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

Holy Cross Monastery

Built around 1880, Holy Cross Monastery is a substantial attached symmetrical seven-bay three-storey sandstone building on Crumlin Road in Belfast, with a bell tower to the rear. The building is T-shaped on plan, facing north and set back on an elevated site on the south side of Crumlin Road. A church is attached to the east end.

The main structure is constructed of coursed rock-faced pale sandstone with red sandstone dressings. It has a hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys set behind a front parapet wall. Several lozenge-shaped ashlar chimneystack with shouldered bases, glazed pots and red sandstone dressings rise from the roofline. Moulded cast-iron guttering sits on a red sandstone ashlar eaves course, with square-profile cast-iron downpipes and some replacement metal and uPVC pipes.

The transverse section to the east features a distinctive circular glazed drum with a lead-covered base and ribbed lead-lined dome surmounted by an iron Celtic cross finial, with leaded lights throughout.

The fenestration comprises segmental-headed and round-headed window openings with stop-chamfered red sandstone surrounds containing original horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows. A continuous red sandstone blocking course runs below the moulded red sandstone sill course to the first floor, while a continuous moulded red sandstone sill course on corbels marks the second floor level.

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

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

The rear elevation is seven windows wide with a full-height gabled projection to the left and a five-stage bell tower positioned at 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 features paired round-headed openings to each elevation with central polished granite columns with stiff-leaf capitals set on a projecting cornice with billet mouldings. The remaining stages have paired round-headed window openings containing steel casement windows. The gabled projection contains a single round-headed door opening with chamfered sandstone surround and 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, featuring round-headed window openings.

A connecting single-storey kitchen wing stands to the west elevation, having a hipped natural slate roof and coursed rock-faced sandstone walls.

The building stands within its own grounds on an elevated site. The front is enclosed to the street by a low rubblestone wall with decorative iron railings. The site, which adjoins the church and Holy Cross Boys School to the north-west, is enclosed to the north by a highly decorative iron entrance screen with cast-iron piers flanked by tall red sandstone piers with capstones. The west boundary is formed by a tall rubblestone wall with stacked coping.