Interior

The real significance of this church lies inside. Belfast has a great seafaring tradition, and the church was built to serve the spiritual needs of sailors coming into Belfast’s busy port. Over the years its interior has taken on a distinctly nautical theme, an idea introduced by the Reverend Samuel Cochrane in the early 1900s. Rev Cochrane transformed the interior “into a sort of maritime museum”, decorating the church with models of ships and lighthouses, in a departure from the usual conservative decor of Presbyterian meeting houses.

Everything about the church speaks of the sea and it proudly displays many artifacts that have been collected by or donated to the church and that give the building its unique character. Even its collection plates are the shape of lifeboats.  

A brass bell from the warship, HMS Hood (the pre-WWI predecessor of the more famous WWII warship of the same name), is rung every Sunday at the start of the evening service. It once lay at the bottom of the sea before being acquired by the church.