Rathcoole Presbyterian Church, Rathmore Drive, Rathcoole Estate, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, BT37 9DP

Rathcoole Presbyterian Church

Rathcoole Presbyterian Church is a detached double-height brick Presbyterian church built in 1956 to serve the newly constructed Rathcoole Estate. Designed by Robert McKinstry, it was the second church to be built on the estate, following St Comgall's Church of Ireland in 1955. The church was opened on 27 April 1957 by the Moderator, Rev. Prof. R. J. Wilson.

The building is gable-fronted and rectangular on plan, facing north, with an attached single-storey flat-roofed church hall extending to the west. It is constructed in brown brick laid in Flemish bond with a pitched interlocking tiled roof with overhanging eaves and a copper-sheeted spire set at a slight angle on the ridge. The spire is detailed with angle ribs. A small brick chimney rises from the south gable, and metal box gutters are fitted to a timber fascia.

The north gable is symmetrically arranged with a uPVC door set to either side, each flanked by a single matt clay tiled panel in a simple yellow and brown pattern, all set within a cast concrete surround and surmounted by a two-part transom light. Each door is accessed by a set of concrete steps with metal railing. Three foundation plaques are located between the doorways. The gable apex is simply detailed with a series of louvred ventilation openings stepping inwards, with the central opening enlarged and infilled with a glass brick. Fixed vinyl lettering identifies the building.

The east elevation is divided into six equal panels by deeply projecting brick piers supporting the eaves. Each panel comprises a large 8-pane window above a clay tiled precast concrete lower panel, except the second section from the left, which is entirely glazed with a central door opening and precast concrete canopy. The south gable has a large central panel detailed as others and set in a cast concrete surround, with three small square windows at upper level to its right and two windows and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door to its left, accessed by a flight of concrete steps.

The west elevation mirrors the east in its division by brick piers, with a small glazed link block to the hall abutting the south end. The attached hall has a flat roof and brick walling. Its left section is recessed and glazed with two doors, spanned by an oblique precast concrete canopy. To the right are two rows of four small square timber-framed windows. The west side elevation has three rows of three windows. The rear elevation has five casement windows each covered with a metal grille. All windows are uPVC replacements with concrete sills unless otherwise stated.

The church is set in a tarmac car park with a community hall to the rear. The site is enclosed by mild steel railings and accessed by double metal gates on brick piers.

The Rathcoole Estate was laid out in 1952 on a site of 366 acres as part of a concerted attempt by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust to address critical housing needs. The estate contained approximately 3,800 dwellings with a projected population of 10,000 and was at the time the largest housing estate in Northern Ireland. In 1945, according to a Northern Ireland Housing Trust report, Belfast had the greatest average number of people per acre of open space and the most crowded living conditions of any major industrial city in the United Kingdom. Sixty per cent of the population lived in wards so overcrowded that to meet health standards only one-third of the residents would have been allowed to remain in situ. Belfast had an infant mortality rate of 97 per 1,000 births.

Prior to the construction of the church, the local Presbyterian congregation had assembled in a local greengrocer's shed. Rev. William Eoin Davison of Carrowdore was the first minister appointed by the Church Extension Committee. The roof was originally adorned with a glass tower, now replaced, which was intended to reproduce the Knockagh Monument, visible to the east. A system of recorded bells was given early in 1960 by Mrs. Florence Hall.

The church is functionally designed with a multi-functional layout common to Presbyterian churches of the period. The pulpit recess was originally fitted with a sliding screen which facilitated the use of the space for worship and as a more general hall space prior to the construction of the hall wing in 1971. The screen remains in place but is no longer in use. The church is a late and pedestrian example of mid-twentieth-century church building.