The Parish Church of
Saint George Belfast

"An open door in the heart of the city- a place of prayer and peace."

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TOUR OF THE CHURCH

Part 1 † Part 2 † Gallery

INTRODUCTION

Saint George's Church is the oldest Anglican Church in use in the city of Belfast. Sited at the foot of High Street near the Albert Clock, it is known to thousands of city-goers and is an oasis of peace and prayer in the very heart of a busy city.

The Church is an excellent example of the classical style of architecture that was fashionable in the opening decades of the 19th century. It is a large and elegant building, designed by John Bowden of Dublin, the plan form being a simple nave and chancel. Externally it is faced with a hard wearing honey-coloured sandstone The west end, facing the street, has a superb full-height portico and the entire building gives the impression of being two-storied with the lower windows being almost square and the larger upper windows being round-headed with plain Georgian glazing.

Internally, there is a gallery on three sides. With the addition of the nave pews this gives seating accommodation for over five hundred people.

HISTORY OF THE SITE

It is almost certain that in Celtic times, the main Church serving what is now the Belfast area, was located at Shankill near the present day Saint Matthew's Church.

The first historical reference to a church on the site of Saint George's occurs in the Papal Taxation Roll of the Dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore of 1306, when it was one of the six chapelries dependant on the church at Shankill. It is likely that worship had already been taking place here for several hundred years and, indeed, tradition has it that the Chapel of the Ford, as it was known throughout the mediaeval period, was used by those who wished to pray for a safe crossing of the nearby ford at the junction of the Farset and Lagan rivers. This structure was probably fairly small and simple and located nearer to High Street than the present building.

It is thought to have survived substantially intact until the 1650s when the fledgling market town of Belfast needed a larger church. It was then enlarged by the addition of a central tower, transepts and chancel and was known as the Corporation Church as it was attended by the Sovereign (obsolete term for Irish Mayor) and Burgesses of Belfast which had received its Charter in 1613. By 1774 the Corporation Church was in a dangerous condicion and so was demolished; two years later Saint Anne's Church in Donegall Street was consecrated as the new Parish Church of Belfast.

The site lay empty except for burials, but by the opening decade of the nineteenth century, the growing population of Belfast necessitated the construction of a second Anglican Church. The foundation stone of the present church was laid on 4th June 1813 by the Earl of Masserene and the opening took place on 16th June 1816.

Saint George's has been a pioneer of a number of aspects of Anglicanism in Belfast. It was the first church to celebrate a Harvest Festival and the first to introduce a weekly communion service. It was also one of the first to hold weekday services. A robed choir was introduced in the 1860s.

Inevitably, the site has had associations with the wider history of Belfast. Cromwellian soldiers are said to have used the Corporation Church as a citadel in the early 1650s. King William III passed through the town on his way to the Boyne and attended a service in the church on 15th June 1690. Henry Joy McCracken, one of the Northern leaders of the 1798 rebellion. was buried near what is now the Parish Hall door, following his execution in High Street in July of that year. Edward Bunting, who did so much to promote the festival of Irish Harpers in 1792 and subsequently to preserve their music, was organist of Saint George's from 1817 to 182 I.

THE CHURCHYARD

Throughout the mediæval period, and up to its enforced closure by Act of the Irish Parliament in 1800, the graveyard, which extended nearly as far as Ann Street, served the town of Belfast (Shankill had mainly a rural catchment area and Friar's Bush, located near the beginning of Stranmillis Road, and originally one of the six chapelries mentioned above, was primarily for Roman Catholics). In 1806, practically all the memorials in the Coporation Churchyard were destroyed on the orders of the Reverend Edward May, Vicar of Belfast, and in 1811 large parts of the graveyard near Ann Street and Church Lane were sold as building lots. Notable burials included that of Henry Joy McCracken who was hanged nearby in Hgh Street in July 1798 for his prominent role in the rebellion of that year. As mentioned above, he was buried near what later became the schoolhouse door and remains thought to be his were re-interred in the Clifton Street burial ground in 1909. It was only in the 1960s that burials recommenced with the opening ofa patch of ground near Church Lane for the interment of ashes.

PORTICO.

The full-height portico with its distinctive pillars with Corinthian capitals and statue niches dates from 1788 when it was built for the main entrance of Ballyscullion House in County Londonderry. This was one of the residences of Frederick Hervey, the eccentric EarI-Bishop. So called as he was both Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Following his death in 1803, the house lay empty for some years before being gradually dismantled. While Saint George's was under constructjon, the portico was acquired and transported to Belfast, first by horse and cart and then by barge along a network of canals. The coats of arms in the pediment are those of the Diocese of Down and of the town of Belfast.

PORCH

More properly known as the Narthex, this is octagonal in plan and has a circular stairwell on either side leading to the gallery. During the course of the major refurbishment work completed in June 2000, the entire narthex was given a new sadstone floor with the shield of Saint George in the centre. The Belfry Chapel is immediately above wIth a seatIng capacIty of about twenty and is used for celebratIons of the Eucharist on weekdays. The chapel is lit by an ornate corona-type lamp, dating from the Victorian period. It was previously used in the chancel and was excellently restored in 2001 by the Rector, the Reverend Brian Stewart.

NAVE

The nave is a good example of Georgian ecclesiastical architecture, being a simple rectangle of typically classical proportions. A spacious gallery runs around the two sides and the west end; the slender cast iron pillars form aisles. Noteworthy features of the nave are:- .

The Font: This was donated by the young members of the Parish in January 1868. Octagonal in plan, it is of white marble and is supported by a cluster of red Purbeck marble pillars. The dome-shaped wooden lid is richly carved. Its position near the west door is symbolic of our entry into the Christian Church through the Sacrament of Baptism.

Pews: Originally, all were of the box-pew type. Those in the gallery still remain, whilst the pews on the ground floor date from the Victorian period.

Furniture: The Pascal candlestick, nearly six feet tall, is beautifully carved in oak and was presented by the Clergy and Congregation of Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Chapel Lane on the completion of the restoratjon of Saint George's in 2000. It is interesting to note that the Reverend William Bristow, then Vicar of Belfast, presented a mahogany pulpit to Saint Mary's on the occasion of its consecration in 1784 and it is still to be seen there. Two fine chairs, now in the chancel, are gifts from Christ Church, College Square North, which was closed in the 1980s.

Memorial Plaques: There are a number of elegant classical-style memorials, the most interesting of which is that to Sir Henry Pottinger (1789-1856) who in the course of a distjnguished diplomatic career negotiated the Hong Kong Treaty of 1842 which only expired in 1997. His memorial is immediately to the right of the choir screen. There was formerly a memorial in the churchyard to early members of the Pottinger family but this was moved to Kilmore churchyard near Crossgar, Co. Down, in 1806 when the monuments at the Saint George's site were demolished. The Pottinger memorial is still to be seen at the old Kilmore churchyard, from which the old church itself in recent vears. was moved to the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra. Pottinger's Entry, located only a few hundred yards from the church, also recalls the prominent role the family played in the early life of the town.

Ceiling/Roof Trusses: Originally there was a plain ceiling below the roof trusses, the only ornamentation probably being a run cornice around the edges and ceiling roses along the centre, for light fittings. In 1865 the ceiling was taken down and the trusses exposed and decorated in bright colours under the direction of the eminent architect, W J Barre.

Lectern: The lectern is located immediately in front of the choir screen and is of solid brass, of a standard design in use in the late nineteenth century, the top being an eagle. It was presented in memory of William Childs Booth, a Head Constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary, who died in September 1899.

Pulpit: Installed in 1867 as part of W J Barre's improvements to the nave, it probably replaced an earlier 'double-decker' pulpit which was centrally positioned near the site of the present day chancel steps. The pulpit is in the shape of a goblet and is ornamented with a fine latticework design which was painted in rich blue and gold in 1962 by Newton Penprase (1888-1978), a teacher at the Belfast School of Art who is best remembered for his highly idiosyncratic concrete house 'Bendhu' near Ballintoy.

Choir Screen: It was originally planned to include the choir screen as part of the chancel addition in 1882, but it was erected in 1928 in memory of the Reverend Dr. Hugh Davis Murphy, Rector from 1880 until his death in 1927. Saint George's is unusual alnong Anglican churches in Ireland in having a choir screen. It is constructed of oak and consists of three round headed arches on either side of a larger but similar arch, all being carved in a neo-renaissance style.

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