Gate Lodge, Belmont Presbyterian Church, 92 Sydenham Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim, BT4 2DT

Gate Lodge, Belmont Presbyterian Church, 92 Sydenham Avenue, Belfast

This is a single-storey gate lodge in the Ruskinian Gothic Revival style, built around 1860–61 in polychromatic brickwork to the designs of architect William J. Barre (c.1826–1867). It sits within the grounds of Belmont Presbyterian Church on a site fronting Sydenham Avenue, and it has group value with the adjoining church and hall.

The lodge follows a regular plan facing west, with a single-storey extension to the east and a small entrance porch to the north. The roof is half-hipped natural slate with plain timber barge boards; the extension has a pitched natural slate roof and the entrance porch a hipped natural slate roof. There are modern skylights to the roof. An elaborate chimneystack in polychromatic brickwork features corbelled coping and decorative clay chimney pots. Projected corbels support ogee cast-iron guttering discharging to circular downpipes. The walls are red brick with buff brick dressings and a blue brick string course at impost level, set on a sandstone plinth. Window openings are pointed segmental with splayed sandstone sills, buff brick dressings and a blue brick outer arch; windows are replacement one-over-one double-hung timber sash throughout unless otherwise noted.

The principal west elevation has three bays. The central bay has a pointed segmental-headed door opening with buff brick dressings and a blue brick arch header, fitted with a diagonal-sheeted painted timber door opening onto a single stone step. The north bay has a double pointed-segmental headed window set within a taller lancet opening recess with a red brick tympanum. The south bay has a triple pointed-segmental headed window with buff brick dressings, and above each window a lozenge light — a small diamond-shaped opening — with polychromatic dressings.

The north elevation shows two bays of the original building to the west, the extension to the east, and the small projecting entrance porch. The west bay has a double pointed-segmental headed window; the east bay has a triple pointed-segmental headed window set within a taller lancet opening recess with a red brick tympanum, and a lozenge light at high level. A polychromatic string course runs along the extension. The entrance porch has a modern square-headed window to the west and, on the south elevation of the porch, a square-headed door opening facing west fitted with a modern half-glazed diagonal-sheeted painted timber door.

The east elevation is rendered and has a double pointed-segmental headed window at high level. The south elevation, which faces Sydenham Avenue, has two bays of the original building to the west and a single bay of the extension to the east. The west bay has a triple pointed-segmental headed window set within a taller lancet opening recess with a red brick tympanum; the east bay has a double pointed-segmental headed window. A lozenge light sits at higher level. The extension on this elevation features a modern oriel window with a timber casement window and clear leaded glazing.

The church stands within its own grounds, with the adjoining modern hall and extension to the north and east, the listed hall and this gate lodge to the southeast, and car parks to the west and north. The grounds are partly lawned and concrete paved. To the south, the site is enclosed by a red brick wall with stone coping topped by cast-iron railings. Square red brick gate piers with buff brick quoins and single-stage buttresses, topped by cast-iron finials, support cast-iron gates at the main entrance. A cast-iron gate and hedge mark the southwest pedestrian entrance.

Belmont Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1860–61. The congregation grew from local missions organised by Ballymacarrett Parish, and Sir Thomas McClure of Belmont House provided the land and personally financed the building. The gate lodge was designed and built at the same time, representing a remarkably early use of the Ruskinian Gothic style in polychromatic brickwork. Barre, a Newry-based architect, had moved to Belfast after winning the competition to design the Ulster Hall in 1860, and the church and its lodge were his first contract in the city — won through an architectural competition in which he was the sole entrant. The builder was the local firm of Edward Armstrong. In the 1863 Annual Revisions, the combined value of the gate lodge, the church and a former schoolhouse on the site was set at £120. The gate lodge was first valued separately in 1887 at £6, a figure that remained unchanged until at least 1930. It was listed in 1986.

By the late 20th century the lodge had fallen into poor repair, having been bricked up and used for storage. In 1998–99 the church trustees granted the building to a firm of historic building specialists, Alastair Coey Architects, who converted it into office accommodation. The conversion involved the demolition of a small outshot kitchen to the rear and the reconstruction of the exterior wall to enclose additional accommodation. The principal alterations were the replacement of the roof, the addition of the hipped-roof entrance porch to the north elevation, and the inclusion of the oriel window to the south elevation. Contemporary commentary in RSUA Perspective magazine noted that the additions blend sympathetically, that the change is scarcely perceptible, and praised the conversion as a beautifully executed restoration of what was described as a gem of High Victoriana. The late 20th-century alterations are considered to contribute positively to the lodge's interest.

Writing in 1994, J. A. K. Dean described the lodge as "a beautiful early example of the use of polychromatic brickwork in a Ruskinian Gothick design by one of the most talented and short lived of Ulster's mid-Victorian architects," noting that Barre "succeeds in enlivening a rather square lump of a lodge with irregular fenestration and handling of colours."