High Street Presbyterian Church, High Street, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9AE

High Street Presbyterian Church is a double-height stone Presbyterian church built in 1858 to designs by the prominent church architects Young and Mackenzie. It stands on the south side of High Street, Holywood, on a narrow site set back from the road with a pavoir forecourt.

The church is rectangular in plan with a pitched natural slate roof and a cruciform roof structure. The principal gable faces north and is flanked by stair towers. The roof has raised stone verges with saddleback masonry coping, sandstone kneeler stones, and gablets. Rainwater goods are ogee cast-iron on moulded painted masonry eaves. The walling is random coursed rubble stone over a chamfered sandstone plinth, with a crenellated parapet to the stair towers. Stepped buttresses flank the principal gable and are set diagonally to the flanking stair towers; quoins (some replacements) are present to the rear.

Windows are stained glass lancets set in chamfered ashlar sandstone reveals, with some replacement stonework. Triple arrangements of lancets appear to the gables. The principal entrance consists of a double pointed-arched headed door set in a replacement chamfered sandstone surround with a moulded head and rubble voussoirs. The doors themselves are modern glazed. The principal entrance gable has a triple lancet over the double entrance door, and each stair tower has a window to the north. Side elevations are each gabled at the north end with triple lancets; three openings wide to the remainder. The rear elevation is abutted by a gabled extension with pitched roof and roughcast walling, smooth render quoins, and a triple stained glass lancet with cement rendered reveals. A chimneystack projects from the wall immediately to the right of this window.

The original street boundary wall has been removed, though original rubble stone side walls with soldier coping remain, terminated by stone piers with diamond-pointed caps. Against the east wall stands an ornate carved limestone memorial with a slate plaque bearing an inscription to Reverend James S. Denham, who died in 1862. A narrow tarmac perimeter entry on either side is enclosed by steel security gates. A church hall to the rear is present but of no architectural interest.

The church was built to accommodate a new Presbyterian congregation formed in 1855 following the opening of the Belfast and Holywood Railway in 1848, which had increased the town's population. The congregation initially worshipped in Downshire Road, but these facilities proved inadequate. A plot of land was purchased in 1857. Robert Young of Young and Mackenzie was the architect, and the church was formally opened by Reverend Henry Gratten and Reverend John MacNaughton in 1858. The construction cost £1,000, with the builder being Samuel Moore of Morrow's Lane and plasterwork carried out by William Hayes of Marino. The church appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned as a Presbyterian Meeting House, and was listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1861.

A gallery was added in 1864, and in 1865 the church building was further enlarged with a schoolhouse built in the grounds. The schoolhouse was extended in 1870 and 1876, largely due to the efforts of William Shaw, who introduced features found in Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, New York. The schoolhouse appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900-2. An organ was installed in 1904 and electric light added in 1937. The Lecture Hall buildings were enlarged between 1916 and 1937. Between 1937 and 1976, the church underwent major renovations during which a bell-cote visible in a 1910 photograph was accidentally knocked down. The church has recently undergone changes to layout and extensive renewal of fabric, both inside and out, which have compromised its historic and architectural integrity. The internal layout and detailing have been substantially altered in recent remodelling. Despite these changes, the church remains of interest as an example of the minor works of these notable local architects.