United Reformed Church of St Columba

United Reformed Church of St Columba

The United Reformed Church of St Columba was originally built as the United Presbyterian Church between 1856 and 1857, designed by the architect John Dobson. Late 19th-century wings and an early 20th-century hall have been added subsequently. The building is constructed in the Italianate style.

The main structure is built of Prudham sandstone ashlar with red brick additions, and features a half-hipped and pitched Welsh slate roof. The plan comprises a main block aligned north-south with east-west aligned wings, and a further north-south aligned block attached to the rear of the east wing.

The main mid-19th-century block rises two storeys and spans five bays. The ground floor displays rusticated and quoined Prudham sandstone ashlar, with plain ashlar above. The roof is hipped to the north and gabled to the south, with two ashlar end stacks rising above a parapet. The front elevation features a projecting central entrance with a moulded and shouldered doorway set forward from a rusticated surround with moulded cornice, supporting a plain entablature and a pair of fluted brackets with heavy moulded canopy. A two-leaf half-glazed door with over-light is recessed within. To either side are two deeply recessed ground-floor windows with moulded surrounds containing six-over-six panes and moulded panels below. The first floor is articulated by six Doric columns and two square end pilasters rising from a plain string band to support a moulded entablature with dentillated and moulded cornice and balustraded parapet above. Between the columns are five keystone arched windows with moulded capitals and pilaster jambs, containing wooden framed round-headed windows. The east and west returns are of rubble construction with three first-floor arched windows each. The rear south elevation displays four arched first-floor quoined and arched windows, the outer two glazed and the inner two blocked with late 19th-century red brick infill, with a ground-floor window beneath the outer glazed windows featuring a flat lintel and sill.

The late 19th-century east and west red brick wings are of two storeys and basement, spanning three bays with hipped roofs. The west wing has a red brick banded gable end stack. Their front elevations feature rusticated ashlar quoins to the northern corners, moulded ashlar window and door surrounds, plain ashler eaves band and gutter cornice. The west wing has a central door surround with an early 21st-century reinstated doorway accessed by steep steps, and a window either side with bracketed and simply moulded surrounds. First-floor windows are three in number, all with two-over-two sashes. The basement is ashlar rendered with two early 21st-century reinstated three-light windows. The right return facing Howard Street has a two-storey bay window; the rear elevation abuts 54 Howard Street. The east wing features an early 21st-century banded and rusticated porch with lead-capped block pediment partially blocking one of three tall ground-floor windows with bracketed surrounds and lead pane windows. First-floor windows match those of the west wing. The left return has single windows on each floor with plain ashlar sills and lintels. An early 20th-century five-bay range extends from the rear of the east wing facing Norfolk Street. The east elevation features a gable-ended southern bay with stepped entrance sharing an ashlar lintel with a pair of top-light casement windows to the north above. A semi-circular first-floor window of three lights sits above, with a second-floor pair of single-light windows and a blind slit window set in the apex of an ashlar coped and banded gable end supported on ashlar brackets. To the north are four bays with four pairs of stone mullioned windows on the first floor and stone mullion and transom ground-floor windows. The west elevation displays four pairs of squat first-floor windows. The south elevation abuts 72 Norfolk Street. All windows feature lead pane glass except for a single basement window pair with ventilation grills.

The interior features an entrance vestibule with L-shaped staircases either side of the central entrance door, providing access to a U-shaped gallery of the double-height church. Adjacent to the stairs are doors into east and west rooms (former vestries); the east room provides access to the east wing via stairs with a 21st-century platform lift. Two mid-19th-century south vestibule doors (sealed in 2007) led into the nave and are decorated with moulded wooden architrave, pulvinated cornice and panelled doors. Current access is via a central 21st-century glazed entrance with two-leaf half-glazed door and subsidiary early 20th-century doors. The double-height chapel has a suspended early 20th-century ceiling with ventilation roundels. The choir and rostrum are panelled with pilasters decorated with laurel leaf and floral stops below a moulded top rail. The east and west walls below the gallery contain mid-19th-century three-over-three sashes (four to the west, two to the east, some boarded in 2021), together with a narrow light well. An east door provides access to the early 20th-century hall. The U-shaped gallery features wood panelling around the north wall and stairwell entrances, with wooden raked pews set behind a panelled parapet with each panel ornamented with a floral medallion motif and a 21st-century raised brass handrail. The gallery is partially supported by decorative cast-iron brackets projecting from ten columns.

At the south end of the church stands an organ by Forster and Andrews of Hull within panelled casework ornamented with sunburst carving, positioned behind a central rostrum and choir by Chapman of North Shields. Within Dobson's church are six stained glass windows: four facing south, one first-floor window facing east and one facing west. The two south ground-floor windows are by Leonard Evetts, the two first-floor south windows by Abbott and Company, and the first-floor east window by the Atkinson Brothers. Some early 20th-century woodwork furniture bearing the trademark mice motif is by Robert Thompson of Kilburn. The church also contains wall tablets, including one commemorating 16 servicemen who died during the First World War.

Floor levels in both wings do not align with those in the main church. The east wing is accessed through the early 20th-century porch into an entrance hall with stepped access westward into the main church, a corridor extending east to the kitchen, a staircase and an early 20th-century door leading into the church hall. Ground floor facilities and first-floor rooms are also present. The 1925 church hall features a main hall with wooden planked dado rail and framed panels to the walls, with access doors in the south elevation leading to store room and stairwell. The first floor has a segmental barrel-vaulted ceiling with rib panelled bands and similar framed panels and dado rail, with a south access door leading to stairwell and bathroom facilities. The west wing has been converted into four apartments.