Elmwood Hall
{{About|the concert hall in the United Kingdom|the house in the United States|Elmwood Hall (Ludlow, Kentucky)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox building
| image = Elmwood Hall, University Road - geograph.org.uk - 60015.jpg
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| map_type = United Kingdom Greater Belfast
| map_alt = Map of the greater Belfast area, with the building location highlighted.
| map_caption = Location in Belfast.
| coordinates = {{coord|54.584186|N|5.937349|W}}
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Elmwood Hall is a concert hall and former Presbyterian Church on University Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland.Walker, Brian M.; Dixon, Hugh (1984). In Belfast Town, 1864-1880: Early Photographs from the Lawrence Collection. Belfast: Friar's Bush Press. {{ISBN|0-946872-01-5}} It is situated opposite Queen's University Belfast.
History
Elmwood Hall was built originally as the Elmwood Presbyterian Church. It was designed in 1859 by amateur architect John Corry, but not actually erected until 1862.
The pulpit and other internal furnishings were removed, along with the stained glass windows.Larmour, Paul (1987). Belfast: An Illustrated Architectural Guide. Belfast: Friar's Bush Press. {{ISBN|0-946872-10-4}} The stonework was restored and the golden weathercock was added by HA Patton & Partners in 1975. The polished granite pillars around the front courtyard had lost some of their elaborately carved sandstone capitals, but these were restored in 2000.
Queen's University Belfast converted the church into a concert hall and renamed it Elmwood Hall. The building was deconsecrated and for a time became the home of the Ulster Orchestra.
Following the closure of the Queen's University Student Union for redevelopment, the Mandela Hall team will be relocating many of their live concerts, comedies and student events to the Elmwood Hall until Mandela Hall re-opens in 2021-2022 within the new Student Centre.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/2018/06/15/news/end-of-an-era-of-queen-s-university-students-union-1356734/|title=End of an era for Queen's University Students' Union|last=Sweeney|first=Joanne|date=15 June 2018|work=The Irish News|access-date=22 January 2019}}
Architecture
The building has a mixture of styles, principally Italianate with a spire on top of a campanile. It has been described as one of Ulster's best High Victorian church designs – a triumph of eclecticism, where the combination of apparently discordant elements such as a Renaissance arcade with chunky Venetian columns, mediaeval machicolations, a classical cornice and balustrade, a Moorish well canopy and a French needle spire are all absorbed into a coherent but very elaborate Irish version of a Lombard Gothic church (Irish Builder).{{cite web| title=Report-Elmwood Hall| url=https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/elmwood-hall-church-belfast-sept-10.t53733| accessdate=14 January 2018| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114184311/https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/elmwood-hall-church-belfast-sept-10.t53733| archive-date=14 January 2018}}
Behind the polychrome freestone façade, the interior is surprisingly large, having a great width uninterrupted by roof supports, and a deep gallery running back over both vestibule and loggia, reached by a winding staircase beneath the tower (which, while part of the 1859 design, was added in 1872).
References
{{Commons category|Elmwood Hall, Belfast}}
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{{coord|54.5863|-5.9363|display=title|region:GB_scale:2000}}
Category:Queen's University Belfast
Category:Buildings and structures in Belfast
Category:Concert halls in Northern Ireland
Category:Former Presbyterian churches
Category:Churches completed in 1862