Ulsterville Presbyterian Church, Lisburn Road, Belfast

Ulsterville Presbyterian Church is a Gothic Revival church built in 1923 to designs by the Belfast architect Samuel Stevenson, who produced several churches in a similar style during this period. It stands at the north end of Lisburn Road, Belfast — a main arterial route in a densely populated area — occupying the former grounds of Mount Prospect, a pre-1832 residence that was rebuilt or enlarged in the 1840s. Despite its compact site, the church remains one of the most prominent buildings within the Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character. It was converted to commercial use around 2013 and is now used as offices, having previously served briefly as a high-end furniture showroom with an associated restaurant. The listing extends to the former church itself, together with its gates, pillars and railings.

HISTORY

The congregation, originally known as 'Lower Windsor', was established in 1901, initially meeting in a hall between Tate's Avenue and Donnybrook Street. Renamed Ulsterville Presbyterian Church in mid-1902, the congregation moved the following year to a building at the junction of Lorne Street and Edinburgh Street. In 1913, Samuel Stevenson drew up plans for a new church on the Mount Prospect site, but construction was postponed by the outbreak of the First World War. Work finally began in January 1923 — one of the foundation stones was laid by Kate Booth, daughter of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army — and the first service in the new building was held in January 1924. A contemporary newspaper report described it as "a handsome structure of blue whinstone, with freestone copings, occupying a commanding position... approached from the road by a wide flight of steps... seating accommodation is provided for 1,000 people." Later in 1924, an organ was installed, the anonymous gift of a single donor at a cost of £1,700. The building contains windows and memorial plaques dedicated to members of the congregation lost in the First World War, which give it particular cultural importance to the local community. The Ulsterville congregation merged with the nearby Windsor congregation in early 2010, after which services moved exclusively to Windsor's church further west along Lisburn Road. The building was subsequently acquired by an interior design company, converted to a furniture showroom and opened in 2013, with a restaurant extension added to the rear in place of the former church hall, completed later that same year.

EXTERIOR

The church is symmetrical in both plan and elevation. It is built mainly in squared and pitched basalt with Giffnock sandstone dressings to the more visible north and east elevations, while the less public south and west elevations use English Garden Wall bond red brick with reconstituted stone dressings. The roof is covered in natural slate with sprocketed eaves to the north and south aisles, red terracotta ridge tiles, and lead-clad cheeks to the nave above the parapet. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The principal entrance faces east. The nave gable is flanked by polygonal piers topped with octagonal turrets and pinnacles, and by lower stair towers with parapet roofs. A projecting base plinth runs along the front, with a cavetto-moulded sandstone top. Toothed quoins rise to the impost level of the openings, with hood moulds above. At ground floor level, twin pointed arched doors advance slightly from the face of the building, with a datestone reading '1923' between them. Above these sits a five-part window, ascending in height towards the centre, with a three-part blind opening above that, and a plain sandstone coping and octagonal pinnacle (without finial) at the apex. The arched doors have concentric pointed arches on engaged sandstone columns with foliated capitals and moulded bases, a roll-edge moulding, and stained glass overlights above square-headed nine-panelled painted timber sliding doors, which are likely to be original. When the building is in use, these timber doors open to reveal modern slide-back frameless glass doors behind. The five-part windows above have simpler concentric arches with chamfered edges. Three courses of dressed sandstone form the sloped roof over the entrance. The flanking piers have stepped buttresses and plain sandstone quoins. Projecting string courses to the piers align with the nave entrance eaves, the stair tower parapet, the main roof eaves, and the cornice of the panelled turret below each pinnacle. Each stair tower has a single quatrefoil window above two lancet windows, a string course and blind arcade to the parapet, and a stepped buttress with pinnacle to the outer end matching that at the nave apex. Engraved stones on each buttress record the names of benefactors who laid them in 1923: Mrs Hamilton McCleery of Dunmurray; C.M. Legg Esq. Jr. of Carrickfergus; Dr Joseph Fulton of Belfast; and The Rt. Hon. H.M. Pollock M.P.D.L.

The north elevation has six equally spaced bays divided by stepped buttresses, with the stair tower to the left (east) in basalt and sandstone with a blind arcade and pinnacle above, matching the front elevation. The detailing throughout — base plinth, buttresses, toothed quoins, and a plain sandstone eaves course with roll-moulded lower edge — follows the same treatment as the front. An ogee cast iron gutter sits on this eaves course. Midway along the ridge there is a lead-clad octagonal base, possibly the base of a former louvered roof vent, with lead sheeting to the nave wall above the parapet. The pointed arched window openings have toothed quoins to the reveals and simple chamfered edges. The stair tower has a single window above a pair of windows; the remaining five bays each have tripartite openings almost the full width of the bay, with the middle window taller than the flanking ones. All windows have storm glazing with zinc-wrapped edges set back from the reveal to allow an air gap. A modern retractable awning has been fitted to each bay. The windows throughout are pointed arched, leaded with square panes, and have stained glass borders and feature panels unless otherwise noted.

The west elevation is largely blank, in red brick with toothed sandstone quoins above the north and south end buttresses, raised sandstone copings, and carved kneeler stones. A chimney is offset to the right (south) of the apex. A single opening is centred on the gable, with a cusped timber frame containing a circular middle pane surrounded by half-rounds, all plain single glazed, and with an applied motif to the centre. A flat-roofed extension spans the full width of this gable at ground floor level, finished in painted render with a slim powder-coated metal trim to the parapet roof. Two square-based glazed lanterns with hipped roofs project beyond the parapet at mid-plan to the restaurant. The outline of a former 1970s extension, now demolished, remains visible as a 'ghost' marking in the brickwork above the flat roof.

The south elevation mirrors the north, except that the stair tower here has a pointed arched door with hood mould and blind tympanum at ground floor level, and the remaining five bays are in red brick with reconstituted stone dressings. The second bay from the west has concrete basement steps bounded by modern metal railings, with a sheeted timber door painted black.

INTERIOR

The original galleried nave retains its spatial integrity. The conversion to commercial use, carried out around 2013, is considered a sophisticated and highly successful example of adaptive reuse. Simple, high-quality modern interventions have been added without compromising the character of the space. A modest flat-roofed addition was made as part of the same conversion.

SETTING

The church is set back from and elevated above pavement level, approached by a broad flight of stone steps centred on the entrance. Decorative wrought iron gates on square cast iron pillars, each imprinted with 'Ulsterville', mark the entrance, with matching railings set on low reconstituted stone walling with coping to either side. Low-gradient ramps surfaced in resin-bonded gravel rise from the base of the steps to provide level access on both sides of the church, with planting beds between the steps and ramps. To the north boundary there is a painted rendered wall with a canted coping and modern railings on top, aligned with steps leading to Mount Prospect Park; an Edwardian-era ceramic black and white tiled street sign is fixed to this wall. To the south boundary there is a plain rendered wall with precast concrete coping, a sheeted timber door midway along the wall to a bin enclosure, and the south-west corner terminated by marble-clad walls and a projecting metal-clad canopy belonging to the modern addition. The flat-roofed addition extends to the west boundary. The gates, pillars and railings are included within the extent of the listing. The overall setting significantly enhances the character of the building within the Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character, and the church sits within a conservation area.