A three storey building bound by Fisherwick Place, Howard Street, Upper Queen Street and Wellington Street with a 40m high clock tower to the southwest corner.
Designed by Young and Mackenzie and built by Robert Corry at a cost of approximately £70,000. The building opened in 1905 as the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (relocating from May Street).
Previously this was the site of Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, a two storey building designed by Thomas Duff and opened September 1827. The church was demolished in 1899 to make way for the current Assembly Buildings.
Originally known as Church House the building comprises a large three storey semi-circular assembly hall capable of accommodating over 1,000 people.
The building underwent renovation work following bomb damage in the 1970s and was listed in June 1979 (ref: HB26/50/018).
Redevelopment completed in June 1992 created the Spires Shopping Mall and restaurant at ground floor and the assembly hall was refurbished for use as a public hire venue. The 1992 redevelopment project team comprised Gordon McKnight Partnership (architect), Gilbert Ash (contractor), VB Evans (QS) and Kirk McClure Morton (structural engineer).
The building underwent internal and external refurbishment during 2010-2011 at a cost of nearly £8m (£1m was provided by NIEA by way of grant aid).
The Presbyterian Church Of Ireland and Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects submitted a planning application (LA04/2016/2580/F) in December 2016 proposing to change the use of the ground floor from retail/café/mall/office to church/conference/exhibition/storage/office, create 1no. retail unit and alter the ground floor elevation with new entrance doors on Upper Queen Street. The application was approved in March 2017.
The Spires Shopping Mall will permanently close by end of summer 2017 and work to remodel and refurbish the ground floor to conference and exhibition space will follow.