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

All Saints' Church of Ireland

All Saints' Church of Ireland on Canterbury Street, Belfast, is a freestanding red brick late-Victorian Gothic Revival church designed by architect William John Fennell and built in 1897–8, with a chancel added in 1905, also to Fennell's designs. It is located in South Belfast, facing south onto University Street, approximately halfway between Wolseley Street and the Ormeau Road, and roughly half a mile north-east of the Lanyon Building at Queen's University. The church is flanked on its west side by red brick terraced housing on Canterbury Street and on its east side by similar housing on Westminster Street.

Historical Background

The church was built to serve the congregation of 'The Plains', a low-lying area between Donegall Pass and Botanic Gardens. Belfast originally lay within the ancient parish of Shankill, with St Anne's in Donegall Street serving as the principal episcopalian church until industrialisation and rapid population growth prompted the construction of further churches: St George's, High Street (1816); Christ Church, College Square North (1833); St Matthew's, Woodvale Road (1839); and St Mary Magdalene, Donegall Pass (1839), each assigned a separate district. The district around 'The Plains' fell within the parish of St Mary Magdalene. The area remained sparsely developed until the second half of the 19th century, when stone and timber merchant Robert Corry, having obtained a long lease from the Donegall estate, gradually filled it with terraces of middle- and working-class houses. As 'The Plains' developed, St Mary Magdalene became overcrowded, with every pew let and every free seat occupied. The incumbent grew concerned that, for lack of church accommodation, potential parishioners were becoming Dissenters. The first new churches in the area were largely Presbyterian, with Methodist and Catholic Apostolic congregations also establishing themselves before the Church of Ireland arrived.

On 22nd October 1887, some years after Disestablishment in 1871, a Church of Ireland building for the growing Anglican congregation was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. Following a donation of £200 from the Robinsons of Culloden House, a tin church accommodating 750 people was constructed, initially as a Chapel of Ease to St Mary Magdalene, on a site obtained from Robert Corry. The church was named 'All Saints' at the request of William Robinson MP and his wife Elizabeth (née Culloden). The original tin church was said to be 'the largest structure of the kind which has been erected in this part of the country and probably in Ireland', measuring 81 by 61 feet with a central nave, two side aisles, a clerestory at a height of 40 feet, and a spire or bellcote. The chancel provided accommodation for a classroom, a vestry and an organ chamber. The building was lined with pine, with a layer of felt between the iron and the wood for insulation. Constructed by Musgrave and Co, the Iron Church was always intended to be temporary, until funds could be raised for a permanent structure. After the new church was completed, the iron building was moved to the Beersbridge Road around 1897 and subsequently to Templemore Avenue in 1901, where it housed the congregation of St Clement's until 1928.

Between 1887 and 1895, upwards of 1,000 houses were built in the parish. By 1895 the parish was estimated to number around 10,000 people, of whom one third were Church of Ireland members, the majority being working class and many having come from rural areas outside Belfast. In 1890 a successful application was made to divide the Parish of St Mary Magdalene and create a new parish of All Saints, bounded to the north by the railway, to the south and east by the Lagan, and to the west by Botanic Avenue. The Reverend Oswald W Scott was appointed as the first incumbent that same year. A schoolhouse designed by Henry Seaver was opened on 23rd May 1891 on University Street to meet the immediate need for school and meeting rooms, as the terms of the church's lease left no available space on site. Built by contractor Thomas McMillen at a cost of £900, it served Sunday and day schools, a Young Men's Society, Band of Hope and Mothers' Meetings, among other activities, and functioned effectively as a parochial hall. The school was transferred to Belfast Education Authority in 1929.

In May 1894 active steps were taken to establish a Building Fund and plans were prepared by Fennell. The Select Vestry also bought out the ground rent and secured release from covenants in the 1889 deed. The earliest known design appeared in Building News of 8th November 1895, at which stage it was proposed to face the church in white Scrabo sandstone, a plan that was later abandoned. An 'Oriental Bazaar' was held in the Ulster Hall in December 1895 in aid of the Building Fund; the event's handbook survives and records supporters including Sir Edward Harland, Lady Arthur Hill, Sir Daniel Dixon and William J Pirrie. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs Dunbar-Buller of Woburn House, Donaghadee, in August 1897. The church was consecrated on 7th May 1898 without the projected chancel, which was added later. The contractor was Robert Corry, the main developer of 'The Plains', at a total cost of £6,000, with a debt of £2,000 remaining when the church opened.

Because of the constraints of the site, the church is orientated north to south rather than the more usual east to west. It was also decided to build without galleries, producing an open and lofty interior. The new church broadly followed the form of the original iron church but was larger, at 132 by 70 feet. A stone font of Caen stone was fitted in 1899, designed by Fennell and worked by donor Samuel Bowers in memory of his brother James G Bowers.

The Reverend Ralph Bullick Cooke, appointed in 1899, worked tirelessly to clear the church's debts, visiting America twice and meeting with President Roosevelt to raise funds. He also supervised the building and fundraising for the chancel. Once the debt was discharged, the foundation stone of the chancel was laid on 1st July 1905 and it was consecrated on 6th January 1906 at a cost of £1,850. Contractors were Messrs H Laverty and Sons, with Clokey and Co providing the leaded lights (later replaced), Musgrave and Co the heating, and R Patterson and Co the electric lighting. A small detached structure shown on the 1901–2 Ordnance Survey map at the rear of the church appears to have been incorporated into the chancel extension and may therefore retain fabric from the original 1897–8 construction. The Irish Builder commented after the chancel's completion that the church was now 'one of the largest and most beautiful in the city'. The Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, in his opening sermon, remarked that one of the greatest beauties of architecture, 'more than florid or enriched ornamentation', was 'the beauty of proportion', which had been achieved at All Saints by the construction of the chancel.

Reverend Cooke's successor from 1922 was the Reverend RCHG Elliott, who later became the Bishop of Connor.

The Architect

William John Fennell (died 1923) was a distinguished designer of church buildings, domestic dwellings and schools. His most well-known works in Belfast include the Water Commissioner's Office (1883), 68–70 Royal Avenue (1885), Cooke Centenary Church (1890–92), Mater Infirmorum Hospital (1894–1900), Cushendall Presbyterian Church (1899–1900), the Whitla Medical Institute (1902) and Harding Memorial School (1911–13). He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), and a founder member of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA).

Fennell was inspired by the architectural principles of John Ruskin and had a keen interest in medieval architecture, frequently lecturing on architectural history in Belfast. In February 1903 he presented a lecture entitled 'Early English Architecture, or England's Record in Stone', the text of which survives among the Fennell papers, setting out the history and character of Early English Gothic — his preferred ecclesiastical style and the one he employed at All Saints. Quoting Ruskin, he wrote: 'Gather a branch from any of the trees or flowers to which the earth owes its principal beauty. You will find that every one of its leaves is terminated more or less in the form of the pointed arch; and to that form it owes its grace and character.' The lecture gives a rare insight into the inspirations behind the design practice of a late-19th-century ecclesiastical architect. The Irish Builder described the design of All Saints as 'a plain treatment of the Early English Gothic, a style that lends itself generously to ecclesiastical work'.

It is also possible that Fennell influenced the naming of the streets flanking the church. As a youth he lived in both Canterbury and London, and among his Belfast lectures were one entitled 'Canterbury: A Lecture on the Gothic Art of England' given in November 1905 and another called 'Westminster' in September 1906. The streets on either side of All Saints are named Canterbury and Westminster respectively. Valuation records suggest Canterbury Street was named and developed first, around 1891; Westminster Street was originally recorded as Winchester in 1894 but renamed Westminster in 1895, around the time Fennell produced his designs for the new church. This may indicate that Fennell exerted an influence on the naming of the adjacent streets as well as designing the church itself.

MacNeice, in his history of the Church of Ireland in Belfast, notes that the trend in the 1890s was to build large churches. All Saints could seat 1,200 to 1,300 people, though it was said at the time to have been built for 1,000. He describes it as 'a fine church' which had had 'a succession of devoted men as incumbents'. A contemporary newspaper article in the Northern Whig commented that the church was 'favourably situated for presenting a fine picture from various points of view', with 'an abundant supply of light and freedom of approach from all sides', a 'garden space' around the church and a 'carriage drive' to the main entrance — features some other local churches lacked.

Exterior

The church is constructed in red compressed brick in Flemish bond with natural Bangor Blue slate roofs. Decorative terracotta ridge tiles run along the nave roof, with plain terracotta ridge tiles to the smaller roof areas. All openings to the original church building have red Dumfries sandstone surround dressings, cills and hood moulds. Openings to the vestry and chancel have brick voussoir heads and chamfered brick reveals. Decorative terracotta vents sit beneath window cill level. Gutters are replacement extruded or seamless aluminium above brick-corbelled eaves; original cast iron downpipes with decorative hoppers are retained.

The south (front) elevation is asymmetric, with a main gable to the centre featuring three tall, stepped pointed-arch stained-glass windows at upper level and a lozenge-shaped vent with decorative hood mould above. A stone Celtic Cross sits at the apex. The gable is flanked by tall raked buttresses: the left buttress is truncated just below the eaves line of the nave, but the right buttress rises above the apex of the main gable and terminates in a small stone blind-arcaded tower with a hexagonal spire and stone finial. To the left is a truncated square-plan tower with a hipped roof, incorporating an advanced, engaged five-sided squat tower with slit window openings at the south-west corner. The entrance porch has a sandstone pointed arch with a recessed doorway beneath a small gable, three stone steps leading to double ledged-and-sheeted timber doors with historic wrought iron hinges. Within the porch is a wall-mounted memorial brass plaque 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'. To the right of the main gable is a single-storey entrance porch section with four leaded windows within a sandstone surround, a parapet and a small hipped roof set back from the façade.

The west elevation faces onto Canterbury Street. A truncated tower with a hipped roof sits to the right below the west side of the buttress. The single-storey side aisle has a lean-to roof with 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 grilles are applied to the ground-floor windows. To the left is a single-storey gabled vestry entrance with a pointed-arch door opening on the right side with brick voussoirs and chamfered brick reveals, a timber sheeted door with historic wrought iron hinges and handle, and a small window opening on the left with a one-over-one timber sliding sash window with plain sandstone head and cill. The chancel rises behind the vestry with three pointed-arch window openings, behind perspex storm glazing. A single-storey red brick church hall extension of around 1990 sits at the far left with a natural slate roof and signage over the front door reading 'THE CENTRE. ALL SAINTS'.

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

The east elevation faces onto Westminster Street. A side entrance porch to the left has double-leaf timber sheeted doors with wrought iron hinges and handle beneath a pointed sandstone arch. The tower with spire rises above to the left. The single-storey side aisle with lean-to roof has a single bay to the left with one window opening, followed by five pairs of pointed-arch leaded-light windows separated by buttresses. Six pairs of smaller clerestory windows 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 a timber sheeted door within a pointed brick arch and beneath a lean-to roof projects from the aisle. Behind this is a taller section with a lean-to roof abutting the chancel, with a single blind opening to the right. A lower single-storey section to the right with a lean-to roof has a triple window opening with a sandstone surround, the openings boarded with timber. The chancel rises above with a tall stepped brick chimney rising above eaves level and a single window opening to the right behind perspex storm glazing. The church hall extension is at the far right, facing onto the street.

The original design included an unexecuted 108-foot tower with belfry and spire, similar to Fennell's Cooke Centenary Church on the Ormeau Road. The tower was capped off at the first stage and never completed.

Interior and Fittings

The roof and internal fittings are of pitch pine. Because the site required a north-to-south orientation and the decision was made to dispense with galleries, the interior is notably open and lofty. The plan form follows that of the original iron church: a nave with side aisles, clerestory and a tripartite lancet window. An Irish Builder drawing of the interior, exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1900, shows that the roof and internal arrangements have been largely preserved.

The Caen stone font, designed by Fennell and fitted in 1899, is worked in memory of James G Bowers. The height of the communion table, which is approached by steps to bring it to the same level as the pulpit, has been suggested — on information supplied by Church of Ireland officials — to reflect the influence of the Oxford Movement, which began in the 1830s and sought to reassert the Catholic and apostolic heritage of the Anglican church. Features including the use of Caen stone, a detailed oak pulpit, a choir with opposed seating, encaustic floor tiling in the chancel, and a polished brass chancel rail are characteristic of Anglican churches of this period and are interpreted by O'Neill in his architectural history of the Church of Ireland as attempts to make parish churches appear more cathedral-like. The original pulpit was replaced during restoration work in the 1950s, the replacement oak pulpit being similar in size and character — in the 'wine-glass' form — to the original depicted in the Irish Builder.

The Carnegie organ was dedicated on 29th June 1906. One half of its £600 cost was contributed by the Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who from 1902 supported the purchase of nearly 7,700 organs for Protestant churches across the world. The organ at All Saints was installed by Messrs Evans and Barr of Victoria Street; a photograph of the newly installed instrument appeared in the Belfast Telegraph of 28th June 1906. The organ was rebuilt in 1963, the keyboard, stops and related elements being manufactured by Peter Conacher and Co of Huddersfield. However, the ornamental panelling and framing, and possibly the pipes from the original Carnegie organ, remain in place. Professor Philip Cranmer of Queen's University gave the inaugural recital after its dedication.

The church contains good stained glass throughout. A three-light war memorial window in the chancel commemorates 275 members of the congregation who fought in the First World War, of whom 34 were killed, 70 wounded and 8 taken prisoner. The window, featuring the 'Faithful Warrior' in the three lower panels, was designed and made by Ward and Partners at a cost of £575 and is signed in the lower left corner; the upper panels suggest the earthly sufferings and final victory of Jesus Christ. It was dedicated on 5th December 1920. Ward and Partners (active from approximately 1894 to around 1930), based in Stranmillis, were the principal competitors of Clokey Studios and were responsible for memorial windows in Belfast City Hall and leaded lights in several Belfast churches including St Patrick's, Ballymacarrett, and St Columba's, Knock, as well as windows for commercial buildings such as Scottish Provident and Ocean Buildings in Donegall Square.

The nave window was replaced in 1932 by the Twaddell Memorial Window, dedicated on 22nd May of that year and considered at the time to be 'one of the finest stained-glass windows in the city'. Design drawings showing the window in its entirety were reproduced in the Northern Whig in 1932. William J Twaddell was a Belfast draper who sat on Belfast City Council as a Ulster Unionist Party member from 1910 and was elected to the Northern Ireland Parliament for Belfast West in 1921; he was assassinated as he walked to his business in North Street on 22nd May 1922. Twaddell had been a churchwarden and parochial treasurer at All Saints for some years. The window was designed and made by W J Douglas Sons and Co of Great Victoria Street, Belfast, and is signed in the lower right corner. William Joseph Douglas was formerly chief artist for Ward and Partners, setting up his own business in 1918; he was a prize-winning student at the Belfast School of Art, became a teacher there in 1909, and also studied at the Royal College of Art in London. Although damage to the lower sections of the window was noted in a 2014 survey by Dr David Lawrence, any such damage has since been repaired skilfully and is not now apparent. The chancel side windows were replaced in 1935.

Marble war memorial tablets on the walls list the names of those lost in the First and Second World Wars, including a bell-shaped memorial to Corporal Walter Ferguson of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles, killed at the Battle of the Somme at the age of 24, erected in 1919 before the installation of the chancel war memorial window.

A vestibule partition was installed across the south end of the nave at an uncertain date, possibly around 1935 when the chancel side windows were replaced and updated electric lighting installed.

Alterations

In the late 1970s, a section of the aisle on each side of the church was divided off with full-height plastered stud partitions to provide parish rooms, the parish hall having been disposed of. The alterations were designed by Gordon McKnight, architect, of University Street, with gothic-headed doorways, and retained original features aside from pews. Drawings dated February 1977 are held at the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library. Subsequently the baptismal font was moved to its present location — most likely from its original position under the nave window at the south end, possibly having been moved earlier when the vestibule partition was installed — and additional pews were removed from the section of nave between the sectioned-off parish rooms to create an 'inner vestibule'. Designs for these changes were provided by architect Robert E Quinn; undated drawings are held at the RCB Library.

Planning consent was obtained in 1991 for a parochial hall to the rear of the church, with plans held in Belfast City Council Building Control. The hall was constructed around 1992, access being created through the north-west corner of the church.

Handrails to the front elevation were installed in October 1963 in memory of Queenie Gilliland, commemorated by the brass plaque within the entrance porch. Other minor external changes include the possible loss of a chimney to the rear west elevation, as shown in the Building News drawing, and replacement railings to the rear of the church on both sides.

Setting

The church is set back from University Street behind original red brick dwarf 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. Wrought iron railings run across the front and partially along Westminster Street, with original wrought iron gates onto both Canterbury Street and Westminster Street at the south end. Replacement railings continue along the length of both streets. The grounds have a tarmac finish with a strip of grass behind the boundary walling at the front.

All Saints' forms a robust presence on University Street, its setting enhanced by the close proximity of the flanking terraced housing on Canterbury Street to the west and Westminster Street to the east, creating a pleasing urban composition. The former All Saints' School is located approximately 150 metres to the east on University Street.

Since the 2020s, and more formally since 2023, All Saints' parish has been united with St Nicholas' parish on the Lisburn Road, with Sunday morning services at St Nicholas and evening services at All Saints. All Saints continues to serve a congregation composed largely of young adults and students, and provides free meals as well as church services on a weekly basis.