St. Thomas' Church

St Thomas’ Church stands at the end of Eglantine Avenue where it meets the Lisburn Road in south Belfast. Built in 1870, it occupies a gentle rise in the Malone Ridge, a once-fashionable suburb of large villas laid out between the Malone and Lisburn roads. The parish stretches from Elmwood Avenue to Adelaide Park and from the Malone Road to the Lisburn Road. A bequest from Andrew Thomas McClean funded its construction after local Anglicans found existing churches too distant. John Lanyon of the firm Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon designed the building and supervised its completion in under two years. Messrs Lowry and Son carried out the stonework using Scrabo sandstone dressed with red bands and coloured marble. The church is one of Ulster’s grandest High Victorian Gothic buildings, notable for its confident blend of Early French and Italian Gothic styles. Its tall nave is roofed in open timber trusses, while the chancel faces north because of the sloping site. Carvings of foliage adorn the nave columns, and the pulpit capital shows four angel heads. The chancel windows depict Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, framed by tracery and mosaics. Eight modern roundels beside the altar symbolise aspects of Holy Communion. About forty-five stained-glass windows, many by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, illustrate scenes from Christ’s life and well-known parables. Inside, the Hill organ of 1874 remains largely unchanged after enlargement in 1906. A peal of eight bells was gifted in 1870 by Robert Atkinson of the Malone Road. The adjacent rectory, also designed by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, is a red-brick house with contrasting bands and a carved angel above the door. The Reverend Paul Jack serves as the most recent rector.