1870 – St Thomas Church of Ireland, Eglantine Ave., Belfast

This area of Belfast underwent rapid expansion during the middle to late 19th century – as a prosperous and fashionable suburb with large, detached villas and grand terraces developed. Following a generous bequest for the construction of a new parish church, the architect John Lanyon of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon was appointed in 1866. Construction started in 1869 with St. Thomas’s consecrated on 22 December 1870.

Built of white Scrabo sandstone with finely dressed masonry round doors and windows, it is adorned with red sandstone banding and coloured marble discs and colonnettes to the tower and spire. In 1888 the church was further enlarged at the south end, to a John Lanyon design, when the southwest porch was added, as well as the internal gallery with its Gothic timber stairway. The interior with its tall, open timber-trussed roof is decorated with string courses and brickwork of contrasting colour, as well as carvings and mosaics. There are many very fine stained-glass windows throughout the Church, much of the pre-war glass is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London.