Calvary Christian Centre, 4 Curtis Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2ND

Calvary Christian Centre, Curtis Street, Belfast

A detached two and three-storey brick and rendered building dating from 1960, originally constructed as the command headquarters for the Salvation Army in Ireland. The building is an interesting example of 1960s modernism on a small scale, demonstrating a characteristic feature of the style in its varying wall panels, though it is not among the finest examples of the type.

The main structure is square on plan, facing south, with a two-storey brown brick extension to the rear built around 1980. The roof is a flat concrete construction with overhanging eaves and cast-iron guttering to the side elevations only. The walls combine grey brick laid in stretcher bond with cement render embedded with pebbles.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, articulated as two vertical sections framed by grey brick pilaster strips. A large five-light steel casement window is positioned to the right, with a further five-light window serving the first-floor stairhall. A pair of square window openings with projecting rendered surrounds sits to the right of these. A mosaic tiled strip runs above the stairhall window, with a flat canopy over the principal entrance below, also topped with a mosaic strip. All window openings are square-headed with steel casement frames.

The west side elevation contains three windows, with an elevated section to the rear housing the lift shaft. The east side elevation features five windows, including a single large opening to the ground floor. The rear elevation abuts the two-storey brick extension.

The building was designed by architect Matthew Clarence Logan and first appears on Ordnance Survey maps from the 1960s–70s. The foundation stone was laid on 3 December 1960 by Terence O'Neill, then Minister of Finance. A second foundation stone was laid by Commissioner Edgar Grinsted. The estimated construction cost was £25,000. The building was intended to house the Academy Street Corps and provide accommodation for permanent Salvation Army officers. Logan was an established architect in Belfast, having designed mission halls and housing for developers in the 1930s and working in partnership with W McK Davidson during the 1950s.

The Salvation Army's presence in Belfast dates to 1880, fifteen years after the organisation's foundation in England, when soldiers were first dispatched to the city by William Booth, a breakaway Methodist preacher. By 1908, membership had grown sufficiently for the Hippedrome in Great Victoria Street to be taken over as a meeting hall. More permanent premises were established on the Dublin Road by the 1920s; these were rebuilt following bomb damage in the 1970s and again in 2000.

The Curtis Street offices were vacated by the Salvation Army in recent years and subsequently occupied by the Calvary Christian Centre, a missionary organisation with roots in Singapore. The building currently lies vacant.

The site is located on the north side of Curtis Street, to the rear of the University of Ulster, with short laneways to both side elevations and a small enclosed yard to the rear fronting onto Great Patrick Street. The building is situated within a conservation area.