St Polycarps Church Of Ireland, Church, Upper Lisburn Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT10 0BB

St Polycarp's Church of Ireland is a Gothic Revival sandstone church built between 1930 and 1932, designed by architect P. M. (Morgan) Jury of the Belfast firm Blackwood & Jury and constructed by J. & R. Thompson of Roden Street, Belfast — the same firm that built the nearby and contemporary Lowe Memorial Presbyterian Church. It is a very good example of the Gothic Revival style, retaining its original character, style and proportion. The church was consecrated on 2 April 1932, one of ten Anglican churches in Belfast dedicated in the period 1930 to 1933.

EXTERIOR

The building has a rectangular plan set on a west-east axis. The roof is pitched natural slate with raised stone verges and a stone cross to the apex, with lean-to natural slate roofs over the aisles. A moulded cornice supports cast iron ogee guttering discharging to rectangular-section downpipes. The walling is random coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone — also described in historical sources as Ballycullen sandstone — with red Aspatria sandstone dressings and a chamfered plinth course. Perpendicular tracery windows with stained leaded glazing appear throughout.

The principal elevation faces west and is gabled and double-height. It features a projecting single-storey entrance porch to the centre, flanked to the north by a single-storey outshot with a hipped slate roof and curved end, and to the southwest corner by a square-plan four-stage tower with an octagonal belfry. The main gable has a large three-part tracery window with carved stone supporting blocks to the sill. A pointed arch door opening is set within a square-headed stone surround with double timber panelled doors opening onto four stone steps. The northern outshot has a smaller gable facing north with a four-part tracery window and a blind gable facing south. Angled two-stage buttresses are topped by gablets. On the west face of the tower there is a two-part square-headed window to the first stage and a square-headed window above. The south face of the tower has a projecting octagonal-plan stair-tower with two round-arch windows and a tapering stone roof, a square-headed window to the second stage, and a red sandstone carved band at the base of the belfry. The octagonal belfry has four lancet louvred openings and is topped by a castellated parapet, with three-stage diagonal buttresses to the corners.

The north elevation consists of the four-bay north aisle with the curved outshot to the west and the chancel to the east, which has two projecting gabled outshots. Each bay has a three-part tracery window separated by two-stage buttresses. The curved outshot has square-headed windows. Four square-headed three-part clerestory windows light the nave at high level. The easternmost projecting gabled outshot along the north elevation is flanked by two-stage buttresses and has a square-headed door opening with segmental-arched sheeted timber doors opening onto four stone steps, a small square-headed window to the west of the door with clear leaded glazing, and a hexagonal chimney on a square base to the apex. The adjacent gabled outshot to the east is slightly lower and has a two-part square-headed window with clear leaded glazing, and a square-headed door opening onto a small platform below ground level fenced with iron railings.

The east elevation is gabled with kneelers and has a large three-part tracery window with a moulded hood, angled buttresses to the corners, and a stone cross to the apex.

The south elevation consists of the four-bay south aisle with the tower to the west, and the south elevation of the chancel with a projecting gabled outshot to the east. Each of the four bays is separated by a two-stage buttress and has a three-part tracery window. Four square-headed three-part windows light the nave at high level. The gabled outshot has angled buttresses, and the south end of the chancel has a two-part square-headed window with clear leaded glazing.

INTERIOR

The main body of the church comprises a double-height four-bay nave with north and south aisles. Beyond the segmental chancel arch is a two-bay chancel. The oak choir stalls in the chancel were installed in memory of Canon Butler. The most notable characteristic of the interior is the stained glass windows, made by Shrigley and Hunt of Lancaster. They follow a continuous theme depicting the life of Christ from the Annunciation to the Ascension. The east window, dedicated in January 1940 by Archdeacon (by then Bishop) John Frederick MacNeice, shows the ascended Christ in the centre light with St Patrick and St Polycarp in the side lights.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The church was built in response to the rapid suburban expansion of the Finaghy area of Belfast in the 1920s and 1930s. The Church of Ireland began a Sunday School in Finaghy schoolhouse in the mid-1920s. The Reverend F. J. Mitchell was appointed curate-in-charge in 1928, with the first Sunday service held on 29 April 1928 in the schoolhouse. Services moved to Finaghy Recreation Hall in 1929. A site on the Lisburn Road was acquired from W. Martin, and tenders for the new church were invited in September 1929. The foundation stone was laid on 27 September 1930 by Sir Robert Ewart. Funding came from the Representative Church Body (£9,000), the Diocesan Church Extension Committee (£2,260), and the parishioners (£2,000 towards the basic structure). The vestry and organ chamber cost a further £1,150, the pews £621, and the original Compton organ £350. The church was dedicated to St Polycarp, a 2nd-century bishop of Smyrna (in present-day Turkey) who died a martyr in AD 155, a saint chosen by Archdeacon John Frederick MacNeice. Writing about the new churches built in this area during this period, Paul Larmour observed: "All show the dominance of traditional styles in ecclesiastical work of the time."

ALTERATIONS AND LATER ADDITIONS

In 1960 a new church hall — the Canon Butler Hall — was built to designs by K. Kenmuir at a cost of around £16,500 and dedicated in February 1961. In 1968 new electrical heating was installed and a new organ by Smethurst & Co. of Manchester was fitted at a cost of £5,000, replacing the original Compton organ. In 1971 a second minor hall was built at a cost of £14,000. Alterations in the late 1970s included the creation of a side chapel. In 1992 the stonework was cleaned and repointed and the church was reroofed using the original slates. The church is abutted to the east by a single-storey flat-roofed modern corridor connecting it to the Canon Butler Hall (the double-height pitched-roof 1960 hall, considered of little architectural interest). A second hall dating from around 1970 lies to the southeast.

SETTING

The church stands in its own grounds to the south side of the Lisburn Road. The site is partly lawned with a tarmac parking area to the south and is enclosed by a hedge on all sides. Two replacement gates at the Lisburn Road entrance are supported on caged square-plan pillars. To the northwest are two memorials, each in a square-plan plot surrounded by a dwarf stone wall, with geometrically arranged horizontally laid plaques within, some carved with inscriptions.