1878 – St. Mark’s Church of Ireland, Dundela, Belfast

As the suburbs of Belfast were expanding outwards, William Butterfield was commissioned to design a new church for this parish. Groundbreaking for the new building took place in May 1876. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, Robert Knox, on 22 August 1878, after which it became a separate parish church from Holywood. The building was completed in 1891, with the addition of a chancel and two transepts, forming a cruciform structure. It is finished externally in red sandstone. Shortly after completion it was discovered that there was significant movement in the 150-foot-tall tower when a bell was rung. In 1955, a new peel of bells and a new bell frame was installed low in the tower, and the weight of the tenor was kept as low as possible to prevent movement.

Sir John Betjeman described St Mark’s as ‘Butterfield at his best’ – the ornate interior is quite magnificent. The church underwent a large restoration in 1976, led by Stephen Dykes Bower, a consultant architect to Westminster Abbey and the foremost authority on Butterfield.

The building and parish are particularly associated with C.S. Lewis as Thomas Hamilton, the first rector of St Mark’s Church and Lewis’s grandfather lived here from 1887-1900. Lewis was baptised in the church, and Lewis and his brother Warren donated a window to the church in memory of their parents in 1935.
Popular legend has it that the lion’s head door knocker of the rectory is the basis for the Lion in the Narnia Chronicles.