Holywood Parish Centre, 71 Church Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9BX

Holywood Parish Centre is a four-bay double-height former school, now church hall, built between 1876 and 1877 to designs by William Batt, with the contractor being William Nimick of Holywood. The building is constructed of Scrabo stone. It was originally opened as a National School by Rev Dr G R Wynne, Vicar of Holywood, and housed the Boys' School in the larger hall while the Girls' and Infants' School occupied the remainder of the building.

The building is L-shaped on plan with a full-height projecting gabled hall and two projecting porches to the front. A large U-shaped modern extension has been added to the rear. The pitched roof is of natural banded slate with terracotta pointed ridge tiles; raised sandstone verges sit on scrolled kneelers, with decorative masonry vents featuring trefoil moulding at the centre of the pitch. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on sandstone eaves with corbelled brackets.

The exterior displays fine architectural detailing with rock-faced walling and sandstone detailing throughout. Windows are equilateral arched leaded stained glass set in sandstone blocked surrounds with chamfered sills. Doors are timber sheeted with ornamental cast-iron strap hinges in pointed arch sandstone surrounds.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrical, with a projecting gabled porch flanked by paired windows. To the right is a projecting gabled hall with a first-floor triple lancet window (the middle window being taller), and a glazed gabled porch flanked by single openings to the ground floor. A sandstone scooped band to the gable reads "Parochial National Schools 1877". The gable of each porch carries a sandstone carved band: the right porch reads "Girl" and the left reads "Boys". The east elevation has two windows and a blind roundel. The west elevation, comprising the gabled hall, is five windows wide with a gabled dormer containing a blind roundel, and a projecting porch opening to the north at the far right. The south (rear) elevation is largely abutted by the modern single-storey U-shaped extension, with a full-height modern window to the centre.

The building was designed from two schemes supplied by William Batt; the first was considered too expensive and abandoned. The Irish Builder of October 1876 illustrated the original proposed design, which was to have been two storeys with the upper storey comprising a large lecture hall with a library or lecture-room. The design eventually built, as shown in the Irish Builder of January 1878, comprised a large girls' school with an infants' school adjoining, a commodious boys' school with a connected class room, and apartments for the caretaker, with proper ventilation arrangements and large play-grounds for each school.

In 1911, a yard and playground were added. Valuation records of this date show that the school had been considerably extended to the rear since the Ordnance Survey of 1900-02. In 1954, the church school combined with the Sullivan National School to form Holywood Primary School, which was constructed on a new adjacent plot. The former school remained in the hands of the parish church and received a complete refurbishment in 1999 as the Parish Centre.

The hall is situated in grounds shared with the parish church of St Philip and St James, south of Church Road near the centre of Holywood and opposite mid-19th-century terraces. The site is accessed from Church Road to the north through tall iron gates and railings, with a tarmacadam driveway leading to a car-park to the rear, enclosed by a brick wall. The building forms an important group with the parish church and retains its historic character as a prominent example of the work of William Batt, a prominent local architect.