First Presbyterian Church, Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DY

First Presbyterian Church, Frances Street, Newtownards

This is a large Presbyterian church of 1815, substantially modified and extended in 1994–95. The church stands on a rise on the north side of Frances Street, an elevated position that contributes to its austere and imposing appearance.

The original building was rectangular in plan with plain rendered walls and a hipped roof. In 1815, it cost £3,000 to build, the funds raised through congregational and public contribution. It replaced the earlier First Presbyterian Church whose roof had become unsafe. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the period described the building as "extremely large" but "not by any means handsome", though it noted the interior was "neatly fitted up" with 145 seats arranged to hold seven persons each, including those in the gallery. The church was extensively renovated in 1925, and a hall was added to the north in 1980.

In March 1994, the building was gutted by fire, completely destroying the interior. Restoration and reconstruction work was undertaken and completed in 1995. During this process, the church was significantly extended with the addition of a large full-height porch and stairwell projection on the west facade. This modern addition, whilst unmistakably contemporary with its large full-height windows and doors, blends successfully with the original building. The main entrance is located on the north face of the projection, with a further full-height gabled projection on its west face.

The facades retain a number of semicircular-headed windows to the ground floor and rectangular windows to the first floor. The south facade contains two timber-sheeted doorways at ground level and features a small roundel plaque crudely inscribed "Built 1815 The Rev. Ja McCulloug Pastor". A large single-storey gabled building attached to the north facade houses the session room and church offices. The east facade incorporates a full-height lean-to projection containing the organ workings, flanked by semicircular-headed windows at ground level and pairs of windows at first floor level. The render finish is lined to the lower half of the facades, plain to the upper half, with an eaves course. The main roof is hipped and finished in Bangor blue slates.

The church is approached by a relatively long flight of steps from Frances Street, with a high rendered wall to the east of the steps. Even by early nineteenth-century Presbyterian standards, the building possesses a notably secular, institutional appearance, an effect enhanced by its commanding hilltop setting.