Second Presbyterian Church, 10-14 New Row, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1AF

Second Presbyterian Church, New Row, Coleraine

This is a relatively grand and ornate Presbyterian Meeting House, built in 1831–32 to designs by brothers Ebenezer and Joseph Hastings, with its principal façade significantly embellished in 1891 by architect W. J. Anderson. The building is characterised by large-scale yet balanced proportions and a restrained application of decorative detail. Its site, set back from the main street line on the east side of New Row, allows the building to be appreciated to good effect from the south and west, making it a significant visual focal point within the historic fabric of Coleraine. It also carries considerable social importance for the local community.

Architectural Description

The church is a symmetrical, free-standing, double-height rendered building, rectangular on plan, comprising a central sanctuary with galleries over, running along the north and south walls, accessed via a breakfront entrance foyer. The 1891 façade takes the form of a Neo-Renaissance pedimented elevation with a round-arched porch. To the east, a complex of two-storey gabled halls and ancillary buildings, dating from around 1964, abuts the east elevation and is interconnected with the main church, though these are of little architectural interest.

The roof is hipped with composite slates and topped at the centre by a copper ventilation lantern on a stone plinth with a cupola over. Black and brown roll-moulded ridge and hip tiles are used throughout. Rainwater goods are uPVC, mounted on a projecting masonry course. There is a blocking course to the west elevation, above a heavy moulded and projecting cornice.

The advancing gabled façade is finished in stucco with Neo-Renaissance detailing, including impost and sill courses and urn-topped panelled corner pilasters to the first floor only, with this detailing echoed in the porch below. The remaining elevations are in unpainted cement render except where otherwise noted. Window openings are generally round-arched to the upper floor and segmental-headed at ground floor level, with projecting stone sills, plain rendered reveals, and timber frames containing largely leaded stained glass windows with storm glazing over.

The symmetrical principal elevation faces west and is dominated by an advancing gabled bay at the centre. Squared windows appear either side of this central bay, set above single-storey parapetted square-based volumes at the re-entrant angles; these volumes have rounded timber casements in projecting architraves to their side elevations and matching blind openings to the main elevation. The central bay carries windows with projecting moulded architraves to either side of centre, and a large round-arched window to the first floor centre that breaks through the eaves course from which its architrave is sprung, with a large projecting keystone adjoining the pinnacle of the apex. A single-storey porch advances over the central entrance door, with round-arched openings, an entablature with panelled blocking course above, carried on fluted corner pilasters. The entrance door itself is a round-arched eight-panelled timber door with leaded stained glass inserts.

The north elevation is symmetrical with five windows on each level. The north-east corner is abutted by a single-storey pitched outbuilding with pebble-dashed walls, of no architectural interest. The east elevation has two round-arched windows above a flat-roof abutment linking to the rear hall accommodation, and a small rendered chimney to the left side. The south elevation is detailed in the same manner as the north, except for some areas of pebble-dash to the walling; window reveals are in unpainted render with similar treatment to the sills.

Historical Background

The second Presbyterian congregation of Coleraine dates from 1727, when it was established after 90 families withdrew from the first Presbyterian congregation following their minister, the Reverend Robert Higginbotham, publishing his sympathy with the cause of non-subscribers. A meeting house was built on a narrow site on the east side of New Row in 1728 and remained in use for over a century, until the acquisition of an adjoining site to the south made it possible to rebuild on a larger scale.

The foundation stone of the new building was laid on 30th May 1831 by Hugh Lyle, the Mayor of Coleraine and an Elder in the congregation, and the completed church was opened in October 1832. The project benefitted from a generous donation of £300 from the Honourable the Irish Society. Church records identify the architects as brothers Ebenezer and Joseph Hastings, the latter a civil engineer and surveyor of public works in Belfast. Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that the building cost £1,600, was described as well built with a cut freestone façade, and measured 69 feet by 50 feet, though it was at that time hemmed in by houses on each side. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830 shows the previous meeting house on the site, while the second edition of 1849–50 shows the present building together with a sessions room built around 1835 to the rear of the pulpit. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists the meeting house at £80.

Gas lighting was installed in 1848. In 1863 a schoolhouse, minister's room and committee room were built behind the church. Around 1872, alterations were carried out to designs by Young & Mackenzie, including the excavation and construction of a boiler house beneath the sessions room. In 1875, further works took place including the enlargement of the gallery by removal of the rear wall and the fitting of new stained glass windows either side of the pulpit, later replaced in 1930. The architect for these later alterations was J. H. Coyle and the contractor was Joseph Esdale.

In 1891, William J. Anderson designed the new façade, which was executed by builders John Maxwell and William Callaghan, giving a classical gravitas to what had originally been a simple hall church. Valuer's notes from the 1930s record that the church could accommodate approximately 730 people, that it was lit by gas and heated by hot water pipes, and show a plan with a vestry to the rear, halls behind, and lavatories at the far eastern end.

An organ was installed around 1911, reflecting the increasing acceptance of church music among Presbyterian congregations. The church was renovated in 1930 at a cost of nearly £2,000, including replacement of the ceiling and gallery windows and the leaded lights either side of the pulpit; the organ was moved from the front of the pulpit to the left-hand side. The architect was J. Sheriff Kennedy and the contractor W. Currie. A new electronic organ was installed in 1939 but proved unsatisfactory, and a pipe organ was purchased from Messrs Jardine & Co of Manchester in 1953, the installation of which required alterations to the front of the church.

In 1959 the congregation was officially renamed New Row, though it had been known locally by this name for some years already. The old Sunday school and hall to the rear were replaced by a new building designed by Joseph Kennedy in 1964. The church was re-roofed in 1975 and listed in 1977. Subsequent works have included restoration of windows following bomb damage in 1992, refurbishment of the church halls in 2012, and the addition in 2007 of single-storey extensions to either side of the front elevation providing a disabled WC and a store. Membership today totals just over 500 families.

Setting

The church stands in an urban setting on the east side of New Row, a short distance from the centre of Coleraine. It is set back from the main street line and bounded to the west and south by a rendered wall with vertical metal railings and matching gates dating from around 1950. Neighbouring office buildings bound the alleyways to the north and south. The associated two-storey ancillary church buildings of around 1964, connected to the church via a small link block, extend eastward and line Society Street. The main path from the gates to the entrance, and along the south elevation, is laid with modern paving stones, with stone flags or concrete elsewhere. Sandstone steps and flagstones lead to the porch, with a modern paved ramp rising from the north and plain metal handrails throughout.