St Mary's Church of Ireland, 236 Crumlin Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT14 7GL

St Mary's Church of Ireland is a free-standing, double-height Gothic style church built around 1865 to designs by architect William Slater. It stands on the south side of Crumlin Road, Belfast, with a former school building at its south.

The church is cruciform in plan, aligned east-west with a central tower containing a belfry at its heart. The nave has north and south side aisles with a lean-to porch at the north, north and south transepts, and a chancel at the east. The building is constructed of polychromatic coursed rock-faced sandstone, mainly white with red sandstone plinth and stringcourses. It has a projecting sandstone plinth course with chamfered ashlar capping.

Pitched natural slate roofs with blue and black clay ridge tiles cover the structure, with lead valleys and stone verges supported on corbelled kneeler stones. The nave and south aisle roof were replaced around 1960 following air raid damage in 1941. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are fitted throughout, with some modern cast-metal replacements.

The windows are equilateral-arched openings with stepped ashlar quoins and rock-faced polychromatic voussoirs, containing cusped lancet windows with leaded glass and storm glazing. Doors are equilateral-arched timber braced and sheeted, accessed via equilateral-arched stepped ovolo and cavetto polychromatic moulded ashlar openings.

The north elevation comprises a projecting single-storey entrance porch abutting the north aisle on the right and a projecting north transept on the left. The aisle is lit by three bi-partite cusped lancets, each with a cinquefoil oculus containing leaded glass. The north transept contains three staged lancet windows at centre, with the left cheek containing bi-partite lancets with cinquefoil oculus and leaded stained glass. The north gable contains an equilateral-arched stepped ovolo and cavetto moulded ashlar opening enclosed by a decorative cast-iron gate screen, with angle buttresses with weathering at the north side.

The east elevation is abutted by a double-height apsidal chancel at centre with a hipped roof. Each face contains a single window divided by a double-height buttress with offset and weathering, with two stained glass windows on the right cheek. The chancel is abutted at its left by a two-storey vestry with an organ loft over, whose east elevation contains paired windows at each floor. All five chancel windows contain leaded stained glass donated by and dedicated to the Blakiston-Houston family.

The south elevation, facing the former school, comprises a projecting south transept at the right. The south aisle is lit by four bi-partite cusped lancets with cinquefoil oculus, with the left window containing stained glass dated 1968. The south cheek extends to join the south transept with an entrance door at the left and a single window above, accessed via eight stone steps adjoining a roughly coursed rock-faced stone boundary wall.

The west elevation is symmetrical, comprising a central nave gable flanked by narrower side aisle gables. The central gable contains timber sheeted entrance doors at centre enclosed by a decorative cast-iron gate screen, surmounted by three stained glass lancet windows with stained glass tracery oculus at the apex comprising five cusped quatrefoils. The line of the central nave adjoining the side aisles has an angle buttress with weathering, surmounted by gargoyles formerly used as rainwater exits from a concealed roof valley between the roof slopes.

The central belfry tower is abutted by a circular stair tower at the south-east containing a winding stair to the belfry. A splay-foot spire with lucarne at all four sides and a weather-cock supported on a moulded corbel table crowns the tower. The lucarne have timber sheeted sides with cusped, vented fronts containing timber louvres and timber corbels supporting hipped natural slate roofs with decorative finials. The tower walling is as the nave, with projecting piers at each corner having torus mouldings. A cavetto moulded stringcourse divides the first and second stages.

The first stage at each face comprises five arcaded torus moulded cusped lancet windows with continuous hoodmould, each springing from a colonnette with a gothic crocket capital. The second stage at each face comprises five cusped and vented louvered openings at the belfry, each springing from a colonnette with a gothic crocket capital, though most colonnettes at the second stage have now been removed whilst the capitals remain intact.

The church is sited in walled grounds to the south of Crumlin Road, surrounded on adjacent streets by terraced housing. The former school is located at the south, aligned east-west. A single-storey boiler house at the west provides access to a basement level boiler room via a dog-leg stone staircase with quarter winders. Shared car parking is provided at the south. Both school and church share an enclosed site accessed via double cast-iron entrance gates at north, east and west, all supported on square rubble piers with ashlar at the north.