Christ Church Congregational Church, 90 Doagh Road, Abbot's Cross, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, BT37 9QW

Christ Church Congregational Church

A double-height brick Gothic-style Congregational church with concrete dressings, built in 1957 on a prominent site at the west side of Doagh Road, Abbot's Cross. It stands as a mid-twentieth-century example of ecclesiastical design, representing a confident but archaic approach to church building of its era.

The church is cruciform in plan, facing north. It comprises a diminished canted chancel to the south, flanked by single-storey wings; a lean-to linking block to the north with a single-stage tower to the east; and a single-storey flat-roofed hall to the north. The structure has a pitched natural slate roof with moulded concrete coping to brick verges and painted cast-iron downpipes to parapet gutters.

The walling is red brick in stretcher bond over a splayed concrete plinth, with a concrete stringcourse at parapet level. Buttresses with concrete offsetting are positioned between windows. All concrete elements are pre-cast. Windows throughout are double-height four-centred-arch leaded-glass with stained glass details in concrete splayed reveals, featuring geometric tracery with transoms and square-headed cusped windows.

The north-facing front gable is abutted by the hall. The exposed section features a square-headed tripartite cusped window surmounted by a roundel date plaque. The east elevation is abutted by a full-height transept at the left end, with three windows visible in the exposed section and a widened window to the transept; the cheeks are blank. The south gable's exposed section is blank. The chancel is flanked by wings at either end; its exposed section has three diminished windows with stained glass. Both wings have a tripartite cusped window, with one entirely abutted by the transept and the other featuring a single square-headed diagonally sheeted painted timber door. The west elevation mirrors the east.

The linking block and hall feature square-headed cusped windows. The tower has angled buttresses to its corners and a four-centred-arch-headed painted timber diagonally sheeted double-leaf door with wrought-iron strapwork in a rebated concrete surround with colonettes. The hall contains one central window and two square-headed replacement timber doors to the right end; the left end is blank and projects slightly.

The church complex is situated in a tarmac car park screened from the road by hedges, with a detached modern church hall to the northwest.

The building is not shown on the sixth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1936-8, although a previous building occupied the site. The church designs appeared in the Belfast Newsletter in 1958. The tower remained single stage due to lack of funds. It is believed to be one of the last ecclesiastical structures built solely as a church in the area.