All Saints’ Church, Canterbury Street, Belfast, BT7 1LB

All Saints' Church of Ireland is a freestanding red brick late-Victorian Gothic Revival church designed by architect W J Fennell in 1898 and opened in 1899. It stands on Canterbury Street in South Belfast, facing south onto University Street, positioned approximately halfway between Wolseley Street and the Ormeau Road, about 0.5 miles north-east of The Lanyon Building at Queen's University. The church is enclosed by red brick terraced housing on its west side along Canterbury Street and on its east side along Westminster Street.

The building is constructed in red compressed brick laid in Flemish bond with red Dumfries sandstone dressings to all openings. The church comprises a tall central nave flanked by side aisles with lean-to roofs, a squat entrance tower with recessed porch on the left side of the front elevation, a single-storey side entrance porch at the south-east corner facing Westminster Street, and a circa 1990 church hall extension in red brick to the rear north elevation. The roofs are finished in natural Bangor Blue slate with decorative terracotta ridge tiles to the nave and plain terracotta ridge tiles to smaller roof areas. All windows to the original church building are either stained glass or decorative geometric-design leaded lights with pointed arch heads. Decorative terracotta vents sit beneath window cill level. Replacement extruded seamless aluminium gutters sit above brick corbelled eaves, with original cast iron downpipes featuring decorative hoppers retained.

The church is set back from University Street behind original red brick dwarf boundary walls with chamfered stone coping stones and red brick piers with pyramidal copings (the coping to the corner of University Street and Westminster Street is missing). Original wrought iron railings enclose the front and partially extend onto Westminster Street, with original wrought iron gates positioned onto both Canterbury and Westminster Streets. Replacement railings continue along the length of both streets. The church grounds have a tarmac finish with a grass strip behind the boundary wall to the front.

The front elevation facing south onto University Street presents an asymmetric façade. The main gable to the centre features three tall stepped pointed-arch stained-glass windows at upper level with a lozenge-shaped vent above bearing a decorative hood mould. A stone Celtic cross crowns the apex. The gable is flanked by tall raked buttresses. The left buttress is truncated just below the eaves line of the nave, while the right-side buttress rises above the apex of the main gable, terminating in a small stone blind-arcaded tower with a hexagonal spire crowned by a stone finial. A truncated square-plan tower with hipped roof sits to the left side, with an advanced engaged five-sided squat tower featuring slit window openings at the south-west corner. The entrance porch displays a sandstone pointed arch with recessed doorway beneath a small gable, approached by three stone steps to double ledged and sheeted timber doors retaining historic wrought iron hinges. A wall-mounted memorial brass plaque within the porch, inscribed 'TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF QUEENIE GILLILAND THESE HANDRAILS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY HER HUSBAND, DAUGHTER AND SISTERS. OCTOBER 1963', is present. A single-storey entrance porch section sits on the right side of the main gable, containing four leaded windows within sandstone surround and a parapet with small hipped roof set back from the façade.

The west elevation facing Canterbury Street presents a long façade with a truncated tower with hipped roof to the right side below the west side of the buttress. A single-storey side aisle with lean-to roof features five pairs of pointed-arch leaded-light windows separated by buttresses, aligned with smaller clerestory fenestration above on the exposed upper section of the nave. The left window of each pair has a hopper opening. Metal security grills have been applied to ground floor window openings. A single-storey gabled vestry entrance with pointed arch door opening sits to the left side, featuring brick voussoirs and chamfered brick reveals with a timber sheeted door retaining historic wrought iron hinges and handle. A small window opening on the left holds a 1/1 timber sliding sash window with plain sandstone head and cill. The chancel rises behind the vestry with three pointed-arch window openings now behind perspex storm glazing. A circa 1990 single-storey red brick church hall extension with natural slate roof stands on the extreme left side, with signage reading 'THE CENTRE. ALL SAINTS' above the front door.

The north rear elevation shows a small upper section of the nave gable exposed, abutted by the chancel. The chancel gable features a small slit ventilation opening at high level above three stepped pointed-arch window openings (behind perspex storm glazing, partially visible). The lower section of the chancel gable is abutted by the church hall extension.

The east elevation facing Westminster Street features a side entrance porch on the left side with double-leaf timber sheeted doors retaining wrought iron hinges and handle, set beneath a pointed sandstone arch. The tower with spire rises above on the left side. A single-storey side aisle with lean-to roof contains a single bay on the left side with one window opening, followed by five pairs of pointed-arch leaded-light windows separated by buttresses. Six pairs of smaller clerestory fenestration sit above on the exposed upper section of the nave. The right window of each pair has a hopper opening. A small single-storey porch with timber sheeted door within a brick pointed arch and beneath a lean-to roof is present. A taller section behind the porch with lean-to roof abuts the chancel, with a single blind opening on the right side. A lower single-storey section on the right with lean-to roof features a triple window opening with sandstone surround, the openings now boarded with timber. The chancel rises above with a tall stepped brick chimney rising above eaves level, with a single window opening on the right (behind perspex storm glazing). The church hall extension stands on the extreme right side facing onto the street.

All openings to the original church building have red Dumfries sandstone surround dressings, cills and hood moulds. Openings to the vestry and chancel feature brick voussoir heads and chamfered brick reveals. The former All Saints' School is located approximately 150 metres to the east on University Street.