Belfast Victorian era Church listing plan questioned

A plan to list a Victorian era church in South Belfast is being questioned, it has been revealed at City Hall.

At the most recent meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee, elected representatives noted proposals by the Historic Environment Division at Stormont to list All Saints’ Church, Canterbury Street, Belfast, BT7 and the International Research Centre for Experimental Physics, Queen's University of Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7.

The Stormont Department of Communities is responsible for giving the status for lists of buildings of special architectural or historic interest, but all prospective lists are put through the council for noting before going to consultation.

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At the City Hall meeting this week, Sinn Féin Councillor Matt Garrett, also the Chair of the Planning Committee, told the chamber: “I don’t know if any other members have received emails, but certainly the director for the church’s lobby is calling into question the listing. They have it seems an ongoing application going through the planning system as well.

“I think for us it is to note there is a consultation process from the Department for Communities that moves the list. It would also be worth us noting at least in our response to the Historic Environment Division at the Department for Communities that they have been in touch with the council to raise questions about the listing.”

Councillor Garrett did not offer details of any questions or objections raised by the church lobby group.

All Saints' Church of Ireland was designed by Architect W J Fennell in 1898 and opened in 1899. It is a freestanding red brick late-Victorian Gothic Revival church with red Dumfries sandstone dressings.

All Saints' Church is located on Canterbury Street, facing onto University Street, approximately halfway between Wolseley Street and the Ormeau Road in South Belfast. It was once one of the largest churches in the city. Its proposed listing status is B2.

The International Research Centre for Experimental Physics, in the Queen’s University complex on University Road, was designed in 1955 and constructed between 1958 and 1962, during a period of rapid growth for the university and of increasing commitment to research and study in the discipline of physics.

Designed by John MacGeagh, it is a large brick building in a modern style with neo-Georgian elements consisting of flat-roofed interlocking three-dimensional blocks of varying heights with a tall, canted entrance tower. The building is of similar style and detailing to the Sir William Whitla Hall, also by John MacGeagh which opened in 1949. Its proposed listing status is B2.

Listing grades B1 and B2 covers constructions "of more local importance or good examples of a particular period of style." Some degrees of alteration or imperfection are accepted in these listings.

The five different gradings are A, B+, B, B1 and B2. Statutory controls apply equally to all listed buildings, irrespective of grade.

Grade A involves special buildings of national importance, including both outstanding grand buildings and fine, barely altered examples of some important style or date. Grade B+ are those constructions that might have merited A status but for relatively minor detracting features such as impurities of design, or lower quality additions or alterations.

B+ also includes buildings that stand out above the general mass of grade B1 buildings because of exceptional interiors or some other features.

Statutory listing of buildings began in Northern Ireland in 1974 and the ‘First Survey’ of listed buildings took over 20 years to complete. The second survey in Belfast was due to be completed in 2017 but is still ongoing.

A council planning report states: “In considering whether to include a building/structure as listed, the Historic Environment Division takes into account the architectural and historic interest of a structure and is also given the power to consider any respect in which its exterior contributes to the architectural or historic interest of any group of buildings of which it forms part.

“(It also considers) the desirability of preserving, on the ground of its architectural or historic interest, any feature of the building which consists of a manmade object or structure fixed to the building or which forms a part of the land and which is within the curtilage of the building.

“Should the Department for Communities decide to list a property/structure, this places certain responsibility on the owner, for example, a listed building has to be maintained in a way appropriate to its character and cannot be altered or demolished without prior approval.”

The Department for Communities states: “Listing does not prohibit future proposed work. Listing marks and celebrates a building's special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system, so that it can be protected for future generations.

“Listing allows us to highlight what is significant about a building or site, and seeks to make sure that any future changes do not result in the loss of this significance.”

It adds: “The protection of historic buildings and structures by listing, is only one part of a suite of controls that helps the Department and Local Councils influence and manage the historic environment. Important historic structures may be more appropriately protected as Monuments in State Care, Scheduled Historic Monuments, or as part of Conservation Areas for example. Many listed buildings are located within Conservation Areas.”

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