Helen's Bay Presbyterian Church, Church Road, Helen's Bay, Co Down, BT19 1TP

Helen's Bay Presbyterian Church is a double-height rubble stone Presbyterian church built around 1896–1897 to designs by the Belfast architectural partnership Young & Mackenzie. The building is located in a residential area west of Church Road, Helen's Bay, County Down. The foundation stone was laid by the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava in October 1896, as reported in The Builder, and the finished building was opened in May 1897. The builder was William Kerr. The listing extends to the church itself, the entrance gates, and the pedestrian gate.

The original design, as shown in surviving plans, sections and elevations by Robert Young and John Mackenzie dated 1896, conceived a three-stage tower with spire, of which only the first stage was ever completed. The church was built as a simple hall with this attached first-stage tower, with the intention of adding further tower stages and transepts at a later date. As a contemporary Belfast Newsletter report put it: "A portion only of the contemplated cruciform edifice is now erected… A neat portable pulpit is provided, which can be shifted when the temporary rere gable wall is removed and the church enlarged."

The roof is natural slate with a pitched form, raised sandstone verge with kneeler and finial to the gable, and a shallow pyramidal roof to the tower. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee profile on projecting sandstone eaves. The walling throughout is rubble stone — specifically greywacke from quarries in Ballygowan — with sandstone dressings and quoins, a chamfered plinth, and buttresses. The sandstone used for dressings came from Scrabo. The west elevation is smooth rendered. The vestibule features decorative ashlar block quoins.

Windows are generally paired leaded stained glass lancets with splayed sills set in ashlar sandstone surrounds. The principal east gable has a centred geometric bar-tracery window above three small lancet windows, with a gilded cast-iron clock at the apex. The entrance tower abuts to the left of this gable and features a Romanesque-style portal entrance with semi-engaged half-columns, a bead-moulded and dog-tooth pattern Gothic arch with label mould and carved head-stops — all intact. The heavy timber-sheeted entrance door retains its decorative cast-iron hinges and handle. A diminutive lancet window sits above the portal. The south and west elevations have further diminutive lancet windows lighting the vestibule. The south elevation is four bays wide, each bay containing a pair of windows separated by a buttress with sandstone offsets, with the right end obscured by the tower. The north elevation is detailed in the same manner as the south. The west (rear) elevation is abutted by a large modern extension, which is of no architectural interest.

The church contains a number of stained glass windows added over time, a pair on the south side being the work of Edward Burne-Jones RA. The organ, communion table, and a pair of bog oak chairs were presented by the children of Thomas Workman in memory of their father. The gilded cast-iron electric clock on the front façade appears, based on Margaret Garner's history of the church, to have been a relatively recent addition by 1958.

The building entered the valuation records in 1897 as a "Presbyterian church and land" valued at £38, with the surrounding land valued at £1. It first appears, captioned, on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02.

Helen's Bay was established at around the turn of the 20th century in an area of coastline formerly known as "The Sea Park", and was named after Helen Selina, Lady Dufferin, later Lady Gifford, the mother of the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. The Marquess conceived Helen's Bay as a seaside resort with superior villas, and had been encouraging building there from around 1870. He was initially unwilling to lease ground for a mission hall, and a tent was acquired in 1883 to provide summer services. From 1892, services were conducted in the Helen's Bay Temperance Hall. By 1893, discussions were underway between the Marquess and local residents about a possible church site, and Lord Dufferin ultimately donated a site free of all rent in 1895, the same year a congregation was formally established.

Thomas Workman of Craigdarragh was instrumental in arranging for the church to be built, having removed himself from Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church following a disagreement with its minister. The Workman family had previously played a significant role in the building of several other churches, including May Street, Elmwood, Fitzroy and Belmont. Thomas Workman subscribed £100 towards the church fund, with the total cost of the building coming to £1,600. At the time the memorial stones were laid in October 1896, Church Road did not exist in its present form and the golf club had not yet been established; the church was surrounded by fields and the grounds of large villas. As Garner notes, the builders showed considerable faith in the future growth of Helen's Bay in constructing a building capable of holding 200 people.

A new church hall was built in 1954–55 to designs by Mr J C Stevenson of May Street, Belfast, on land acquired to the rear of the church that had previously formed part of Lord Dufferin's private driveway from Clandeboye House to the sea at Grey Point. The hall was built by Messrs David Boyd of Ballymiscaw at a cost of over £3,000. In 2008 a new extension was opened connecting the old church hall to the church building itself. During this construction, the former vestry to the rear of the church was demolished and a new recessed pulpit area was created at the front of the church.

The church is set in an attractive residential street with houses dating from the early 20th century. The front boundary features a hedgerow and decorative cast-iron entrance gate, with hedgerow and timber fencing to the north and south. The grounds are lawned on all sides with a paved car park to the south.