Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Carlisle Circus, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 1AB

Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church

Carlisle Circus, Belfast, Co Antrim

A Grade B+ listed building. This attached double-height limestone and sandstone Gothic Revival former Methodist church was built around 1875 to the designs of W.H. Lynn, commissioned by Alderman James Carlisle. It stands as part of a larger complex that originally included a connecting cloister and former Sunday School building.

The church is rectangular on plan with a square-plan entrance tower rising to an octagonal spire at the north end, a pair of side aisles, and gabled transepts crossing the nave. The roofing comprises triple span natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles set behind slightly raised gables finished with sandstone coping and stone cross finials. Behind parapet walls with sandstone coping, replacement metal rainwater goods break through at a corbelled eaves course.

The walls are constructed of rock-faced limestone ashlar with sandstone quoins, string courses and plinth trims. Two-stage weathered buttresses, angled to the east gables and surmounted by gableted Gothic pinnacles with trefoil-headed niches, punctuate the exterior. Window openings are largely lancets with compound sandstone surrounds and slender colonettes, splayed sills, and fragments of leaded glazing.

The tower is square-plan over three stages with an octagonal belfry stage and octagonal tapered spire. Angled buttresses with offsets at each stage are surmounted by pinnacles, and octagonal tourelles frame each elevation of the belfry stage. A pointed-headed door opening to the front elevation features deeply set compound arch mouldings enriched with dog-tooth mouldings and rises from compound colonettes. The door itself is vertically-sheeted timber with elaborate iron hinges. Slender timber-louvred gabled openings on each elevation at the belfry stage have crocketed hoods and foil tracery. Three tiers of louvred lucarnes adorn the spire, surmounted by an iron Celtic cross. An octagonal tourelle between the gable and tower houses a stone spiral stair and features leaded lancet windows over trefoil panels flanked by colonettes.

The front elevation displays three triple lancets to the north aisle and an advanced gabled transept with three lancets and tourelles rising from angled buttresses (the southern buttress has been removed). An entrance porch sits at the re-entrant angle of the chancel and transept, featuring a slate roof, shouldered door opening with timber door, and diminutive lancets.

The northeast elevation comprises the east gable with three lancets of compound moulded surrounds with colonettes. The centre light contains stone tracery in the form of a Venetian arch with original leaded glazing to the roundel. The south aisle terminates in a lower gable flanked by tourelles and has twin lancets with a quatrefoil above. The rear elevation runs flush with the south gabled transept, which features tourelles, a Catherine-wheel window, and four lancets. A gabled entrance porch to the east provides access.

The ground floor includes a single-storey wing, formerly connecting the church to the adjacent former Sunday School. The entrance porch features a pointed-headed door opening with a compound arched surround enriched with dog-tooth mouldings and rising from colonettes bearing a trefoil-headed niche at the apex. Double-leaf sheeted timber doors with decorative iron hinges open into a porch with a further dog-tooth enriched compound arch surround, from which seven stone steps lead into the front area.

The triple gabled chancel elevation contains five lancets to the chancel, flanked by a pair of circular stone chimneystack. The flanking gables have paired lancets with oculi over and diminutive square-headed window openings to the ground floor.

The church is set on an elevated site on the south side of Carlisle Circus. It is enclosed to the street by decorative iron railings and gates set on a limestone plinth wall with red sandstone piers topped with tapered capstones. Safety sheeted iron wall and canopy protect the front pavement. The building was deconsecrated around 1985 and was undergoing conservation works at the time of survey.