Hall at Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Mill Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5EQ

Hall at Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church

This single storey gabled church hall dates from 1878 and was built to serve the adjacent Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church. It stands on a rise to the south of Mill Street, to the west of Comber town centre, with the church immediately to the north and the manse to the south. The building holds group value with these neighbouring structures.

The front north-facing gable features a central gabled porch with a panelled door surmounted by a semicircular fanlight with radial tracery. Above the doorway is a shield-shaped date panel inscribed '1878'. The shorter east and west faces of the porch each contain a narrow semicircular arched sash window with six panes over four. The porch roof overhangs with plain barges, a tie beam and brackets. Above the porch, set into the main gable, is a small roundel window. The porch and main hall roof are covered in natural slate with overhang; the north gable overhang features plain barges and a decorative tie beam with braces supported on brackets.

The west façade of the main hall has five semicircular arch-headed sash windows with Georgian panes. The fourth window from the left has been reduced in size to accommodate a recent doorway with wheelchair ramp beneath it. The north façade of the manse abuts the right-hand edge of this façade. The east façade originally had five windows matching those on the west, but a large modern flat-roofed extension added in the 1980s cuts across the three central windows, drastically reducing their size, though portions of their original frames remain. The far left and far right windows are intact. The south gable faces into the yard to the east of the manse and has a shallow lean-to structure attached, partly two storey and partly single storey, which abuts the east façade of the manse. The south face of the lean-to has narrow windows to the ground and first floors with modern frames; render markings suggest a doorway has been blocked up. A timber sheeted door with small segmental fanlight sits within a semicircular headed recess. To the right is another timber sheeted door with fanlight, alongside a sash window with Georgian panes of six over six. The single storey portion to the right contains a further timber sheeted door with plain fanlight. The lean-to's short north face has a timber sheeted door with plain fanlight.

The façade is finished in unpainted lined render with in-and-out quoins to the front gable and porch, and a chamfered base. All roofs are covered in natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast iron and PVC. The building is marked as a 'Lecture Hall' on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901. A stage is a recent installation. Recent alterations, principally the 1980s extension and window modifications, have detracted from the building's original character.