Although it was closed to the public in 2001, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is still one of the most talked about places of worship in Northern Ireland.
Located in Sailortown, the 130-year-old listed building was shut by the Catholic Church because of a declining congregation and it sits at the heart of an area heavily redeveloped over the past 50 years.
The church, known as “the chapel on the quays”, was built in 1880 on Princes Dock Street. It became a place of solace for four generations of Sailortown residents and almost as many foreign sailors, as it rose to dominate the dockside skyline.
Designed by architect T Hevey, St. Joseph’s was built using relatively soft sandstone from Dungannon and Dundonald, which means the Romanesque-style façade of the building has had to be replaced several times over the years.
Sailortown itself came into being in the mid-19th Century and was home to a mix of Protestants and Catholics. Driven by Belfast’s flourishing shipbuilding, engineering and linen manufacturing industries, it became a working class stronghold and the city’s first waterfront village.
Life for most of the residents in the close knit community, which saw Protestants and Catholics living side by side, was tough and Sailortown became closely linked to the trade union movement.
Its gradual demolition began in the late 1960s to make way for the M2 motorway and most of Sailortown’s inhabitants were rehoused. The last terrace of red brick properties was demolished in the 1970s and, today, only three houses from the original community remain standing.
