Frederick Street Quaker Meeting House EHOD 2025

About

Originally sited in North Street, the Belfast Meeting House moved to its present location in Frederick Street in 1810.  A larger Meeting House, designed by Thomas Jackson, was built in 1839. By 1971, that building was in poor repair and a new Meeting House, designed by Gordon McKnight, was constructed to replace it.  All that remains of the former building is the street entrance. 

Quakers have always played a role in promoting peace and social justice. Elizabeth Fry made a number of visits to Ireland in the 1820s and 1830s. In Belfast in March 1827, she met with a group of women, amongst them Mary Ann McCracken, at Frederick Street Meeting House. The result was the formation of the Belfast Charitable Society’s Ladies’ Committee which championed public health and the welfare of poorer women across the city.  During the Troubles the Meeting House at Frederick Street was central to Quaker relief work.  In 1969 Belfast Friends formed an Emergency Committee in response to the urgent need of families in distress following the outbreak of sectarian violence that summer. Frederick Street Meeting House opened its doors as a night shelter for families displaced by violence. In 1971, what was by then called the Ulster Quaker Service Committee was involved in a number of community based, peace building initiatives and, following the introduction of internment, was invited to run a canteen for visitors to Long Kesh, the forerunner of the pioneering Visitor’s Centres run by Quaker Service at the Maze and Maghaberry.