St. Philip & St. James Parish Hall, 92 Church Road, Holywood, Co. Down, BT18 9BX, (AKA Holywood Old School).

St. Philip & St. James Parish Hall

This picturesque single-storey gabled hall with part attics stands on the north-east side of Church Road in Holywood, its south-west-facing front façade presenting a characterful appearance that may owe something to late 19th-century renovation, though this remains uncertain.

Built in 1845 as a schoolhouse, the building was originally marked as a National School on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858. The growth in pupil numbers led to plans for enlargement by 1875, but when the landowner to the rear refused to sell on reasonable terms, an entirely new school was built on the opposite side of the road instead, designed by William Batt and completed in 1878. The old schoolhouse then became the parochial hall of St. Philip & St. James Parish, serving in that capacity until 1954.

The hall is constructed in lined render with a gabled roof covered in Bangor Blue slate, featuring a large overhang with shaped decorative bargeboards. Two brick chimney stacks are positioned symmetrically close to the gables.

At the centre of the front façade is a projecting entrance porch with a gabled roof, decorative bargeboards and overhanging eaves, finished in Bangor Blue slate and topped with a small finial. The south-west-facing entrance has a painted diagonal timber-sheeted door with drip moulding and label stops. To the north-west face of the porch is a small two-pane fixed window, similarly detailed with drip moulding and label stops.

To left and right of the porch are three equally spaced window openings, each with a moulded surround. These are sliding sash-and-case windows, six over six with fine margins. The south-east gable features a central first-floor semi-circular arched window with a multi-pane frame incorporating gothic tracery, and a centrally placed plain timber door at ground floor. Two small pointed arch-headed windows with modern fixed frames are positioned to the north-west, with a plain timber door at ground floor below.

The north side shows the edge of a fairly recent lean-to extension with a small square window. The rear of the building features a lean-to extension to the right side with a corrugated asbestos roof. The rear north-east wall contains three blocked window openings to the left, a blocked door opening, and two further blocked window openings to the right. There is an additional double door opening to the south-west of the lean-to. The south-east of the main building's rear wall has a small square first-floor window opening with a wider modern window at ground floor.

A lean-to was added to the rear around 1950. The building is situated within a conservation area and retains group value within its setting.