Hydepark Methodist Church, Hydepark Road, Mallusk, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, BT36 4QB

Hydepark Methodist Church is a detached two-storey Methodist church dating from 1829, located on the south side of Hydepark Road in Mallusk. It displays simple classical detailing and has an unusual layout with the church positioned at first-floor level and a Sunday school beneath at ground floor.

The building is rectangular in plan with a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the west. The roof is gabled to the south and hipped to the north, finished in natural slate with timber bargeboards. Walls are rendered in roughcast over a projecting plinth, with platbands at sill height and mid-level, and painted rendered quoins.

The principal elevation faces south and features a central modern double-leaf six-panelled timber entrance door flanked by pilasters, with a round-arched-headed fanlight containing leaded stained glass surmounted by a moulded archivolt. To the left and right are windows with hood mouldings at ground floor; three further windows with hood mouldings appear at first-floor level. A blind oculus containing a datestone inscribed 'Methodist Church 1829' is positioned at the apex.

Throughout the building, windows are round-arched-headed timber framed, containing leaded stained glass within smooth rendered architraves and set with concrete sills. The west elevation contains five windows at first-floor level; the ground floor is partially abutted by the flat-roofed extension, which has a single square-headed uPVC casement window, with exposed sections containing square-headed timber framed casement windows in smooth rendered surrounds. The north elevation consists of a full-height smooth rendered band to centre flanked by two square-headed timber framed casement windows at ground-floor level on either side. The east elevation contains five windows at first-floor level, with a central square-headed six-panelled entrance door with transom light at ground floor, flanked left and right by square-headed timber framed casement windows in smooth rendered surrounds.

The church sits within grounds with a car park to the south-west, bounded on all sides by roughcast walling accessed via a pair of modern steel gates supported on square piers with stepped pyramidal coping. Rainwater goods consist of cast-iron half-round gutters with round downpipes.

The building is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The Townland Valuation of 1836 records it under exemptions as a 'Methodist Chapel with about one rood of land', valued at £17. The 1857 Ordnance Survey map captions it as 'Methodist Meeting House'. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records the building under exemptions as the 'Wesleyan Chapel and Yard'.

Despite modernisation, the church retains many of its original features, though it is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.