Seymour Street Methodist Church, Seymour Street, Lisburn, County Antrim

Seymour Street Methodist Church

A free-standing, symmetrical Methodist church built in 1876, situated on an elevated site on the east side of Seymour Street in Lisburn. The building is single-storey over basement with a prominent gable front and rises to double-height internally. It is constructed of redbrick laid in English garden wall bond, featuring flush yellow and black brick courses, black brick diaper-work, and projecting black brick courses and diamond-patterning to the frieze. The church is T-shaped on plan, facing west, with a pair of gabled projections to either side of the nave.

The main west-facing gable front features stone coping and an angled brick course to the gable, with skew tables at the corbelled kneeler stones and a nail-head course below. At upper level is a large gothic-arched recess formed in polychromatic brick, supported on squat stone columns with stiff-leaf capitals, containing a sandstone plate tracery rose window with leaded coloured glazing. Below this is a carved sandstone stiff-leaf cornice spanning the entire gable. At ground level are three round-headed door openings, originally forming an open portico. The central opening is flanked by polished stone columns with stiff-leaf capitals and matching stiff-leaf moulding at impost level. All three openings have been fitted with double-leaf timber glazed doors and timber fanlights, inserted around 1970.

The north and south nave elevations are each abutted by a full-height gabled projection to the west end. These projections feature circular openings at upper level containing sandstone plate tracery rose windows with a gothic yellow brick flush band. Below are three round-headed window openings with flush stone hood bands and stiff-leaf label stops with leaded coloured glazing. The remainder of each nave elevation contains four full-height round-headed window openings. The south elevation also has segmental-headed window openings at ground floor level, now fitted with uPVC windows, and a segmental-headed entrance with a lean-to canopy of natural slate supported on paired corbels and a replacement steel door.

The pitched natural slate roof has terracotta ridge tiles set behind raised stone verges to all gables, resting on corbelled kneeler stones. Moulded cast-iron guttering runs along a decorative angled brick eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The plinth course on the south elevation consists of splayed rock-faced basalt ashlar topped by an angled black brick course.

Double-height round-headed window openings are a defining feature, with alternating red and yellow brick heads, stop-chamfered reveals, splayed sandstone sills, and leaded coloured glazing with storm glazing.

A two-bay two-storey vestry in redbrick is attached to the rear. This has been further abutted by a gable-fronted two-storey rendered extension built around 1990, and a large redbrick extension dated 1987. The basement level on the south nave elevation is abutted by a gable-fronted entrance porch with a round-headed door opening.

The site sits elevated on the east side of Seymour Street, north of Wesley Street. Access to the front is via a flight of concrete steps and a raised platform with decorative cast-iron standard lamps. The site is enclosed to the west by a low redbrick wall with decorative cast-iron railings and matching gates. The south is partly enclosed by a low rubblestone wall incorporating a yellow and black brick course with cast-iron railing. The south nave elevation is further enclosed by a low polychromatic brick wall. To the north lies a bitumen car park.