Church hall, 76 Newry Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PZ

Church Hall, 76 Newry Street, Rathfriland

This gabled church hall, aligned north-south on the south side of Newry Street, was erected in 1896 as a lecture hall by the congregation of the 3rd Rathfriland Presbyterian Church. The hall now serves both the 2nd and 3rd Presbyterian Churches on Newry Street.

The building has been substantially altered. It has been re-roofed with new pitched artificial slate and features overhanging eaves supporting steel rainwater goods. The walls are unpainted lined cement render with a chamfered base course and band rusticated stucco quoins to the corners.

The north-facing front gable has a projecting timber bargeboard with two pairs of decorative timber brackets and a finial. The apex is infilled with diagonal tongue-and-groove sheeting, wavy-cut at the bottom. Two stucco panels on the gable, positioned above a moulded stringcourse, read "Erected" and "AD 1896". The front gable is abutted to the left of centre by an entrance porch.

To the right of the porch on the ground floor is a segmental headed window opening with a raised key block. It contains two fixed rectangular lights with a three-paned segmental headed transom (bottom hung) and original irregular coloured glazing. The granite cill has a moulded apron.

The entrance porch has a new pitched artificial slate roof with decorative fretted bargeboard on decorative brackets. Its front gable contains the main entrance: a pair of original painted timber doors, each with three stop-end chamfered panels with diagonal timber infill. The top panels are round headed with incised spandrels. The door case is an ogee arch opening with run moulded architrave, and a similarly shaped hood mould sits above the entrance. Left and right cheeks of the porch each have a single opening with a half-window, granite cill, and stucco apron.

The left (east) elevation of the main hall is three windows wide, all segmental headed and detailed as the window to the front gable. The right (west) elevation is identical but with additional external grilles to the windows. The south (rear) gable is abutted by a long low extension of 1989 construction.

The boundary to the south and east is enclosed by a high granite rubble stone wall. A lower rendered wall to the street frontage carries wrought iron railings with cast-iron heads. Large matching gates to the entrance door are held on tall (2 metre) one-piece granite posts.

The building has undergone much internal alteration and is considered to be of no special architectural or historic interest.