John White Memorial Congregational Church Hall, Tennent Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 3GD

John White Memorial Congregational Church Hall

A three-bay two-storey red-brick church hall built in 1896 to designs by architect Thomas H McCaul, located on the south side of Matchett Street in North Belfast. The building was originally constructed as a school by the committee of Donegall Street Congregational Church and is shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901. Construction cost £850, and the school was valued at £50 in 1897. A church was subsequently added to the school building in 1903. The building is now in use as a church hall.

The structure is square on plan with a pitched natural slate roof featuring blue and black angled ridge tiles. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on corbelled red-brick eaves. The walling is English garden wall-bonded red brick on a concrete plinth with dog-tooth string-coursing between floors and under the eaves, interrupted between floors by a lozenge-shaped terracotta panel. A red-brick string-course with egg-and-dart frieze and painted concrete lintel sits above ground floor openings of the entrance bay; cement render covers the south elevation.

The principal elevation faces north and is almost symmetrically arranged with corner pilasters. A gabled entrance bay rises above the eaves line at the centre, flanked by brick pilasters with moulded concrete or corbelled brick heads. The entrance comprises double-panel timber-sheeted doors surmounted by a large four-paned transom light. Above these is a Venetian-style window on the first floor, surmounted by a cogged brick hood mould with continuous sill on red-brick corbels featuring dog-tooth frieze. The left and right bays each contain a window at first floor level and two at ground floor level. Two ground floor windows to the left are partially infilled with brick and surmounted by a chamfered sandstone lintel and red-brick relieving arch. All windows are replacement fixed timber-framed units in plain brick reveals with red-brick voussoirs and projecting painted concrete sills.

The east gable has four windows to the first floor and five at ground floor level. A roundel with yellow-brick keyblocks ornaments the apex of the gable. The south elevation was partially concealed at survey; it retains a window at first floor centre. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining John White Memorial Congregational Church.

Valuer's notes from the 1930s recorded the school as old-fashioned, equipped with wood staircases and no central heating, and in poor repair. It accommodated 306 junior scholars with two classrooms on the ground floor, a large room with platform on the first floor, and a small adjacent room. A playground occupied the rear. New classrooms were added in 1950 following concerns that there were too many classes for the number of rooms available.

The building is situated in a residential area, abutting John White Memorial Congregational Church to the west. A modern red-brick single-storey church hall stands to the rear, accessed via a car park reached from Matchett Street through modern metal gates on square concrete piers.

Although much historic fabric survives, including the brick detailing, the two-dimensional character of these elements and modern alterations have compromised the building's integrity. It is primarily of interest for its relationship with the neighbouring church, though the two are of some local significance. The building does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.