Methodist Church, 2 Moat Street, Donaghadee, Co Down, BT21 0DA

Methodist Church

This is a somewhat Mannerist, two-storey stuccoed Methodist church with a cupola, built in 1908–9 to designs by J. St John Phillips. It stands prominently on the south side of Moat Street at its junction with High Street, set within a sloping terrace. The building is believed to incorporate some of the fabric of an earlier church erected on this site in 1849.

The asymmetrical north front façade is dominated by a semicircular arch-headed entrance on the left side. The double timber doors are framed by plain pilasters with concave reveals and an archivolt featuring a plain keystone. The tympanum above is inscribed "Methodist Church". A plain frieze and moulded cornice rise directly above the keystone. Rusticated pilasters frame the door surround and rise through both storeys to support an eaves cornice and a small pediment.

To the right of the entrance is a slightly recessed bay containing a semicircular arch-headed window with nine Georgian panes; three further similar openings to its right have since been boarded over. All of these ground floor openings have moulded surrounds. On the first floor, between the left-side pilasters, is a multi-paned Georgian-style window with moulded dressings and a plain keystone. The recessed bay contains a similar window, with three further matching windows to its right. These rest on a moulded sill course framed by plain pilasters rising from corbels at the level of the ground floor window heads. The mouldings to the reveals of the four rightmost windows drop below the sill course to rest on a finely moulded and stepped string course.

The main roof is hipped and covered with natural slate, partly concealed behind a parapet with a heavily moulded copestone. An octagonal drum rises on the east side of the roof to support a slightly ogee-shaped faceted dome clad in copper. The drum is clad in horizontal timber boarding, and a tall mace-like finial tops the dome.

To the west of the church is a two-storey building containing ancillary rooms, meeting rooms, and stores. Its ground floor openings—comprising one tripartite mullioned window, a single window, and a single door to the right—are all framed with moulded surrounds surmounted by a plain frieze and cornice. The four evenly spaced first-floor windows rest on a sill course.

To the far right is a two-and-a-half-storey building. Its ground floor openings, including two single doors to the right and two single windows to the left, are all framed with decorative pilasters rising above the window openings to support a small cornice, with a small moulded keystone. Three evenly spaced first-floor windows feature heavily moulded shouldered surrounds with keystones, supported on corbel brackets located below a sill course. Three semicircular-headed windows with moulded surrounds sit within gabled half-dormers at the attic level.

The south (rear) façade comprises a large flat-roofed full-width single-storey extension added in recent years, fitted with modern windows, doors, and roof lights. The first floor of the church proper on this side features three evenly spaced semicircular arch-headed windows, the centre one having leaded panes. To the left is the first floor of the adjoining houses, fitted with modern window openings.

The interior and roof were destroyed by fire in 1976 but were repaired shortly afterwards. These associated buildings to the west and right appear to belong to the church complex, as their façades show stylistic similarities to the main structure.