Dunbarton Street Presbyterian Church, 64 Dunbarton Street, Gilford, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

Dunbarton Street Presbyterian Church is a detached double-height Presbyterian church dated 1845, located on an elevated site to the north side of Dunbarton Street in Gilford. It is a good example of the restrained classical form of Presbyterian hall church and retains its original plan form and historic characteristics despite a later extension.

The church is rectangular on plan, aligned north-south, with a single-storey extension added to the north around 2000. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles over corbelled eaves, a raised verge parapet to the south gable, and a rendered chimney to the north gable. Cast-iron gutters are painted. The walling comprises ruled-and-lined render over a projecting plinth, with painted roughcast render to the south elevation.

The principal gable faces south and features a central entrance bay containing double-leaf timber panelled entrance doors with a glazed overlight in a square-headed opening with moulded stone reveal. This is surmounted by a flat pediment supported on console brackets. Single windows at first floor level flank the entrance, with the whole composition framed by double-height pilasters. Left and right bays each contain a single window at each floor, again flanked by double-height pilasters. The gable is surmounted by a plain frieze with a datestone reading 1845, leading to a moulded cornice and triangular pediment over the breakfront central bay. Windows throughout are square-headed 10/10 timber sliding sashes at ground floor and round-arched at first floor, all with stone sills. The west and east elevations are each five windows wide. The north gable, now abutted at ground floor by the extension, shows single windows at left and right at first floor level.

The church is set on an elevated site bounded to Dunbarton Street by coursed reconstituted stone boundary walls with concrete coping. Access is through double-leaf cast-iron gates supported on square piers, leading to a ramped approach to the principal entrance. The site is bounded to east and west by rubble stone walling and to the north by timber fencing.

The congregation grew rapidly following the establishment of Gilford spinning mill in the late 1830s. According to the 1834 Ordnance Survey Memoirs, there were only two Presbyterian meeting houses in Tullylish parish at that time, both some distance from Gilford. Around 1840, Presbyterians numbering approximately sixty families began holding meetings in an old corn mill on Mill Street. The Banbridge Presbytery formally recognised the congregation in 1843, and in 1844, Hugh Dunbar, proprietor of the mill, was approached for a site. The building was completed in October 1846 at a cost of £750, with generous contributions from other County Down congregations and from Hugh Dunbar himself. The architect is not known. The church was first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 and is listed in Griffith's Valuation as a Presbyterian church and yard valued at £45.

The interior was substantially altered over time. A gallery was fitted in May 1861 at a cost of £234.16 shillings and 10 pence. An organ was first installed in 1914 together with circular choir pews and new seating in the session room; the organ, supplied by Messrs Crymble of Belfast, cost £81. In 1938 a major refurbishment took place including re-roofing and redecoration costing £1,500, with wooden panelling installed behind the pulpit and a terrazzo floor laid in the vestibule. In May 1987 a special service was held following redecoration and the laying of carpet. In 1998 a large extension was opened to the rear containing a kitchen, minister's room, toilets, a meeting room and a boiler room.