Newington Presbyterian Church Hall Limestone Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT1 5GS

Newington Church Hall is a gabled, double-height church hall built in 1953 to the designs of Young & Mackenzie, a Belfast architectural practice historically described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as "the most successful architectural practise in Belfast" and "the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the North-East" in the late 19th century. The hall is rectangular in plan, constructed in rustic red brick, and is located on the south-east side of Robina Street off the Limestone Road, attached to Newington Presbyterian Church to the north-east and a six-bay single-storey building to the south-west. It forms part of a group of brick church buildings, all enclosed within a brick boundary wall.

The pitched slate roof has clay ridge tiles, overhanging eaves with a stone verge on a brick soldier course, and ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering discharging to circular downpipes. Metal-framed rooflights are positioned to the south-west and north-east. A rustic red brick chimney has a rendered chamfered coping and terracotta pots. The south-west corner features a raised parapet with flat coping. Rear extensions have flat roofs with raised parapets and flat copings.

The front elevation faces north-west and is five bays wide, gable-fronted, with a raised parapet to the south-west corner. Two square-headed entrance doorways — one to the north-east, one to the south-west — are framed by cast-stone chamfered surrounds with stepped heads, above which the words "NEWINGTON CHURCH HALL" appear in raised copper lettering. Each doorway contains a pair of timber panelled and glazed entrance doors, approached by a flight of concrete steps extending to the north-west, flanked by rustic red brick walling with concrete coping. The brick walling throughout features a two-stage brick plinth course, and the square-headed window openings have brick headers and painted sills with leaded coloured glazing. The south-west elevation is rustic red brick and attached to the adjoining single-storey building to the south-west. The side elevation of the stage-tower is red brick. The south-east elevation is gable-fronted with red and brown brick walling to the main building and red brick to the stage-tower, with a series of square-headed openings to the single-storey extension. The north-east elevation is attached to Newington Presbyterian Church.

The building retains its original Art Deco style doorways, stage area, and leaded glass windows, and is of architectural, historic, and social interest having served the local community since the mid-20th century.

The listing extends to the church hall, walling, piers, gates, and railings. The boundary wall to Robina Street is rustic red brick with artificial stone coping and decorative metal railings.

The surrounding group of buildings contributes significantly to the interest of the site. To the south-west stands a five-bay single-storey building with a flat roof, raised parapet, and painted coping. Its red brick walling is articulated by buttresses to each bay with artificial stone copings and a rendered band above each buttress. The paired segment-headed window openings have painted stone sills with metal-framed windows, and there is a flat-roof entrance porch to the north-east. Rock-faced coursed sandstone piers with decorative metal railings mark the west and south boundary. To the south stands a five-bay two-storey former school house with a pitched slate roof on a raised brick eaves course. The south-west elevation has red brick walling and a string course over the ground-floor window headers; the south-east gable is rendered. Segment-headed openings have red brick headers and stone sills with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows and timber panelled entrance doors. A terracotta plaque carved with "NEWINGTON CHURCH BUILDINGS 1897" is fixed to the south-west elevation. This school house dates from the first phase of buildings on site around 1897 and retains original features including its roof structure, which comprises original timber trusses and later steel ties. To the south-east is a three-bay single-storey building with a pitched slate roof, red brick walling, and square-headed openings with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows. Its interior has an exposed timber truss roof supported by a steel tensile structure, and it adjoins the church hall to the north-east. The adjoining community hall, rebuilt by the local community, is of some technological interest owing to the size of the concrete beams to its roof.

The history of the site is substantial. The original church on the corner of Limestone Road and Robina Street was built in 1874–75, also to the designs of Young & Mackenzie, and constructed of locally quarried Dundonald red sandstone with Scrabo dressings and white string-courses. It was Gothic in style, measuring 63 feet by 40 feet and rising to a height of 50 feet, with construction estimated at £2,000. The memorial stone was laid by Sir Edward Coey, a local magistrate, on 9th July 1874, and the church was officially opened on 22nd August 1875, valued at £130 in the Annual Revisions that year though exempt from taxation. A school house to the south-west was noted at the same time. A first lecture hall was added to the complex in 1886–87, later valued at £25 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland.

Newington Presbyterian Church and its lecture hall were completely destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs during the Belfast Blitz on the night of 15–16th April 1941. For approximately a decade the congregation met in a single-storey hall hastily made ready for services. The foundation stone of the current church was laid on 30th May 1951 by the Right Reverend J. H. R. Gibson, Moderator of the General Assembly. Young & Mackenzie again served as architects, designing a gabled red-brick church in what Paul Larmour describes as an "indeterminate style that was common just after the war, in which old and new were blended together" — a style he also associates with the firm's contemporary Cavehill Methodist Church. The builders were Messrs F. B. McKee & Co. Ltd. The new church was officially opened on 20th September 1952, and the adjoining lecture hall, also designed by Young & Mackenzie, was opened on 5th September 1953. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, the church and hall were jointly valued at £1,040. The church continues to function as a place of worship and the hall for various church functions; membership stood at approximately 300 families in 2006.