University Road Methodist Church
William J. Barre
1865-65
Red sandstone
Queen's Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Photograph by Philip V. Allingham 2006.
In a city full of Palladian and Victorian Gothic buildings, the Methodist Church in University Road, Queen's Quarter, stands out as a pleasing oddity, with its red brick "Lombard-Venetian-Romanesque" campanile. This Wesleyan congregational church, designed by the local architect William Barre, occupies the site of Belfast's toll-gate in the early 1800s. The architect took advantage of the height of land afforded by the Malone Ridge to produced a slender brick church that dominates an area filled with churches and other fine public buildings. German bombing destroyed the facade's original rose window, the interior survived the Blitz and has since been carefully restored. C. E. B. Brett (1967) calls the building "modestly charming" (p. 32).
References
Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967.
Last modified 18 September 2006