Antrim Road Baptist Church, 246 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 2AR

Antrim Road Baptist Church, 246 Antrim Road, Belfast

This is an attached, symmetrical, double-height Tudor Revival red-brick church with a former national school to the rear, built around 1896 to the designs of Belfast architect James A. Hanna (born 1869). Originally known as Antrimville Baptist Church — named after a house that previously stood on the site — it was constructed by the local building contractor Henry Laverty and Sons at a total cost of £3,700. The church is rectangular on plan, faces east, and sits on a slightly elevated site on the west side of Antrim Road. It is largely unchanged since construction and continues to operate as a place of worship, with the former school building still serving a social function to the rear.

This was the first recorded contract for James A. Hanna, who went on to design Baptist churches on Clifton Park Avenue and Tennent Street in 1904, and carried out repairs to Baptist churches on Victoria Street in 1909 and Great Victoria Street in 1923. The church was built on land owned by a Ms. Annie Young, and both the church and schoolhouse were recorded on a detailed Ordnance Survey map of the area dated 1904, depicted along their current layouts.

Exterior

The roof is pitched natural slate, hipped over the side aisles, with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles set behind a raised front gable. Moulded cast-iron guttering runs to a stepped red-brick eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The walling is machine-made red brick laid in English garden wall bond with original brick pointing, complemented by red sandstone dressings. There is a moulded red-brick plinth course, red-brick buttresses, and pointed-headed lancet window openings to the nave elevations, arranged in pairs with latticed leaded glazing, flush splayed red sandstone sills, and steel mesh coverings.

The principal east front elevation is symmetrical and composed of a central advanced double-height gable flanked by a pair of side aisles on either side. The central gable carries three octagonal spirelets, and the side aisles have matching spirelets. Angled buttresses frame the gable, rising to the bases of the spirelets. A central entrance porch also has angled buttresses and a crenellated parapet. Two diminutive flying buttresses rise from the parapet, forming a pair of slender sandstone buttresses that continue upward as mullions to the east window and punctuate the gable as gablets.

The east window is oversized with a Tudor arch, a compound moulded sandstone surround, and a hood moulding. Its sandstone tracery contains five Tudor-arched lights and overlights, all set on a full-span splayed sill, with a full-span red sandstone panel below embellished with Taijitu carvings. Each side aisle has an oculus formed in brick, housing quatrefoil lights with ogee hood mouldings.

The entrance porch has a Tudor-arched door opening with a stop-chamfered stepped surround and double-leaf vertically-sheeted hardwood doors with iron door furniture, opening onto two nosed stone steps leading to a tarmac-paved area. Slender square-headed sidelights flank the porch. The side aisle doors have depressed pointed-headed openings with hood mouldings and foliate label stops, fitted with double-leaf sheeted hardwood doors. The south nave elevation is five windows wide, with paired lancets framed by brick buttresses. To the right is a vestibule with pairs of diminutive window openings at two levels serving the gallery stairhall. To the left is a recessed bay at upper level serving the chancel, and a lean-to projection at ground floor level; both have Tudor-arched window openings with timber-framed tripartite windows and latticed leaded glazing. The north nave elevation mirrors the south. A concrete universal access ramp runs along the west half of the north elevation, providing access to the former school.

The gabled rear elevation abuts a single-storey block and opens onto a small yard. The former national school has its own gabled entrance porch with a Tudor-arched door opening, a brick hood moulding, and double-leaf vertically-sheeted painted timber doors. A red sandstone plaque above the door is inscribed 'Antrim Road National School'.

Interior

The interior retains its original intact character. Extensive timber carvings and decorative screens finished with soft furnishings are particularly notable features.

Construction and materials

The church was constructed using red brick with imported Corsehill Sandstone used as a secondary material, as recorded by the Natural Stone Database. The roofing is natural slate, rainwater goods are cast iron, and windows are latticed leaded throughout.

Setting and boundary

The church occupies a small, slightly elevated site on the west side of Antrim Road, with the former national school attached to the northwest, a parking area to the north, and a front parking area enclosed by coursed rubble basalt boundary walls with replacement concrete coping and twisting wrought-iron railings. A pair of wrought-iron gates are hung on ashlar piers with octagonal red sandstone capstones. Stone steps lead to the front entrance. An intact stone entrance screen fronts directly onto the Antrim Road.

The listing extends to the church and hall (former school), the front boundary walls, gate piers, steps, gates, and railings.

History and use

The national schoolhouse, originally valued at £33 on completion, was recorded separately from the church, which was given a rateable value of £125. Together their combined value was assessed at £182 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936 to 1957), and raised further to £488 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956 to 1972). The schoolhouse continued in use for primary education until around 1966, when it was fully converted into a church hall. Antrim Road Baptist Church was listed in 1987.