St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church Donegall Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2FL

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Donegall Street, Belfast

St Patrick's is a free-standing, symmetrical, double-height stone church in the Romanesque Revival style, built around 1875 to the designs of architects Timothy Hevey and Mortimer Thompson. It replaced an earlier Gothick church on the same site dating from the early 19th century. The building is richly detailed throughout, with robust styling and particularly noteworthy tower and spire composition, high-quality sculpture, and fine decorative carving. Although extensively damaged by fire around 1995, the church has been carefully restored and retains considerable historic and architectural interest. It stands as a fine example of a major church building and represents the work of a notable local architect.

Plan and General Arrangement

The church is T-shaped on plan, facing west, with an apsidal sanctuary to the east, a pair of lean-to side aisles, and apsidal side chapels. To the rear, a pair of two-storey blocks abut the east elevations of both transepts, with a further three-storey brick block abutting the north transept, built around 1960. The church occupies a slightly elevated site at the north end of Donegall Street.

Roofs and External Materials

Following the fire of around 1995, the roofs were replaced around 1996 with pitched natural slate roofs with lead valleys and roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. The apsidal sanctuary has a semi-conical roof with a roof light, and both apsidal side chapels also have semi-conical slate roofs. Decorative trefoil iron finials appear throughout. The roofs sit behind slightly raised gables with moulded sandstone coping, gableted kneeler stones, and Celtic cross stone finials. Replacement steel box guttering and steel downpipes are fitted throughout.

The walling is of coursed and squared rock-faced red sandstone ashlar, uncoursed to the rear elevation. There are flush pale sandstone platbands, a double convex continuous string course over the ground floor, and splayed sandstone trims to the red sandstone plinth course. Angle buttresses are weathered with gableted heads. Window openings are generally round-headed, formed in voussoired flush sandstone surrounds with bowtel moulded heads, stop-chamfered reveals, and splayed sills, with a continuous sandstone platband at impost level and leaded glazing throughout.

West (Front) Elevation and Tower

The front west elevation is dominated by a rectangular entrance bay housing the narthex, which rises as a square-plan tower surmounted by an octagonal-plan spire. This central tower is flanked by a pair of side entrances housed in the lean-to side aisles.

Occupying the entire base of the tower is a triple-height round-headed stepped arch with a crocketted gable above, framing a rose window over an arcaded stage stepped to accommodate the gabled door surround below. The doorway comprises a pair of square-headed openings with roll-moulded heads and diagonally-sheeted stained timber doors with decorative cast-iron door furniture. The openings are framed by polished limestone columns with stiff-leaf capitals supporting a stepped round-headed arch with a decoratively carved foliate tympanum. Between the paired openings, a statue of St Patrick is supported on a single column. The doorcase is framed by a shallow gable with foliate stop labels and is surmounted by a stone Celtic cross, above which an arcade of round-headed window openings flanked by slender columns with stiff-leaf capitals rises with the gable, all with leaded glazing.

The large stone rose window above comprises a series of oculi filling the head of the giant arch, with three stepped roll-moulded voussoired heads rising from three slender limestone columns — two of which descend to ground level — all with stiff-leaf capitals and banding.

The angle buttresses at the four corners of the tower meet to support a pair of blind arcaded pinnacles to each side elevation, supported on carved seraphim corbels and flanking slender crocketted gables. The upper part of the tower is encircled by a pierced balustrade with three round-headed openings and slender colonnettes to each elevation, flanked by weathered angle buttresses. The buttresses to the side elevations have hooded niches and colonnettes. A corbelled course above this stage supports a further balustrade, with the angle buttresses rising to single plinths supporting octagonal spirelets to the belfry stage. An octagonal base to the spire rests among the spirelets, with slender round-headed louvred openings to the cardinal faces framed by engaged colonnettes. The tapered stone spire has decorative lucarnes with colonnettes and poppy-head finials to the cardinal faces, and is surmounted by a stone finial and a wrought-iron Celtic cross.

The side entrances have square-headed door openings set within round-headed arches springing from limestone columns with stiff-leaf capitals, elaborate foliate carving to the tympanum, and diagonally-sheeted double-leaf timber doors.

North and South Nave Elevations

The north nave elevation has a gabled section to the aisle entrance, flanked by weathered buttresses and surmounted by tapered stone finials. The gable contains a simple rose window with a sandstone surround. To the centre of the elevation is a single-height apsidal chapel. The north transept projects beyond the nave and has a double-gabled elevation facing west; the northern portion is rendered in pink cement, including the north-facing gable of the transept. The north gable of the transept has bipartite round-headed window openings with central roundels at gallery level, and a rose window to the gable. There is also a gabled doorcase with a square-headed door opening having a roll-moulded head, stop-chamfered jambs, a double-leaf diagonally-sheeted timber door with cast-iron door furniture, and a semi-circular fanlight over the lintel cornice with leaded glazing. A flat-roofed three-storey extension in pink brick, built around 1960, abuts the north transept. The south nave elevation is detailed in the same manner as the north but retains its original coursed rock-faced red sandstone ashlar walling.

East (Rear) Elevation

The east rear elevation has a central double-height apsidal sanctuary flanked by lower gabled side chapels, which are in turn flanked by a pair of two-storey blocks. The apse is supported by a series of weathered buttresses, and the side chapels have flush rose windows. The northeast vestry block has paired square-headed window openings with flush sandstone surrounds and leaded single-glazed timber sash windows. The southeast block has a hipped slate roof with an iron finial, slender round-headed window openings, and a deeply set round-headed door opening to the south elevation with a stop-chamfered sandstone surround, a diagonally-sheeted timber door, and a fanlight.

Setting

The church stands on a slightly elevated site on the east side of Donegall Street, facing west. A small front area is enclosed by original wrought-iron railings on sandstone plinth walls, with matching gates and decorative iron lamp standards. Limestone steps to the front entrances fill the entire front area. The side areas are finished in bitmac and enclosed to the north by the presbytery.

Historical Background

The original church on this site was built between 1810 and 1812 in stone and brick to the designs of Patrick Davis and was the second Catholic church to be built in Belfast. It was constructed as a supplement to St Mary's on Chapel Lane, Belfast's first Catholic chapel, which dated from 1784. As Belfast's Catholic population grew alongside the expanding cotton industry, St Mary's became insufficient for congregational needs. The priest Father O'Donnell was able to build on a plot of land in Donegall Street left in trust for the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Belfast. The congregation at the time was not wealthy, and construction depended on donations from liberal Protestants, including Lord Castlereagh, who donated 100 guineas. The building was roofed over by 1811 and was used in 1812 for a meeting calling for the repeal of the penal laws, though it was not formally consecrated until 5th March 1815.

An engraving of the first St Patrick's chapel is held by the Ulster Museum; the building bore some resemblance in form to St Malachy's Church of 1844, which may have derived its inspiration from the earlier building. It is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–3 as a rectangular building with projecting front entrance bays, and was listed in the Townland Valuation at £64 15s 7d. When first built the church attracted some criticism on account of its battlemented pediment, which was considered an incongruous mixture of Grecian and Gothic styles, though others found it elegant and tasteful.

In 1825, the parish priest was elevated to the bishopric of Down and Connor, and the first ordination of a bishop in Belfast took place at St Patrick's. Around 1866 the old Belfast parish was divided into the parishes of St Mary's, St Patrick's, St Malachy's, and St Peter's, with the Bishop of Down and Connor retaining his position as parish priest over all churches while appointing priestly administrators to each.

In June 1867, part of the floor of the chapel collapsed, prompting calls for better and enlarged accommodation. However, it was not until 1873 that a committee was formed with the intention of building a new church. The architects were instructed to make maximum use of the constricted site, recessing the church as far back as possible while bringing it as far forward as the Town Council would allow. The plans were prepared by Timothy Hevey and Mortimer Thompson, with the contractors being Messrs Collen Bros of Portadown and Lisburn. The main building material was Dundonald sandstone, with other local sandstones and limestones used as dressings. The foundation stone was laid on 18th April 1875 and the church was consecrated on 12th August 1877. The total cost of the building was £20,000, and it was valued in 1900 at £860.

The decorative carving on the high altar and the statue of St Patrick above the entrance were the work of Messrs Neill & Pearse of Dublin. James Pearse, the English stonecarver, was the father of Patrick Pearse — nationalist poet, political activist, and one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. Thomas Sheridan & Co cast the two-ton bell, said to be the largest in Ulster, in their Dublin foundry. A twelve-foot wrought-iron cross was manufactured by Webbe's of Ballymacarrett and fixed to the top of the spire.

The design of the church attracted particular praise in the Irish Builder, both for its galleries — which could accommodate 300 to 400 people without being overly prominent — and for the tower, described as being of "original and ingenious" design, being a parallelogram on plan where it met the nave and reducing to a square in its upper reaches.

Some work was carried out at the church in 1904 to designs by E & J Byrne with carving by Winter and Thompson, though the precise nature of this work is unclear. In 1917–19, further alterations were made, including the laying of mosaic flooring in the sanctuary and the installation of an altar by Edwin Lutyens, one of the most influential British architects of his generation. Above the altar was a frame, also by Lutyens, for a triptych by Sir John Lavery, the celebrated Belfast-born artist who was baptised at St Patrick's. Both the altar and the frame by Lutyens are now gone. In 1971, the High Altar was rearranged in conformity with the requirements of the Second Vatican Council, and the rubble of the old altar was used as foundation material for the new. Some repointing and stone replacement took place during the 1960s and 1970s.

The interior of the church was badly damaged in an accidental fire in 1995, and the building was open to the elements for several months before rebuilding could begin. Restoration was carried out under the supervision of architects Rooney and McConville. The roof and ceiling were replaced, all interior walls were replastered, and marble cladding was removed. The mosaic floor was replaced by Mosart Studios in County Roscommon, the organ loft was extended to receive the restored organ, and the Lavery triptych was cleaned and replaced, though it is currently on loan. The tomb of Bishop Dorrian was also located and restored during the works.