VHI Healthcare has expanded its offices into the former Scots Presbyterian Church and its neighbouring hall on Abbey Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
As I stood at the bus-stop in Abbey Street, Dublin, at the weekend, waiting for a bus to Clontarf, I noticed the way the former Scots Presbyterian Church and its former church hall have been incorporated tastefully into the headquarters of VHI Healthcare.
I have memories of meetings of Christian CND and the Student Christian Movement (SCM) in the church hall in 1980s, but the church has been closed since 2003.
McCauley Daye O’Connell Architects were appointed to design the expansion of VHI’s offices on Abbey Street into the adjacent disused Presbyterian Scots Church which is a protected structure. The VHI wanted to stay in its current location but needed to adapt the former church and the adjacent church hall, which had fallen into disrepair and were suffering from vandalism.
The key concept and challenges of their dynamic design were to respect and preserve the cultural, religious, historical and architectural heritage of the church and its ancillary buildings while meeting the client’s needs for a new, innovative and sustainable office extension.
This extension needed to fully integrate with the existing office accommodation, giving VHI improved and sustainable office facilities. And so, the former church and church hall were completely refurbished and returned to full use.
The new design provides a public entrance foyer in the former church, making it the primary public zone and entrance area for the building. It also provides new office floors suspended above the original church hall, all contained within a contemporary triangular exo-skeleton lattice design that provides the external structure, creating a building that is light and transparent and contrasts and complements the original Gothic church design.
The design incorporates a mix of highly insulated opaque and glass façade panels, natural ventilation through the perforated façade panels, good natural lighting, fully integrated solar panels in the roof system and rainwater harvesting.
The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland began working in Ireland in the 1840s but met with little initial success. This mission was aimed mainly at the Scots living in Dublin, and the first congregation may have met first in Aungier Street and then in Whitefriar Street.
By 1863, the congregation was meeting in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital. A formal congregation was installed in 1866 and the Revd James Stevenson became the first minister. Mission work also began in the North Strand area aimed at the many Scots living in that area.
A site was bought in Abbey Street in 1866, the foundation stone of the new church was laid on 6 May 1868, and a new church was built in 1868-1869 at a cost of £6,000.
Abbey Street was originally known as Great and Little Mary Street, and took its name from Saint Mary’s Abbey, which in the Middle Ages had lands that across the north-east of the city. When this church was built, Abbey Street already had four churches, and this was the fifth place of worship in a street that the Irish Builder noted ‘is not one of any great length.’
This was a gable-fronted three-bay double-height Gothic-Revival church in a style that was described as ‘Geometric Gothic,’ and it was designed by the Limerick-born architect, William Fogerty (1833/1834-1878), who also worked in Dublin, London, and New York during a short but intensive and creative career.
William Fogerty was a born in 1833 or 1834 into a well-known Limerick family of architects. His father was the architect John Fogerty, and an elder brother was the architect Joseph Fogerty. He studied at Queen’s College, Cork (now UCC), before joining his father’s practice in Limerick with his father in the 1850s. He was working from 97 George’s Street, Limerick, in 1861-1863.
His work during his time in Limerick included the Protestant Orphan Society Hall (1855-1856), the addition of an apse in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Upper Catherine Street (1858-1859), new Church of Ireland parish churches in Athea (1858-1859) and Killeedy (1862-1863), the Goold Memorial Cross in Athea (1863), and a new courthouse in Adare commissioned by the Earl of Dunraven (1863).
He moved to Dublin in 1863, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (FRIAI, 1863) and a council member (1867-1868). A year after designing the Scots Church on Abbey Street, Dublin, he went on a tour of Italy in 1869 with Thomas Henry Longfield. He then moved to London, where his brother was already in practice as an architect, and practised from Westminster Chambers, Victoria, and 8 Buckingham Street.
From there he moved to New York, but he soon returned to Ireland and in 1875 he announced in the Irish Builder that he had resumed practice at 23 Harcourt Street, Dublin.
He continued to practise in Dublin until he died from smallpox at the age of 44 on 22 May 1878. He was buried in the churchyard at Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick.
Fogerty’s church on Abbey Street was built by Crowe and Sons of Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), Dublin, in granite, with dressing of limestone and freestone, at a cost of £6,000.
The church was designed with a nave measuring 70 ft by 28 ft in the clear, two side aisles, each 8 ft wide, separated from the nave by light columns and arches. The ground floor was to seat 450 persons, with another 70 in the gallery.
The main entrance was in the centre of the nave facing Lower Abbey Street, with a spacious porch and vestibule, with separate side entrances to the vestibule and school-room.
The original details include granite coping, a granite chimneystack, stepped lateral buttresses, gableted buttresses, pointed-arched windows, hood-mouldings, four-part geometric tracery windows, trefoil-headed windows, a pointed-arch compound moulded doorcase, wood-grained timber doors, colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals on octagonal plinths, and clerestoreys.
There was a lecture-room and a range of vestries at the rere, and a school-rook 45 ft by 22 ft at the side.
Fogerty’s originally designs for the church included a tower and spire, rising to 110 ft, at the north-west angle, but they were never built.
The church was formally opened in April 1869 by the Revd Professor John Eadie of Cambridge Street Church, Glasgow.
The Revd James Stevenson was succeeded by the Revd William Proctor in 1884. Six years later, the neighbouring single-storey church hall was built in 1890 in the Gothic Revival style to designs by the Belfeast-born architect Sir Thomas Drew (1838-1910).
Drew was a son of the Revd Canon Dr Thomas Drew, ‘a militant Orange’ clergyman who was Rector of Christ Church, Durham Street, Belfast, and later of Loughinisland, Co Down, and Precentor of Down Cathedral.
The younger Thomas Drew was articled in 1854 to Charles Lanyon, who later went into partnership with William Henry Lynn. Drew was Lanyon’s superintendent and clerk of works in 1858-1861. In 1861, he formed a brief partnership with Thomas Turner in Belfast, but the following year he moved to Dublin, where he became principal assistant to William George Murray.
Drew became diocesan architect of the United Dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore in 1865, but remained Murray’s chief assistant until 1867. Later he practised on his own, although in 1870 he worked closely with William Fogerty before Fogerty moved to the US.
Drew reached the peak of his career with his design for Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. He was also the consulting architect for Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, after its restoration by George Edmund Street, and for Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Saint Patrick’s (Church of Ireland) Cathedral, Armagh, and Saint Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. He was also responsible for the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, advised on the restoration of the nave pillars in Truro Cathedral, and designed the former Soldiers’ Institute near the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
Drew was president of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI, 1892-1901), the Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI, 1875-1876), the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI, 1894-1897) and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA, 1900-1910), the only person to ever hold all four positions.
He was a one-time editor of the Irish Builder, gave frequent papers on architectural and antiquarian topics, and for many years delivered a lecture on the history and fabric of Christ Church Cathedral at Strongbow’s tomb every Saint Stephen’s Day.
He was Professor of Architecture at the RHA (1884-1910), and in 1894 he became professor and lecturer in architecture at the Metropolitan School of Art.
Drew was knighted in Queen Victoria’s birthday honours in 1900. He received an honorary degree of LL.D. from Trinity College Dublin in 1905. Two months before his death, he was invited to become the first Professor of Architecture in the National University of Ireland.
He died on 13 March 1910 and was buried in Dean’s Grange cemetery. He married Adelaide Anne, sister of William George Murray, in 1871; she died on 9 January 1913.
Meanwhile, the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church formed a new union in 1900, and the congregation became part of the United Free Church of Scotland. Membership of the congregation peaked in the 1910s at 448 people.
The congregation joined the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1929 and took the name Scots Church. In 1938, the Ormond Quay congregation – which was founded in 1848 but dated back to 1707 – and its minister, the Revd Thomas Byers, joined Scots Church in Abbey Street and the church became known as Ormond Quay and Scots Presbyterian Church. The church building on Ormond Quay remained the home of the Dublin City Mission of the Presbyterian Church until the late 1940s, when it was acquired by Dublin Corporation.
The dwindling congregation of Ormond Quay and Scots Church decided to close its church in Abbey Street and to amalgamate with the Presbyterian Church in Clontarf in 2003.
The Presbyterian Church in Clontarf traces its roots to the two Secession congregations in at Mary’s Abbey and Mass Lane in Dublin that merged 200 years ago to form the Union Chapel. The Secession Synod started a mission in 1836 to form a second Secession congregation in Dublin. In 1837, this congregation bought Ebenezer Chapel on the corner of D’Olier and Hawkins Street for £600 to use as their church. The congregation moved to a new church in Lower Gloucester Street, now Sean McDermott Street, in 1846.
By the 1880s, many members of the congregation were living in the new suburbs of Fairview and Clontarf. In 1888, the Gloucester Street church decided to move to Clontarf, a site was found on the corner of Howth Road and Clontarf Road and the new church opened in 1890.
The Clontarf congregation welcomed the members of Ormond Quay and Scots Church in 2003, and the church in Clontarf is now known as Clontarf and Scots Presbyterian Church.
The minister of Clontarf and Scots Church, the Revd Lorraine Kennedy-Ritchie, was one of the speakers at the Clontarf Ecumenical Conference on Saturday.
The former Ormond Quay and Scots Church closed in 2003 and merged with Clontarf and Scots Presbyterian Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
16 October 2018
Saint John the Baptist Church,
Clontarf, has links with Celtic
saints and Templar knights
The Church of Saint John the Baptist on Seafield Road, Clontarf, was designed by Welland and Gillespie and built in 1864-1866 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I was in Clontarf last weekend, speaking at the Clontarf Ecumenical Conference in the Church of Saint John the Baptist on Seafield Road.
I was in the church many times in the past, on Sunday duty for a previous rector, the late Revd Derek Sargent. But Sundays seldom appropriate opportunities to photograph a church and to inquire about its history.
This Church of Ireland parish church was built in 1864-1866 to replace an earlier church about 200 metres away on Castle Avenue, on the edge of the grounds of Clontarf Castle. But the first church in Clontarf is said to have been founded in the sixth century by Saint Comgall, Abbot of Bangor, Co Down, as part of the early Christian developments across north Dublin, perhaps from a base at Saint Mobhi’s Church in Glasnevin.
Inside the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Saint Comgall became the Patron of Clontarf and remained so until the 14th century, when the parish came under the oversight of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem and Saint Comgall was replaced as patron by Saint John the Baptist.
Clontarf was a central location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 between Brian Boru and the Vikings. The remains of a well supposed to have been used by Brian Boru are still pointed out on Castle Avenue, about 500 meters from the parish church.
A royal head on the west door, perhaps recalling Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
During the reign of Henry II, the lands of Clontarf passed to the Knights Templar, and when that order was suppressed in 1312, this became a preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, by then based on the island of Rhodes.
The Turks captured Rhodes from the knights in 1522, and the order re-established itself on Malta in 1530. Throughout those two centuries, Clontarf remained a possession of the Knights of Saint John. But at the Reformation and the suppression of the monastic houses, their house was disbanded in 1542, and the last Prior, Sir John Rawson (ca 1470-1547), became Viscount Clontarf.
Rawson was born in London and joined the order in 1497. who was appointed Prior of Kilmainham in 1511 and became Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1517. He was also an experienced soldier and took part in the Siege of Rhodes in 1522. Despite being ordained, he had fathered several illegitimate children. At the Reformation, he surrendered all the order’s properties, including Clontarf, in return for a pension and the title of Viscount Clontarf.
A memorial in the church recalling members of the Vernon family of Clontarf Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
An early church on what is now Castle Avenue, close to Clontarf Castle, was rebuilt in 1609, and this remained the parish church of Clontarf for over 250 years.
Over a period more than 130 years, between 1680 and 1811, the parish had only three rectors, all members of the one family: Adam Ussher (1680-1713), who was also Archdeacon of Clonfert; his son Frederick Ussher (1713-1766); and John Ussher (1766-1811), who was buried in Clontarf when he died at the age of 92 in 1829. And another Adam Ussher was curate of Clontarf from 1743 until he ‘died of fever and pleurisy on [a] Sunday morning’ in 1745.
Abraham Stoker, son of Abraham and Charlotte Matilda Stoker of The Crescent, Clontarf, was baptised in the church on 30 December 1847. He was later known as Bram Stoker, the author of the Dracula novels. The Stoker family later moved to Artane Lodge, but Bram Stoker’s younger siblings were also baptised in Clontarf.
The East Window in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
A key arrival in the parish was Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness (1798-1868), the grandson of Arthur Guinness, and a partner in running the brewery, who bought lands in Clontarf and Raheny to form Saint Anne’s Estate. He married his first cousin Elizabeth Guinness and all their children were baptised in Clontarf parish.
His cousin, Dr Arthur Grattan Guinness (1813-1897), practised and lived in Clontarf from 1843 to 1848, and many of his children were baptised in the parish.
Meanwhile, the church beside Clontarf Castle had become too small for a growing suburb, especially in the summer. The trustees, including John EV Vernon of Clontarf Castle, drew up plans in 1859 and raised funding to build a second church at the Dollymount end of the parish.
However, the Rector of Clontarf, the Revd William Kempston (1854-1862), told Archbishop Richard Whately of Dublin that the existing church was adequate for the needs of the parish, and the project was abandoned.
When Kempston left Clontarf in 1862, he was succeeded by the Revd James Pratt, and plans were drawn up for a new and larger church on the present site on Seafield Road.
The turret leading to the tower and spire in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The church was designed by the architects Welland and Gillespie in 1864-1866. William Joseph Welland and William Gillespie had been appointed joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in May 1860, following the death of Joseph Welland.
Both men were already working for the commissioners, and they held this appointment until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland on 31 December 1870.
During their 10 years in office, they developed an increasingly personal and idiosyncratic version of Gothic in the churches they designed. They are also known to have routinely signed designs for churches designed by other architects, often signifying their approval rather than work.
Inside the turret leading to the tower and spire in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 9 August 1864 by John Vernon of Clontarf Castle, who had presented the site. The cruciform church, with a belfry and spire could accommodate 700 people, and was completed over the next two years.
The new church was consecrated on 14 May 1866 by Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench of Dublin.
The altar and chancel in the Church of Saint John the Baptist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness’s eldest son, Sir Arthur Guinness (1840-1915), later Lord Ardilaun (1880), was elected to the Select Vestry of the parish in 1872. But in a letter from Ashford Castle, he declined the offer on the grounds of frequent absences from the parish. He also funded the building of All Saints’ Church, Raheny.
Another connection with the Guinness family came when the Revd Robert Wyndham Guinness served as curate of Clontarf in 1871-1874 until his appointment as Rector of Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.
The porch was designed by James Franklin Fuller (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The church was originally built without a chancel. The Kerry-born architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924), who received many commissions from the Guinness family, including Farmleigh House, designed the chancel and porch that were added to the church in 1897-1899. The contractor was JF Lidwill. The chancel was dedicated by Archbishop Joseph Peacocke of Dublin on 17 March 1899.
The many parishioners who fought in World War I are commemorated in an illuminated scroll in the church and the War Memorial Cross erected in the churchyard.
The War Memorial Cross in the churchyard at Saint John the Baptist Church, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Clontarf quickly became one of the largest parishes in the Church of Ireland in the mid-20th century, and a new school opened in 1952.
The centenary of the church was celebrated in 1966, and a new Parish Centre was built in the church grounds in 2007.
The Revd Lesley Robinson has been the Rector of Clontarf since 2013.
A rainy Saturday afternoon at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I was in Clontarf last weekend, speaking at the Clontarf Ecumenical Conference in the Church of Saint John the Baptist on Seafield Road.
I was in the church many times in the past, on Sunday duty for a previous rector, the late Revd Derek Sargent. But Sundays seldom appropriate opportunities to photograph a church and to inquire about its history.
This Church of Ireland parish church was built in 1864-1866 to replace an earlier church about 200 metres away on Castle Avenue, on the edge of the grounds of Clontarf Castle. But the first church in Clontarf is said to have been founded in the sixth century by Saint Comgall, Abbot of Bangor, Co Down, as part of the early Christian developments across north Dublin, perhaps from a base at Saint Mobhi’s Church in Glasnevin.
Inside the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Saint Comgall became the Patron of Clontarf and remained so until the 14th century, when the parish came under the oversight of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem and Saint Comgall was replaced as patron by Saint John the Baptist.
Clontarf was a central location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 between Brian Boru and the Vikings. The remains of a well supposed to have been used by Brian Boru are still pointed out on Castle Avenue, about 500 meters from the parish church.
A royal head on the west door, perhaps recalling Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
During the reign of Henry II, the lands of Clontarf passed to the Knights Templar, and when that order was suppressed in 1312, this became a preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, by then based on the island of Rhodes.
The Turks captured Rhodes from the knights in 1522, and the order re-established itself on Malta in 1530. Throughout those two centuries, Clontarf remained a possession of the Knights of Saint John. But at the Reformation and the suppression of the monastic houses, their house was disbanded in 1542, and the last Prior, Sir John Rawson (ca 1470-1547), became Viscount Clontarf.
Rawson was born in London and joined the order in 1497. who was appointed Prior of Kilmainham in 1511 and became Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1517. He was also an experienced soldier and took part in the Siege of Rhodes in 1522. Despite being ordained, he had fathered several illegitimate children. At the Reformation, he surrendered all the order’s properties, including Clontarf, in return for a pension and the title of Viscount Clontarf.
A memorial in the church recalling members of the Vernon family of Clontarf Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
An early church on what is now Castle Avenue, close to Clontarf Castle, was rebuilt in 1609, and this remained the parish church of Clontarf for over 250 years.
Over a period more than 130 years, between 1680 and 1811, the parish had only three rectors, all members of the one family: Adam Ussher (1680-1713), who was also Archdeacon of Clonfert; his son Frederick Ussher (1713-1766); and John Ussher (1766-1811), who was buried in Clontarf when he died at the age of 92 in 1829. And another Adam Ussher was curate of Clontarf from 1743 until he ‘died of fever and pleurisy on [a] Sunday morning’ in 1745.
Abraham Stoker, son of Abraham and Charlotte Matilda Stoker of The Crescent, Clontarf, was baptised in the church on 30 December 1847. He was later known as Bram Stoker, the author of the Dracula novels. The Stoker family later moved to Artane Lodge, but Bram Stoker’s younger siblings were also baptised in Clontarf.
The East Window in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
A key arrival in the parish was Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness (1798-1868), the grandson of Arthur Guinness, and a partner in running the brewery, who bought lands in Clontarf and Raheny to form Saint Anne’s Estate. He married his first cousin Elizabeth Guinness and all their children were baptised in Clontarf parish.
His cousin, Dr Arthur Grattan Guinness (1813-1897), practised and lived in Clontarf from 1843 to 1848, and many of his children were baptised in the parish.
Meanwhile, the church beside Clontarf Castle had become too small for a growing suburb, especially in the summer. The trustees, including John EV Vernon of Clontarf Castle, drew up plans in 1859 and raised funding to build a second church at the Dollymount end of the parish.
However, the Rector of Clontarf, the Revd William Kempston (1854-1862), told Archbishop Richard Whately of Dublin that the existing church was adequate for the needs of the parish, and the project was abandoned.
When Kempston left Clontarf in 1862, he was succeeded by the Revd James Pratt, and plans were drawn up for a new and larger church on the present site on Seafield Road.
The turret leading to the tower and spire in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The church was designed by the architects Welland and Gillespie in 1864-1866. William Joseph Welland and William Gillespie had been appointed joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in May 1860, following the death of Joseph Welland.
Both men were already working for the commissioners, and they held this appointment until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland on 31 December 1870.
During their 10 years in office, they developed an increasingly personal and idiosyncratic version of Gothic in the churches they designed. They are also known to have routinely signed designs for churches designed by other architects, often signifying their approval rather than work.
Inside the turret leading to the tower and spire in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 9 August 1864 by John Vernon of Clontarf Castle, who had presented the site. The cruciform church, with a belfry and spire could accommodate 700 people, and was completed over the next two years.
The new church was consecrated on 14 May 1866 by Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench of Dublin.
The altar and chancel in the Church of Saint John the Baptist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness’s eldest son, Sir Arthur Guinness (1840-1915), later Lord Ardilaun (1880), was elected to the Select Vestry of the parish in 1872. But in a letter from Ashford Castle, he declined the offer on the grounds of frequent absences from the parish. He also funded the building of All Saints’ Church, Raheny.
Another connection with the Guinness family came when the Revd Robert Wyndham Guinness served as curate of Clontarf in 1871-1874 until his appointment as Rector of Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.
The porch was designed by James Franklin Fuller (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The church was originally built without a chancel. The Kerry-born architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924), who received many commissions from the Guinness family, including Farmleigh House, designed the chancel and porch that were added to the church in 1897-1899. The contractor was JF Lidwill. The chancel was dedicated by Archbishop Joseph Peacocke of Dublin on 17 March 1899.
The many parishioners who fought in World War I are commemorated in an illuminated scroll in the church and the War Memorial Cross erected in the churchyard.
The War Memorial Cross in the churchyard at Saint John the Baptist Church, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Clontarf quickly became one of the largest parishes in the Church of Ireland in the mid-20th century, and a new school opened in 1952.
The centenary of the church was celebrated in 1966, and a new Parish Centre was built in the church grounds in 2007.
The Revd Lesley Robinson has been the Rector of Clontarf since 2013.
A rainy Saturday afternoon at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Clontarf (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
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