First Holywood Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, High Street, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9AQ

First Holywood Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, High Street, Holywood

This is a freestanding, double-height Classical Non-Subscribing Presbyterian church built around 1850 to designs by Sir Charles Lanyon, one of the most important architects working in Ulster during the 19th century. The building is rectangular in plan and contains an undercroft accessible from the rear. It is a good example of 19th century Classical Revival architecture and displays many of Lanyon's characteristic features, including a bold in-antis Classical composition with Renaissance Revival detailing.

Exterior

The roof is hipped natural slate, concealed at the front by a balustraded parapet. Rainwater goods are ogee-profile cast iron, set on cavetto-moulded stone eaves over a brick eaves course to the secondary elevations. The principal south-facing front is finished in painted stucco, while the secondary elevations are built in roughly coursed rubble basalt.

Windows throughout are round-headed. On the classical front they have stucco archivolts and keyblocks; on the side elevations they are brick-dressed and set in shallow recesses that rise from floor level, with a moulded string at impost level continuing over the window heads to form the archivolt and keyblock. All windows have projecting stone sills, some painted, and secondary glazing. All doors are double-leaf, three-panelled timber with moulded architraves and brass knobs unless otherwise noted.

The south-facing classical front features a portico in antis supported on two Corinthian columns with pilaster responds and a full entablature. The antae are framed with matching pilasters, each containing a blind semi-circular-headed recess with a projecting moulded sill on scrolled brackets above a square panel, all with moulded surrounds. Three doors are set within the portico, each with a dripstone on ornate scrolled brackets and a blind arched niche above; the granite threshold is reached by three granite steps. Cheeks project from the main side elevations, each containing a high-level window.

The west elevation is abutted at its south end by a modern access ramp, which forms a boiler house beneath it accessed from the undercroft. The main body of the church is five openings wide on this elevation; a former window at mid level at the south end has been replaced with a door detailed to match the others. The undercroft is lit by four 8-over-8 margin-paned windows at this level. The rear elevation has a modern single access door at the centre flanked by two multi-pane timber windows, all set in brick-dressed openings. It is otherwise largely blank, with the exception of a rubble stone relieving arch at the centre. The east elevation matches the west, retaining the original mid-level window at the south end set above a modern access door to the undercroft.

Interior

The internal detailing is well preserved throughout and echoes the exterior in style, though in a less exuberant manner. Features of particular note include the original box pews and gallery, and two fine cantilevered circular staircases located within the antae. There are also several fixtures of historic and artistic interest. The undercroft now houses the original reredos from the church above, along with the original pulpit — a splendid piece of carved mahogany with four Corinthian columns — which was relocated there after the organ was moved from the gallery to a prominent position behind the pulpit. A valuation town plan dating from around 1867 to 1900 records internal divisions, the staircases, and the arrangement of the pulpit as they existed at that time.

Setting

The church is set back from the High Street in a tarmacadam site that slopes towards the rear, a feature which somewhat mars the setting. The site is enclosed on three sides by a tall rubble stone boundary wall with soldier coping, and fronted by cast-iron spear-headed railings with matching double gates. To the front stands a granite obelisk memorial to the Reverend Charles James McAlester, erected in 1891.

History

There has been a Presbyterian congregation in Holywood since 1615, with at least three previous church buildings on earlier sites. The first stood on a site below Shore Street now covered by the sea at high tide. The second and third were built on the same site in Shore Street during the ministry of the Reverend John Beatty (1737–1794), the later of these being built in 1790. In the early 19th century a large proportion of the congregation became non-subscribers who did not subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Being in the majority, they retained the meeting house, while the orthodox congregation built a new meeting house in Strand Street and later in Bangor Road. In 1847 the non-subscribing congregation launched an appeal for funds to build a new church; the building was opened for worship in 1849.

The church was largely paid for by the widow of John Suffern, a well-known Belfast merchant, and the construction work was superintended by Francis Ritchie, a felt manufacturer from Ballymacarrett. For some years after completion, the view of the front was partially obscured by a row of old houses. In 1854 the minister, the Reverend Charles McAlester — a prominent figure in the life of Holywood — opened a Select School in the large hall beneath the church. Nicknamed the "Underground Academy", it lasted at least until the 1880s, and among its pupils in the 1870s were the future Lord Craigavon and the future Dr Robert Praeger, the distinguished botanist.

Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records the building as a "Unitarian Meeting-house, yard and land" valued at £52, with an additional £1 for the yard, and there are no changes recorded in the subsequent Annual Revisions. The church has remained largely unaltered since its opening. It was thoroughly repaired and repainted by George McKnight in 1984 and again in 1996, and underwent a complete refurbishment around 2000.