Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church, Causeway Street, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8AE

Dr. Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church, Causeway Street, Portrush, Co. Antrim

This is a free-standing Gothic Methodist church built in 1886 to designs by Thomas Elliott of Enniskillen, a designer of several Methodist and Episcopal churches in the west of Ulster. It stands prominently at the junction of Eglinton Street and Causeway Street in Portrush town centre and was dedicated on 29th September 1887. The contractor was J. McClay of Strabane, who built the church using local basalt stone with Ballycastle sandstone dressings. The listing extends to the church itself, the memorial to Adam Clarke, and the gates and railings.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The church is rectangular in plan with an engaged bell tower at the northwest corner, a five-sided chancel to the east, and projecting gabled porches to the north and south. The walls are of squared, uncoursed, rock-faced basalt stone with sandstone dressings. A sandstone string-course runs at impost level on the north and south elevations, and the buttresses have sandstone offsets and quoins. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, raised sandstone verges, finials, and kneelers to the gables, and a square ashlar chimney stack to the east gable. The eaves are moulded sandstone, carrying cast-iron ogee rainwater goods.

The windows are mid-20th-century round-headed leaded lights with coloured glass, set in moulded sandstone reveals with blocked surrounds and chamfered sills, each surmounted by a hood mould. The chancel has a round-headed leaded window with an oculus above. The west elevation features a large geometric rose window with a hood mould and carved stops, and a stone oculus to the apex of the gable.

ELEVATIONS IN DETAIL

The north-facing front has three windows divided by buttresses lighting the nave. To the right is a projecting gabled porch containing round-headed double-leaf timber-sheeted doors with cast-iron strap hinges, set in a moulded sandstone reveal with a blocked surround surmounted by a hood mould with carved stops. Above the door is an oculus, and below it a stone dedication plaque inscribed: "IN MEMORY / OF / DR ADAM CLARKE, / THE LEARNED COMMENTATOR, / BORN IN THE YEAR 1760, / DIED IN 1832. / 'GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, / PEACE ON EARTH, / AND GOOD WILL / TOWARD MEN.'" The entrance is accessed via a concrete ramp with modern metal handrails. The left cheek of the porch is lit by a window with a hood mould with carved stops.

The east gable is abutted by the chancel, which has a hipped roof surmounted by metal filigree. Two oculus stone panels sit above on the gable. The chancel has a window to each of its three sides, each with a hood mould and carved stops.

The south elevation has three windows divided by buttresses lighting the nave. To the left is a timber-sheeted door in a chamfered sandstone reveal with a blocked surround and shouldered head, with an oculus above, accessed via two stone steps. To the right is the projecting gabled porch, which opens to the west and contains a timber-sheeted door in a chamfered sandstone reveal with a blocked surround and shouldered head, accessed via a single stone step. The right cheek of this porch is blank. The porch gable has a window with a hood mould and carved stops, and the apex of the gable has an oculus covered by a pierced metal vent.

The west elevation is dominated by the engaged bell tower rising from the gable at the left. The tower terminates in a stone spire topped by a carved finial. The belfry stage rises to gablets with a central oculus and contains round-headed louvered openings with hood moulds and carved stops.

INTERIOR

When the church opened it had no pulpit, but instead a raised platform with a reading desk and seats arranged around the chancel. Internal alterations in the mid-1990s introduced a new foyer and toilets at the side entrance. In 1975, eleven windows were dedicated as memorials to members of the congregation, and a further memorial window was added in the mid-1990s. The font was dedicated in 1979.

The church is one of the very few Methodist churches in Ireland to possess a bell. Originally given to the earlier chapel by Dr. Adam Clarke himself — who had received it from the Duke of Newcastle, and which had formerly been in the possession of the Russian Imperial family — the bell was manufactured in Amsterdam in 1681. In the 1980s it had to be removed from the spire due to deterioration in the stonework and now hangs in the vestibule of the church, where its recorded sound is heard on Sundays.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The church stands on the site of an earlier chapel and school house dating from 1832, itself built at the instigation of Dr. Adam Clarke (c.1760–1832), a native of Moybeg near Maghera. Clarke was converted to Methodism in 1779 while living near Flowerfield House in Portstewart, began preaching locally, and was subsequently invited to England by John Wesley. In 1783 he became the youngest man to be received into Full Connexion at the Methodist Conference. By 1790 he was superintendent in Dublin, the most senior Methodist position in Ireland, and on returning to Britain he was three times president of the Methodist Conference. He was a highly regarded preacher and one of the foremost scholars of his day, particularly expert in classical and biblical languages. He was involved in preparing Bibles in Near Eastern languages and in work on deciphering the Rosetta Stone. Among his many published works was an eight-volume Commentary on the Bible, widely used and notable for a degree of scientific detachment unusual for its time.

On his retirement, Clarke conceived a plan to establish six schools in the Coleraine area to address educational need among the poor. A school was begun in Portrush in 1831 in temporary accommodation, and following his request to the local landlord Lord Mark Kerr, land was granted for a new school house and chapel. The building was begun in the spring of 1832 and, despite illness, Dr. Clarke visited it in June of that year — the only one of his proposed schools he lived to see. He died in September 1832.

The original chapel and school served multiple purposes: used on weekdays as a school and for worship on Sundays, it was also used by other denominations before their own churches were built in the town. The Presbyterian minister Reverend Jonathan Simpson was ordained there in 1842.

In October 1857 the foundation stone of an obelisk to the memory of Dr. Clarke was laid on a small hill behind the church; it was originally intended that a life-size statue of Dr. Clarke should stand at the foot of the monument, but this plan was not realised. The obelisk was completed in 1859.

By the early 1880s Portrush had become one of the most popular bathing resorts in Ireland and its population swelled greatly during the summer months. The Reverend Dr. John Ker was appointed superintendent of the Coleraine circuit in 1884 and drew attention to the inadequate provision for Methodists in Portrush, the existing chapel being able to accommodate only 100 people. The foundation stone of the new church was laid by the Duke of Abercorn on 29th September 1886, after which Dr. Ker undertook a fundraising mission to the United States and Canada, where he successfully raised the necessary funds. The church was built at a cost of £1,600 (compared with £170 for the earlier chapel) and entered valuation records in 1888 at a valuation of £50, against the earlier chapel's valuation of £12. At its dedication, the local press described it as "an entirely beautiful church, which is a decided ornament to the town and worthy of the celebrated divine whose memory it commemorates."

The lecture hall to the rear of the church was opened on 29th September 1931 at a cost of £3,000. The contractor was Hugh McAlister and the architect was A. J. Clarke, town surveyor. The design deliberately incorporated two shops in order to generate rental income. Repairs and renovations were carried out in the late 1930s and again in the 1970s. The church was listed in 1977 and re-roofed in 1989.

SIGNIFICANCE

The church is an important example of the deliberate move away from the simpler vernacular structures of early Methodism and of the mid-19th-century effort to establish an appropriate Methodist architectural style — one that expressed principles of dignity and proportion. Retaining its original proportions and much of its architectural detailing, including good-quality carved stonework, it is a fine example of Victorian Gothic church design, prominently positioned at the heart of Portrush town centre.

SETTING

The church is set back from the street to the north, with a lawn and concrete pathway leading to the entrance porch. To the west is a modern metal railing enclosing steps down to an undercroft, accessed via a modern metal door. To the left of the entrance, within the church grounds, stands an ashlar stone obelisk on a corniced pedestal and stepped plinth, dedicated to Adam Clarke. The obelisk was erected in 1857 on a hill behind the church, moved in 1910, and is first shown in its present position on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1921–31. The grounds are bounded on three sides by a plinth wall topped by fleur-de-lis head railings. To the south, fronting onto Eglinton Street, is a two-storey, roughcast-rendered early-20th-century church hall.