Great Victoria Street Baptist Church and former house, 66A Great Victoria Street, BELFAST, County Antrim, BT2 7BB

Great Victoria Street Baptist Church and Former House, 66A Great Victoria Street, Belfast

This is a free-standing, gable-fronted, double-height polychromatic brick church built around 1866 to the designs of William Hastings, who was himself a member of the congregation. It is of considerable historical significance as the first Baptist church in Belfast. The building was extensively altered and extended during the 1960s, and this combination of Gothic Revival Victorian architecture and mid-20th-century modern interventions has resulted in a curious but ultimately successful blending of styles. The diminutive former Sexton's annexe attached to the building — often referred to as the smallest house in Belfast — retains a scale and character that has largely been lost to redevelopment in this part of the city in recent decades. The building was partially demolished in July 2014.

Origins and Historical Background

The Baptist Irish Society began working in Belfast in 1839 and formally constituted a congregation in 1847, initially meeting in King Street and later in Academy Street. The 1859 Revival significantly boosted membership and was a key factor in the decision to build a permanent Baptist church in Belfast. In July 1864 the Irish Builder announced that a Baptist chapel was to be built in the city to designs by William Hastings, a former Surveyor of Works for the Borough of Belfast, who had designed a number of warehouses and domestic dwellings in the town. His only other known ecclesiastical commission is Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church in Castlereagh Street.

The church opened on 8th April 1866, with religious services conducted by Lord Trenham, a well-known preacher of the day, though not himself a Baptist. The Irish Builder reported its completion in January 1867, noting that the site had been chosen partly for its convenience to the Ulster Railway, for members living at a distance. The materials were red brick and stone dressings, the style described as an adaptation of Italian Gothic. The total cost was less than £6,000 and the church could seat 430 people. An early minister was the Reverend R. M. Henry, father of the noted landscape and portrait painter Paul Henry.

The church first appears in valuation records in 1867, valued at £180 as a Baptist church. By 1900 the Belfast Revaluation records show a hall to the rear and a sexton's house and yard to the side. The church was fitted with gas and held on a lease for ever at an annual rent of £19 10s. A hall built in 1885 as a schoolhouse, valued at £13, was used by various groups including the Good Templars and the Christian Endeavour. The sexton's house and yard was valued at £6. Additions were made in 1923 to designs by James Hanna, reflected in a rise in valuation to £207 in 1924. In 1961 the rear hall was replaced with new halls valued at £77, and the seating capacity was enlarged to 720, making it one of the largest Baptist churches in Ireland, drawing members from a very wide geographical area. Congregants from Great Victoria Street went on to establish churches at Mountpottinger, Strandtown, Windsor, Rathcoole and Finaghy, and the church maintained a strong interest in overseas missionary work. Planning permission had previously been granted for works including the demolition of the church, and following the partial demolition in July 2014, the Department confirmed that the building no longer met the criteria for listing.

Exterior Description

The church is rectangular on plan, facing west, with a diminutive gabled Pastor's annexe to the north, a later flat-roofed section to the south nave fronting onto Hope Street, and a range of ancillary buildings attached to the rear, added around 1960.

The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering to a stepped polychromatic brick eaves course, and cast-iron downpipes. The roof sits behind the front gable, which is surmounted by a stone finial with stone coping terminating in a pair of gableted and corbelled kneeler stones. The walling is red brick laid in Flemish bond with flush yellow brick courses. Pointed-arched window openings are formed in chamfered polychromatic brick with flush sandstone keystones and splayed flush sandstone sills, fitted with replacement timber windows throughout.

The gabled front west elevation has a central full-height recessed panel containing a polychromatic pointed arch with a quatrefoil keystone and stiff-leaf capitals. Within this panel is a tripartite arrangement of pointed-arch windows formed in polychromatic chamfered brick arches, with painted chamfered stone reveals, divided by colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals resting on a splayed sill, and housing three replacement timber windows. To either side of this central window is a pair of pointed-arched lancet openings with polychromatic brick chamfered arches, flush splayed stone sills, and replacement timber fixed-pane windows. Either side of the entrance is a further group of three pointed-arched lancet openings, detailed in the same manner.

The entrance bay is square-headed and was inserted around 1960. It comprises a rendered architrave surround and a rendered recessed fascia with applied bronze lettering reading GREAT VICTORIA STREET BAPTIST CHURCH. A glazed screen is recessed within the entrance bay, with a pair of square-headed door openings having hardwood architrave surrounds and double-leaf hardwood doors with horizontal glazed bevelled panels. These open onto a terrazzo platform with five steps leading down to a small front area enclosed by steel railings and gates. The platform is lit by a series of plaster rectangular panels housing lights.

The north nave elevation is abutted by the diminutive two-storey gabled polychromatic Pastor's annexe. The gable has stone coping surmounted by a ball finial, with a single pointed-arched window opening to each floor formed in chamfered polychromatic brick with stone sills. The upper-level window has a single-pane timber sash; the ground-floor window has been replaced in uPVC. A square-headed door opening with a polychromatic brick head and stop-chamfered red brick jambs houses a hardwood door and overlight, inserted around 1960.

The rear elevation is abutted by a slightly lower gable-ended red brick projection and a series of later red brick and yellow brick flat-roofed ancillary buildings, added around 1960.

The south nave elevation is seven windows wide, with a slender gable to the west end rising above eaves level and a further red brick projection to the east end forming a transept, added around 1960. This elevation is also abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed section dating from around 1960. The slender gable has painted stone coping and decorative kneeler stones, with a blind circular panel formed in polychromatic brick and gableted and corbelled kneeler stones at eaves level. To the upper level is a pair of lancets, with tripartite lancets to the lower level, detailed as per the front elevation. The nave itself has five pointed-arched window openings formed in chamfered polychromatic brick with replacement fixed-pane timber windows.

Setting

The church is located on the east side of Great Victoria Street, with its south nave elevation fronting onto Hope Street.