Holy Cross Monastery, 432 Crumlin Road, Belfast, BT14 7GE

Holy Cross Monastery is an attached, symmetrical, seven-bay three-storey sandstone building constructed circa 1877–81, designed in a Lombardic Romanesque style by O'Neill & Byrne, a Belfast and Dublin-based architectural partnership formed around 1868. It stands on an elevated site on the south side of the Crumlin Road, set back from the street, with the bell tower to the rear. The monastery forms part of the wider Holy Cross complex, which also includes Holy Cross Parish Church to the east and Holy Cross Boys School to the north-west, and constitutes a notable religious institution and local landmark in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The ancient townland of Ardoyne was recorded in maps and deeds prior to the plantation of Ireland, and during the Penal years it was the site of secret Roman Catholic worship. The area was transformed from 1815 when Michael Andrews established his Royal Damask Factory there, prompting the construction of workers' housing and the growth of a village community complete with a schoolhouse, public house, and prayer meeting house. The village took its name from the ancient townland and from Andrews' own residence, Ardoyne House, which originally stood immediately to the north of the monastery site but has since been demolished.

The Passionist Order was invited to establish a house in Ardoyne in 1868 by the Most Reverend Dr Dorrian, Bishop of Down and Connor. Their first retreat house occupied Edenderry Lodge, a two-storey building on the current monastery site that had previously served as the local doctor's residence. The Passionists undertook the spiritual care of the surrounding area, including the suburb of Belfast around Holy Cross and Ligoniel, the latter becoming a parish in its own right in 1896. The first parish church at the corner of the Crumlin and Woodvale Roads was built on the site in 1869. The Order continued to occupy Edenderry Lodge until 1877, when the building was declared unsafe.

Planning for the current monastery began as early as 1875, when Father Pius arrived in the parish and made its construction his priority. The foundation stone was laid on 16th July 1877, but financial difficulties — exacerbated by the closure of local mills in the 1870s and the resulting poverty in the Ardoyne area — brought construction to a temporary halt. Work recommenced in 1880 following a fundraising campaign led by Father Alphonsus, who also secured the interest of Pope Leo XIII in the project. The building was officially opened on 12th June 1881. The parish history records it as the first purpose-built monastery in Ulster to be constructed since the Reformation.

The monastery was built by contractor Robert Corry, who held business premises on Donegall Pass. The Natural Stone Database records that the building was constructed using locally quarried Scrabo and Dundonald Sandstone, with Newry Granodiorite used for its columns and white Donegall marble for the internal staircase. As Paul Larmour observed, "the stones are thus all native but the style is imported."

When first completed, the monastery was a two-and-a-half-storey building with dormer windows on its top floor and did not include the current three-storey block with dome to its north-east side. This extension was added in 1900–02 as part of the construction of the adjoining Holy Cross Parish Church; the new block was partially used as a sacristy and connected the monastery to the church. Following this addition, the Annual Revisions valued the monastery at £100 in 1906. The third storey was added in 1930–31 to designs by Charles B. Powell of Dublin, who also predominantly accepted ecclesiastical commissions. With this addition, the value of the monastery rose to £300 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), and was further increased to £360 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72).

The monastery was listed in 1987. Around 1995 it underwent renovation including repair of the interior. Around 2010, part of the former monastery was converted into self-contained apartments as a sheltered housing scheme, carried out by Consarc Design Group. This conversion involved the repositioning of the Donegall marble staircase and the addition of a lift. At the time of the second survey, the ground floor continued to be used as a monastery, with the upper floors in use as sheltered accommodation.

EXTERIOR

The building is T-shaped on plan, facing north. The roof is hipped natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys, set behind a front parapet wall. Several lozenge-shaped ashlar chimneystacks on shouldered bases carry glazed pots and red sandstone dressings. Moulded cast-iron guttering runs along a red sandstone ashlar eaves course, with square-profile cast-iron downpipes and some replacement metal and uPVC downpipes.

The transverse section to the east is surmounted by a circular glazed drum with a lead-covered base, a ribbed lead-lined dome with an iron Celtic cross finial, and leaded lights. The walling throughout is coursed rock-faced pale sandstone with red sandstone dressings. A continuous red sandstone blocking course runs below a moulded red sandstone sill course at first-floor level. At second-floor level there is a continuous moulded red sandstone sill course carried on corbels. Window openings are segmental-headed and round-headed, with stop-chamfered red sandstone surrounds and original horizontally-glazed 2-over-2 timber sash windows.

The front elevation is ten windows wide, with an advanced full-height gabled projection at each end and an off-centre red sandstone entrance portico in the Romanesque style. The portico comprises a central round-headed arch flanked by paired polished granite columns with stiff-leaf capitals on octagonal bases, and round-headed arches to both cheeks with responding columns, all surmounted by a red sandstone pierced balustrade. The walling within the portico is coursed red sandstone ashlar, banded above impost level. The central round-headed door opening has a corbelled lintel cornice, a replacement hardwood panelled door and surround, and opens into the portico via replacement tiles and nine steps. The door opening is flanked by slender sidelights with moulded and stop-chamfered surrounds housing leaded lights. A recent universal access ramp to the right is enclosed by a raking plinth wall with red sandstone coping.

The east side elevation is four windows wide and is abutted by a side chapel and a portacabin. The west elevation of the rear projection is two windows wide, with a steel fire escape to the left and some windows converted to door openings; abutting the right-hand side is a lean-to side altar.

The rear elevation is seven windows wide with a full-height gabled projection to the left and a five-stage bell tower set into the re-entrant angle. The tower has a natural slate pyramidal roof with an iron finial and lucarnes rising from an arcaded eaves cornice. The bell stage has paired round-headed openings to each elevation with central polished granite columns bearing stiff-leaf capitals, all set on a projecting cornice with billet mouldings. The remaining stages have paired round-headed window openings with steel casement windows. The gabled projection has a single round-headed door opening with a chamfered sandstone surround and a replacement hardwood door with a two-pane overlight.

The west side elevation is four windows wide, with a shallow advanced full-height gabled bay to the right containing round-headed window openings.

SETTING

The monastery stands in its own grounds on the south side of the Crumlin Road. To the west elevation is a connecting single-storey kitchen wing with a hipped natural slate roof and coursed rock-faced sandstone walls. The site is shared with the adjoining church to the east, with front lawns enclosed to the street by a low rubblestone wall and decorative iron railings. To the north-west of the site stands Holy Cross Boys School. The northern boundary is formed by a highly decorative iron entrance screen with cast-iron piers flanked by tall red sandstone piers with capstones. The western boundary is enclosed by a tall rubblestone wall with stacked coping. The site retains its original boundary walling, ornate gates, and railings fronting onto the Crumlin Road.