St Michael's Church of Ireland, Craven Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 IJJ

St Michael's Church of Ireland is a free-standing gable-fronted double-height red brick church dated 1898, designed by Samuel P. Close. The building is located on a spacious site to the north side of Craven Road, Belfast.

The church is rectangular on plan, facing south, with a lean-to porch at the west and a two-stage tower at the east. A modern extension in grey engineering brick was built to the north around 1910. The pitched natural slate roof features bellcast detailing over the side-aisles, terracotta clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, stone verges and acroter. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are fixed to a corbelled brick eaves course.

The walling is Flemish bonded red brick with a projecting brick plinth course. A sandstone continuous string course runs at sill level. Double-height stepped angle buttresses with offsets and stone weathering articulate the facade. Windows throughout are equilateral-arched cusped lancets formed in chamfered brick surrounds with plain stop chamfers and voussoirs. The windows contain leaded stained glass covered externally by reinforced storm glazing.

The gabled south front elevation features a projecting bay at the centre with angle buttresses and a bi-partite geometric tracery window, flanked by two smaller tracery windows. The apex contains a date stone reading '1898'. The lean-to porch at the west has similar detailing, with an equilateral-arched double-inset sandstone door opening with hood mould and stepped quoins, fitted with a sheeted timber door with iron furniture. Concrete steps and ramped access lead to the door. The porch's west elevation contains a single square-headed window; paired diminished windows light the exposed left cheek of the projecting gable above the lean-to roof. The east elevation is abutted by a two-stage tower with a bellcast natural slate pyramidal roof topped by a copper finial.

The west nave elevation is five bays wide. Four bays at the right contain three windows each, lighting the nave. The fifth bay at the left is divided by a smaller angle buttress with offset and contains a double timber sheeted entrance door surmounted by a single window, with another single window to the left. A single-storey lean-to oil-tank storage stands at the left. The gabled north chancel elevation features five staged lancet leaded coloured glass windows with continuous splayed ashlar sill at the centre. A brick chimney rises above the left lancet window. At the left, a segmental-headed timber window at ground floor (Vestry) is surmounted by a square-headed window at first floor (organ loft). The church is abutted at the right by the modern extension.

The east nave elevation mirrors the west. The two-stage tower on the east features a slated spire with bellcast eaves over a stone eaves cornice. The south elevation of the tower contains an equilateral-arched double-inset sandstone door opening with hood mould and stepped quoins, fitted with a sheeted timber door with iron furniture, surmounted by a double geometric tracery window at the second stage. To the east of the tower stands a double-height circular tower with a semi-conical roof surmounted by a single louvered lancet opening at the second stage. The circular tower contains a single square-headed window at ground floor and a quadripartite arrangement of four-centred arched windows with sandstone surround at the second stage. A louvered lancet opening faces north at the second stage.

The church sits on an open urban site to the north of Craven Road, off Shankill Road. A modern hall was constructed at the north-west corner of the site, with access to a small car park via the original cast-iron gates, supported on brick piers at the south. The gates' paint finish has been removed. Railings supported on a brick plinth wall with chamfered coping enclose the site. Pedestrian access to the main church building is via two pedestrian cast-iron gates at the south.