Cregagh Methodist Church

History

A temporary Methodist church was erected in 1894 at Clara Street, on the Castlereagh Road in Belfast. The congregation's history records that it soon proved too small and that the building deteriorated quickly because of its type of construction.

At a Leaders' Meeting on 8 January 1912 it was decided to build a new church on another site, but the plans were delayed by the First World War and by the cost involved. In the spring of 1923 an option was taken on a site on the Cregagh Road and the District Synod approved the creation of a new church, with financial support promised from the Forward Movement Fund, which had been set up to meet the cost of church extension as the population of Belfast grew. The church opened on 28 May 1927 at a cost of £9,379.

Auxiliary church halls were added in 1933 and a separate building, the Smilie Hall, in 1939. A youth centre incorporating the Smilie Hall and additional rooms was erected in 1972. A refurbishment of the main church building in 2005 removed the organ and pews, created a new gallery room and reconfigured the space at the back of the church.