Kinghan Presbyterian Church for the Deaf, 13 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 1JG

Kinghan Presbyterian Church for the Deaf occupies a terraced two-storey-with-attic building on the west side of Botanic Avenue in Belfast city centre. Built between 1877 and 1879 to designs by the architects Young and Mackenzie, it is constructed of uncoursed rock-faced sandstone with sandstone dressings and is executed in the Gothic-revival style with a prominent central gable. The building is rectangular on plan with a large three-storey extension to the rear.

The roof is pitched with natural slate, raised stone verges, and decorative raised lead-lined triangles to the pitch with cusped slate insets. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on projecting eaves with exposed rafter ends. The walling sits on a chamfered plinth, with a string course running between floors. The gabled bay is buttressed with masonry offsets.

The principal elevation faces east and is almost symmetrically arranged. The first floor of the central gable features a geometric tracery window with leaded-and-stained glass panels, flanked by paired equilateral-headed leaded quarries with chamfered sills in ashlar surrounds surmounted by hood moulds with label stops. Ground floor windows are metal shoulder-headed casements with decorative leaded quarries to the upper section in ashlar mullioned surrounds; the window to the left is paired, and that to the central gable is four-paned. To the right at ground floor is a set of modern double-leaf timber-and-glazed doors with transom light, set in a moulded Gothic archivolt with hood mould and label stops. A carved quatrefoil in a moulded roundel sits in the gable. The south, west, and north elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings; the west elevation is fully blocked by a three-storey red-brick modern extension. Architectural detailing is externally mostly intact, though windows have been replaced and an inappropriate modern entrance door has been introduced.

The building was originally erected as a Reformed Presbyterian church to accommodate 500 people. The Secession congregation, established in 1874, had initially worshipped in the Music Hall at May Street before the minister Reverend George McMahon was installed in 1875. Work began on the new church in 1877, and the building was completed in 1879 with opening services held on 27 April. The contractor was Martin Curry. The original design, described in contemporary sources, comprised a church upstairs with schools and congregational buildings on the ground floor, each with separate entrances from the main vestibule and the rear. The external walls were executed in Scrabo stone with strings of Dundonald sandstone. A commodious manse was also constructed to the north of the church. The Belfast Newsletter commended the exterior as giving due attention to economy in its details, while the Irish Builder carried a sketch of the proposed building, the ground floor fenestration of which differs slightly from the building as finally constructed; it is possible that the central ground floor window has been enlarged since the church was originally built.

The Presbyterian congregation encountered constant difficulties, compounded by the existence of another secession church nearby at the corner of Cameron Street. In 1896, the church building was sold to the Kinghan Mission for the Deaf, although the congregation continued to worship there for a time until it was dissolved. The Kinghan Mission derives its name from John Kinghan, who became Principal of the Ulster Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in the 1850s and subsequently established mission services for deaf and dumb people. After acquiring the Botanic Avenue property, the church was converted by Young and Mackenzie, the original architects, and reopened in May 1899. The contractor for the conversion was John Killen. The redesigned building comprised a church, lecture hall, reading room, recreation room, women's parlour, photographic rooms, and committee room. Robert William Dodds became superintendent of the Kinghan Mission in 1898 and was ordained in 1903; he opened further mission centres in Ballymena and Newtownards, retiring in 1938. His successor, Dr Allen, took great interest in the renovation and beautification of the building, which was redesignated as a church rather than a mission in 1965. The church suffered bomb damage during the 1970s.

The interior has been fully refurbished in the 1990s, with the building completely rebuilt behind the retained facade under the supervision of architects John Neil and Partners. Little or no historic fabric remains internally. The significant internal alterations mean that the late nineteenth-century church now comprises largely only a historic front facade to Botanic Avenue. The building continues to be used as a church and remains a positive architectural element in the local area, situated near the junction of Botanic Avenue with Shaftsbury Square, as part of a mainly late nineteenth-century terrace with some post-war replacements.