Extract from the UAHS List of the Queen's Univerity area, 1975:
An attractive tall, white-painted church and ancillary buildings, rural rather than urban, neo-Georgian style, but handsome and with the masses extremely well-handled; tower with reticent copper cupola; poplar trees. (D W Boyd, supervising architect).
Clough Williams-Ellis was an English architect who is best known for his Portmeirion village in North Wales. However through the patronage of Lord Antrim he designed a number of buildings in the Cushendun area and a very pretty church near the Giant's Causeway.
Refs: IB LXXVIII p.297. See the UAHS Queen's University
area List.
There is also a Historical Sketch of the First Church of Christ,
Scientist, Belfast, (1944?, reprinted in 1955). For other buildings
by Williams-Ellis, see Buildings of Co Antrim and North Antrim
list.
Christian Science was introduced to Belfast by a Mr and Mrs Collis of Co Dublin along with Mr and Mrs Marcus Ward, who had visited New York in 1891, but it was not until 1898 that Christian Science meetings were held in a private house in Great Victoria Street. In 1904 premises were taken at 13 Lombard Street, and about 1910 at 54 Royal Avenue.
The present church, which is a familiar landmark to residents
of the University area, was designed by Clough Williams-Ellis
and built 1936-37. Less well-known is the Sunday School behind
it, which was the original church
, built in 1923 at a cost of £4000,
also with Williams-Ellis as the architect. (He does not appear
to have had any prior connection with the congregation, but accepted
the commission despite pointing out that he did not usually undertake
"speculative" work). This is very close in appearance
to some of the Cushendun cottages, with heavy glazing bars in
casement-windowed dormers. The cloisters and garden around the
old building are beautifully kept.
The main church, while externally very much in Williams-Ellis'
Mediterranean Portmeirion style, is internally surprisingly modern,
and it may be assumed that Boyd, as the supervising architect,
had a strong influence in the use of Modernist curves and bare
timber. The main auditorium
is very light, with its long round-headed windows, and there are
two pulpits - one for readings from the Bible, the other for readings
from Mary Baker Eddy. Behind the platform are twin rooms, one
for each reader, with Modernist furniture and timber panelling
still intact. The original organ
is still used, and it has a bell stop
that can broadcast a (rather electronic) carillon from the belfry.
Following recent restoration by Sam Thompson, the Church is
looking very spruce, and the interior is well worth visiting.
A curious feature (perhaps indicating that Christ was an astronomer
as well as a scientist?) are the star-shaped light fittings
that
ornament the Sunday school, and which are also present in the
attic of the main church.
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