St. Paul'S Rc Presbytery, Gates And Railings, 125 Falls Road, Belfast

St Paul's RC Presbytery, Gates and Railings, 125 Falls Road, Belfast

St Paul's RC Presbytery is a three-storey, hipped-roof building in the Italianate style, dating from 1889. It was designed by architect John Joseph McDonnell and constructed by W.J. Hegan. The building occupies a prominent corner site at the junction of Falls Road and Cavendish Street, within the grounds of St Paul's Church, and shares the site with a modern two-storey Parish hall. It is enclosed by cast-iron gates and railings. Together with the main church and its boundary walling, gates and railings, the presbytery forms a group of considerable architectural interest.

The building is of square plan with an L-shaped extension to the rear. The roof is hipped natural slate with roll-top black clay hip tiles, projecting eaves supported on a corbelled cornice, and cast-iron ogee guttering discharging to rectangular-section downpipes. Rectangular chimney stacks have corbelled copings and red clay chimney pots. The main walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with black brick dressings and a projecting plinth. Decorative clay tiling runs at impost level on each floor — one of the building's most distinctive Italianate features. On the ground floor, paired round-arched windows are separated by stone colonnettes; the first floor has segmental-headed window openings and the second floor has square-headed openings, unless otherwise described. All window openings have replacement timber casement windows, moulded stone sills, and two-colour brick detailing to the arches above.

The rear extension has a pitched natural slate roof with angled black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron guttering discharging to circular downpipes, and red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with black brick dressings. Its window openings are segmental-headed with brick arches above, projecting stone sills, and replacement timber casement windows.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrical, arranged in three bays. The central bay has a round-arched door opening flanked by stone colonnettes, set above two nosed stone steps. The south elevation presents the three-storey, three-bay original building to its east end and a lower three-storey, two-bay extension to the west end. The west elevation has a gabled bay to the south end, three recessed bays immediately to the north, and a single-storey lean-to bay at the north end; the gabled bay has windows to the first and second floors, while the next bay to the north contains a square-headed door opening with a double-leaf timber panelled door and fanlight, and round-arched windows to the first and second floors; the remaining bays have square-headed windows to the ground floor. The north elevation has a gabled bay to the west end and the four-bay original building to the south, abutted to the east by a single-storey, two-bay extension with a castellated parapet and a square-headed door opening with a metal door.

Although the interior layout has been altered, the building retains its character both inside and out.

The cast-iron railings enclosing the site have square-section vertical bars with pike heads, a flat-bar top rail and mid rail. Alternate vertical bars do not extend to full height and are topped with flower heads. The standards have dog-leg supports and cross-shaped finials. Several gates provide access to the site. The wide double south-west gate onto Cavendish Street matches the design of the railings and is supported on square-plan caged gate piers with cross-shaped finials. The single south-east gate onto Cavendish Street is of the same design and similarly supported. The double gate to the east, fronting Falls Road, has scrolled decorations and a cross-finial to the meeting rail, supported on rectangular-section standards with scrolled finials. The double gate to the north-east, opening onto Cavendish Square, matches the railings design and is supported on rectangular-section standards with scrolled finials. The wide north-west gate onto Cavendish Square also matches the railings and is supported on square-plan caged gate piers with cross-shaped finials.

To the west of the building there is a tiled yard enclosed by stepped red brick walling with a segmental-headed door opening fitted with a sheeted timber door, opening onto the west side of Cavendish Square. To the north is a large yard, partly lawned, with a tarmaced driveway accessed through a gate on the north side of Cavendish Square. To the east is a paved yard accessed through a gateway on Cavendish Street, and to the west runs a narrow tarmaced pathway.

The historical background to the presbytery is closely bound up with the foundation of St Paul's Church. In the early 1880s, Dr Patrick Dorrian, the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, was the driving force behind establishing a new church on the Falls Road. A field behind Springfield Cottage was purchased in 1884 from Maurice Lindsay Coates, and the first sod was cut on 13 June of that year. The bishop personally covered the costs of the new church, amounting to £4,000. The church was dedicated on 23 October 1887. John Joseph McDonnell, who had designed the church, was also the architect of the adjoining presbytery, which was completed in August 1889; the building has also been described in heritage files as being in a 'Lombardic Romanesque style'. The contractor was W.J. Hegan. The Valuation Revision Books record the presbytery's address as 3 Cavendish Street; the occupier was noted as the Reverend James McArdle and the immediate lessor as the Committee of St Paul's Church. The valuation was given as £45, with a comment recorded for 1889 noting it as a 'very fair' value. St Paul's National School opened in 1890, and the Pastoral Centre now stands on the site of the school. The 1901 census Building Return records ten windows to the front of the house and fourteen rooms then in occupation. On the night of the census, 31 March 1901, six priests were staying at the presbytery: the Reverend Patrick Magill as senior priest, three assistant priests, and two visiting priests, along with a resident cook and housemaid.