First Holywood Presbyterian Church, 7 Bangor Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0NU

First Holywood Presbyterian Church is a double-height Gothic church with tower, built around 1840 on the south side of Bangor Road in Holywood. It was designed by William Blackwood, the church's minister from 1835 to 1844, who also superintended its construction. The church is prominently located opposite the ruins of the Old Priory Church and was deliberately designed as an echo of that building.

The church is T-shaped on plan and constructed of random rubble with a slightly projecting masonry plinth. It features a three-stage entrance tower to the north with a castellated parapet and gabletted pinnacles, framed by semi-engaged octagonal piers. The tower rises 70 feet centrally above the building. The ground floor entrance consists of a pointed arched opening set in painted ashlar surround, accessed by five stone steps and surmounted by a replacement oak-framed door with glazed panels and multi-pane transom lights. The second stage of the tower contains a window with interlocking Y-tracery below a string course, and the third stage has window openings to all sides except the south, which is infilled with brick.

The east and west elevations are each four windows wide, containing leaded windows with stained glass panels and interlocking Y-tracery on the projecting gables. The remaining windows feature cusped timber tracery. Both elevations are punctuated by diagonal buttresses with rendered offsets topped by painted masonry pinnacles. Windows throughout are timber-framed with pointed heads and Gothic-style decorative tracery, set in painted ashlar surrounds with hood moulding.

The roof is pitched natural slate with painted masonry raised skews. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods are mounted on projecting eaves course, supported on wrought-iron drive-through brackets with cast-iron down-pipes. The east elevation is abutted by two small stone lean-tos with felt roofs.

The church first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 and is shown unchanged on subsequent maps through 1941. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 provides dimensions for the main church body and tower, and records for the period around 1867-1900 indicate a gallery had been added at some point during that time. In 1869, the traceried south windows situated either side of the pulpit, the vestry and school rooms were demolished to facilitate the erection of a large lecture hall.

The church underwent major refurbishment beginning in 1918, including roof replacement. The work was substantial enough that the roof lay open to the sky for most of a year, and the church did not reopen until 1921. Six new windows were added in 1966 and a suite of Church Halls was built in 1967 during the ministry of Reverend Robert Houston, named "The Houston Halls" in his honour. A complete refurbishment of the church interior took place in 1975, during which the original high-back pews with individual doors and umbrella stands were removed and given to the Ulster American Folk Park at Omagh.

The building has been substantially extended in recent years. Transepts were added to the rear, a further extension was added to the rear in the 1990s, and a large extension was added to the west side in 2004, which is particularly prominent. The church retains many original external architectural features, though many original interior fittings were lost during the remodelling in the early 1970s.

The church is prominently located within Holywood's conservation area and is set behind a curved stone boundary wall to front and east.