Reformed Presbyterian Church, Regent Street, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT23 4LH

Reformed Presbyterian Church, Regent Street, Newtownards

This relatively small and simple two-storey gabled church was originally built as a Methodist Church in 1808. It stands at the east end of the south side of Regent Street.

The north-facing front gable features a gabled porch projection added in the 1970s, which has central timber-sheeted double doors set in a segmental arch recess. To the left is a modern window with a similar arch head. Three further similar windows occupy the right side, the third positioned within a flat-roofed section on the west side of the porch. The porch gable displays a high-level roundel plaque reading 'Reformed Presbyterian Church 1854' — the date the building was purchased from the Methodists — with raised PVC lettering below and a Reformed Presbyterian banner symbol in PVC above. The east face of the porch contains a squat modern window. The exposed section of the main church's north gable is blank with plain outer pilasters, a narrow parapet, and tall pyramidal pinnacles at the gable apex and ends.

The east facade has six semicircular-headed windows on the ground floor with a similar shaped doorway (timber-sheeted door with semicircular fanlight) positioned between the first and second windows. The first floor contains seven shorter windows of the same form. All windows have modern frames. The west facade abuts neighbouring buildings and appears to be blank, judging from the interior. The front and east facades are finished in lined and painted render. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates, with a Velux window to the east side and PVC rainwater goods.

The church was extended at the rear and a new porch added in the 1970s. The interior is plain, containing a modern hall and offices to the rear. A pine ceiling was discovered after bomb damage in 1993 and subsequently restored; it had previously been covered by modern tiling.

The building was described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1834 as "of the plainest description and is not, by any means, an ornament to the town". In 1854 it was sold to the Newtownards Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, which originated in Conlig in 1772 and transferred to Ann Street in Newtownards around 1795. The church appears on Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1858–60 with a smaller porch to the front.