Portstewart Presbyterian Church, Enfield Street, Portstewart, Co. Londonderry, BT55 7BC

Portstewart Presbyterian Church is a free-standing Edwardian pebbledash Presbyterian church built around 1904 to designs by the prominent Ulster architect Vincent Craig, and located prominently at the junction of Church Street and Enfield Street in Portstewart town centre. It is a well-preserved example of Craig's characteristic Art Nouveau-influenced style, and represents the second Presbyterian church to occupy this site.

Historical Background

The first Presbyterian church on this site was erected in 1827, described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as "a plain rectangular building 76 feet long by 29 and a half feet in breadth." It cost £500, largely raised by the local congregation; John Cromie of Cromore House granted the land in perpetuity and contributed £100 towards construction. The completed building could accommodate 500 persons, was lit by six windows on each side, and had a door in either gable. A datestone from this original church — reading "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, AD 1827" — was preserved and installed in the current building. By around 1860, an eastern extension had been added to the original structure, giving it a distinct T-shape; Griffith's Valuation of 1857 recorded the value of the site at £40, a figure that remained unchanged in the Annual Revisions right through to 1929, even after the construction of the present church.

Presbyterianism was the predominant denomination in Portstewart at the time: the Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that of a population of approximately 2,650, some 1,809 were Presbyterian.

In 1904, the Builder reported that the current church was under construction, its foundations having been laid in 1903. The architect was Vincent Craig, and a Mr James Kennedy of Coleraine was engaged to carry out the work. Early photographs of the town are said to show the original Georgian church prior to its demolition, with a notice in front advertising the erection of the new building.

The Architect

Vincent Craig (1869–1925), younger brother of James Craig (Lord Craigavon and first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland), was a Belfast-based architect who, having toured Europe during his education, developed a cultured and innovative approach to design, favouring the aesthetic of the Art Nouveau movement. He had previously designed Ballywatt Presbyterian Church in 1895 in a similar Art Nouveau style, and Portstewart Presbyterian Church bears a close stylistic resemblance to that earlier work. Scholars Walker and Girvan note that Craig's design was clearly influenced by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the primary proponent of the Art Nouveau movement in Britain, most notably in the parapet of the tower and the characteristic use of curved lines.

Exterior Description

The church is of rectangular plan with side aisles and transepts to the north and south, a chancel to the east, and a three-stage square entrance tower to the northwest. A modern extension to the east is of little architectural interest.

The roof is finished in flat red clay tiles (originally Ruabon tiles) with rounded ridge tiles; the tower has a tiled spire with a finial to the apex. Raised sandstone verges and kneeler stones are provided to the gables. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee profile on moulded sandstone eaves. The walls are pebbledash with red sandstone dressings, and the buttresses have sandstone offsets.

Windows to the sides are generally lancets with Art Nouveau-style glazing, sandstone surrounds, and chamfered sandstone sills. The chancel has pointed-headed leaded and stained glass windows. The large semi-circular-headed west window features Art Nouveau-style tracery broken by a Gothic cusped buttress and is surmounted by a label mould.

The west-facing principal elevation has a large tracery window to the gallery level and two windows with voussoirs at ground floor, divided by a buttress. The entrance tower to the left has corner piers rising to shaped parapets; three cusped louvred vents to each face of the belfry; a square quadrant tracery window to the second stage at the west; and a segmental-headed foreshortened window to the north with voussoirs and a decorative drip stone. The main entrance on the west is reached via five concrete steps and comprises segmental-headed double-leaf timber-sheeted doors with a cast-iron handle, set in a chamfered sandstone recess surmounted by joggled voussoirs and a hood mould.

The north elevation has three sets of paired lancets divided by buttresses, and a gabled transept to the left with an oculus over paired slender lancets.

The east gable is abutted by the lower chancel, which has a window to each face. To the right of the chancel is a vestry under a cat-slide roof, with a gabled entrance to the north containing a 1/1 timber sash window and a timber-sheeted entrance door.

The south elevation mirrors the north, with three sets of paired lancets divided by buttresses and a gabled transept to the right with an oculus over paired slender lancets. The transept is abutted to the right by the modern extension. To the left is a canted entrance porch set into the re-entrant angle, with a red-tiled roof and a pointed-headed timber-sheeted door in a chamfered sandstone recess. This porch is accessed by five stone steps with parapet walls topped by coping stones and original terracotta and black square tiles.

Interior

The interior is relatively well preserved and retains some good Art Nouveau detailing, consistent with Craig's approach to the design as a whole.

Alterations

An addition to the south-east of the church was made in 1959, designed sympathetically to complement the character of the original building. A double-height modern church hall has also been built to the rear; this is considered sympathetic in style and scale.

Setting

The church is prominently situated at the junction of Church Street and Enfield Street, to the east of The Promenade and to the south of Dr Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church. The surrounding area is largely residential. Modern three- and four-storey apartment blocks have been constructed directly to the south and east of the church. A tarmacadamed parking area lies to the rear.

The church is bounded along the road frontage by a roughcast rendered wall with saddleback reconstituted stone coping, interrupted by square piers. To the south, two rectangular piers support an original cast-iron latch gate. Angled piers with sandstone caps at the northwest corner support an original cast-iron gate with slide bolt latches.