street; the name Macrory Memorial Presbyterian Church was adopted following a congregational vote. In 1900, a church hall and national schoolhouse were erected to the rear. The former meeting house on Great George's Street continued as a mission hall until 1907, when it became a workshop for a local engineering firm, and was demolished in 1977.

Following reconstruction, a stained glass window was installed in the chancel in around 1955 to designs by W. F. Clokey, as a memorial to those from the area who lost their lives during the Belfast Blitz of 1941. The current organ, built by Evans & Barr, was dedicated on 12th December 1954. The adjoining red brick church hall — known as the Patterson Halls, after the Reverend James Patterson, minister between 1936 and 1960 — was opened on 6th April 1956. The church was valued at £896 under the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72).

Membership of the congregation declined as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles, leading to amalgamation with Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian Church in 2005. The church on Duncairn Gardens was subsequently put up for sale, with the adjoining Patterson Halls retained for use by a Youth Club and Boys' Brigade. In 2006 the congregation changed its name to Fortwilliam & Macrory Presbyterian Church. The church has remained vacant since 2005.

The building has a rectangular plan form with a projecting lower-roofed block to the northeast gable and separate gabled projecting entrance blocks to the west and south. The principal elevation faces southwest onto Duncairn Gardens, with the rear elevation backing onto Hillman Street to the northeast. The roof is pitched natural slate with raised gables and black clay angled ridge tiles. Walling is generally English Garden Wall bond red brick with smooth dressed red sandstone detailing to copings, eaves course, cill course, and window and door surrounds; the building sits on a raised red brick plinth course. Original cast iron ogee guttering discharges to rectangular hoppers and circular section cast iron downpipes.

The principal southwest elevation onto Duncairn Gardens consists of a central gable. At the base, five grouped lancet windows are flanked by painted timber notice boards. Above these is a pointed arch tracery window, now boarded up, composed of three quatrefoil lights above four trefoil-headed lancets, with a drip mould set on a sandstone string course. A separate quatrefoil window with drip mould sits at the gable apex. The central gable has angle buttresses and is flanked by single two-storey projecting gabled blocks, narrowly set back to the northwest and southeast, each having a paired lancet window above a front-facing projecting gabled entrance porch with a pointed arch doorway and planked painted timber double doors opening onto a single reconstituted stone step. A lamp on a scrolled metal bracket sits above each door and there are angled buttresses to the corners. Stepped two-stage angle buttresses to the principal gable corners carry hexagonal sandstone pinnacles rising above the coping, some having lost their moulded leaf caps, and there is a low square section sandstone chimney to the main gable apex at the northeast.

Windows throughout are generally grouped simplified Gothic lancets, mostly in pairs, many now boarded up or fitted with wire mesh, with metal frames and some having hopper-type opening lights. Glazing is generally coloured and leaded, consisting of square light-yellow panes to the centre with a three-course border having an orange middle course and small green and blue sections to either side, between clear glass intervals.

The southeast elevation consists of a five-bay block with a projecting gabled block at the southwest end, which has angle buttresses including pinnacles, and a triple lancet window below a larger paired lancet window on its southeast end. A single-bay lower-roofed chancel block extends to the northeast end of the church, beyond a full-height buttress with pinnacle, which is also abutted to the northwest by a narrow porch. Boarded painted timber doors to the southwest side of the porch link the church to the church hall and former school. The centre block has paired lancet bays with flanking two-stage three-quarter-height buttresses. Windows at ground floor level are boarded, with upper sections retaining original coloured leaded glazing behind wire mesh.

The northeast elevation has a rectangular section sandstone chimney to the gable apex and a single buttress with pinnacle to both the north and east ends. A lower-roofed block projects to the northeast from the main body of the building, forming a near-symmetrical gabled elevation with a central pointed arch tracery window — now blocked with some original glass visible — composed of three trefoil-headed lancets below three quatrefoil lights, with a moulded sandstone drip mould on plain block corbels. The top half of the central window is flanked by paired lancet windows, with two square-headed windows to the north and a square-headed window and doorway at ground floor level to the east. The door opening has a painted metal gate opening onto the footpath, with four steps leading to a recessed doorway having a vertically planked painted timber door. Ground floor openings have bevelled-edge red brick surrounds and red sandstone heads, with no cill course or buttresses to this elevation. The porch of the red brick school and church hall abuts the church at the northern end; railings of a gated public access route abut the church to the east, and a semicircular arched gateway provides access to the northwest elevation.

The northwest elevation, set behind painted metal railings, is similar to the southeast elevation, with five central bays of paired lancet windows — all blocked with timber — divided by three-quarter-height two-stage buttresses. A gabled block extends to the southeast at the north end with full-height angle buttresses including pinnacles and a triple lancet window below a longer paired lancet to the southeast side. A lower gabled block extends one bay to the northeast and has a small paired lancet window at ground floor level, now blocked with breeze blocks. A two-stage buttress with pinnacle towards the northeast end rises above the eaves between the full-height block and the lower gabled chancel block. A continuous red sandstone cill course and red brick plinth run along the facade.

The church is connected to the church hall by a section of modern blockwork set on red brick walling to the northwest. A modest yard enclosed behind walling, accessed from inside the church hall, provides access to the southeast elevation. The church and hall are both set back from the footpath behind dwarf red brick walling with reconstituted stone coping and painted metal railings, with two separate gates at the front of the church leading to the separate entrance porches, and similar but later railings to the southeast access.

The setting is formed by the former national school and church hall, both in red brick, located to the northwest of the church, with a gated public access way to the southeast. Both Duncairn Gardens and Hillman Street are characterised by rows of late Victorian red brick terrace housing. Although a building of some character with interesting historical connections, it is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.