The description in the UAHS Queen's University List of 1968/75:
One of Ulster's best High Victorian church designs; a triumph of eclecticism, where the combination of apparently discordant elements such as a Renaissance arcade with chunky Venetian columns, mediaeval machicolations, a classical cornice and balustrade, a Moorish well canopy and a French needle spire are absorbed into a coherent but very elaborate Irish version of a Lombard Gothic church. "It could be called Norman" grumbles The Builder.
Behind the polychrome freestone façade the interior feels surprisingly large, having a great width uninterrupted by roof supports, and a deep gallery running back over both vestibule and loggia, and reached by a curly staircase beneath the tower (which was added apparently as part of the original design in 1872). Originally a substantial marble pulpit presided over this space, providing a worthy centrepiece for the elaborate stucco decoration of the windows and the coved and panelled ceiling. Now, with great success, the University has converted the church into a concert hall, an admirable project carried out with care and sympathy for the old building. It is very much to be hoped that this scheme will set a pattern for the University's future treatment of the more importand historic buildings in the area.
The minister's room and school rooms to the rear of the church were added in 1866 also by John Corry, and also apparently part of the original scheme. The contemporary manse is similarly part of the composition.
Refs: Brett, p.36; Dewar, History of Elmwood Church; Dixon, p.19; Elevation in the possession of the Rev J Crozier; The Builder.
More recently:
Stonework was restored and the golden weathercock added by HA
Patton & Partners c.1975. An application to demolish the manse
c.1985 was successfully opposed by the UAHS. The church is still
owned by Queen's, but currently the headquarters and rehearsal
space of the Ulster Orchestra. The polished granite pillars round
the front courtyard had lost some of their elaborately carved
sandstone capitals, but these are currently (2000) being reinstated.
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