Congregational Church, 46 New Row, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1AF

Coleraine Congregational Church is a freestanding Gothic Revival stone church built between 1860 and 1862 to designs by Robert Moffat Smith of Manchester. It was constructed for a congregation established in 1836 by Reverend Dr Jephson Potter, and the present building replaced a smaller meeting house after membership more than doubled in the wake of the Ulster revival of 1859. The foundation stone was laid on 27th November 1860 and the church officially opened on 22nd May 1862, built at a cost of £2,000 to accommodate 340 worshippers. The contractors were Maxwell and Gailey of Derry. The building first appeared in valuation records in 1862 at £70 and is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904. Subscriptions were raised from members, and the Irish Society made a substantial donation of £200.

The church sits within a rectangular plot in an urban setting to the south-east of The Diamond in Coleraine, with its principal façade addressing New Row. It is a double-height building with a basement, single-celled and hall-and-tower in type, rectangular on plan with an L-shaped return to the east and two entrance porches at the western corners. A square-plan three-stage tower rises from the north-west porch and is finished with a steeply pitched saddleback roof, and constitutes one of the building's most dominant features. The roof is pitched slate with black and grey angled ridge-tiles, flat stone coping to the gable-heads, and overhanging eaves with half-round uPVC rainwater goods mounted on a plain timber fascia. A stone finial has been removed from the eastern apex.

The walling is roughly hewn squared-and-coursed blackstone, with roughly coursed rubble to the west gable, and sandstone dressings throughout. Strip quoins and a projecting sill course wrap around all elevations except the east. Buttresses generally rise to pointed heads; those at the western corners extend beyond the eaves and terminate in pyramidal pinnacles. Gothic detailing is restrained but consistently applied. Pointed-arched doorways sit within rebated sandstone architraves with a continuous hood mould rising from a string course on the west elevation. Doors are generally timber sheeted and braced, with pointed heads and ornate iron hinges.

The principal west elevation is dominated by a large five-light window at the centre, with cusped perpendicular tracery, flanked by similar twin-light windows to each side. The lower level of this elevation is lit by a matching rhythm of plain cusped-headed windows in squared surrounds. Porches to each side of the main elevation are accessed via stone steps and have double-leaf doors at the centre. The right-hand porch is gabled to the south, with a central lancet window and a squared timber-sheeted door to the east in plain surrounds. The left-hand porch has a mono-pitched roof abutting the main tower. The nave windows along the flanking elevations are twin-light with pointed arches, leaded and stained glass, with cusped heads, all encased within flush chamfered sandstone architraves with splayed sills.

The north elevation has four windows separated by buttresses with pointed heads, with the tower abutting at the far right. The south elevation is detailed in the same manner as the north, but without the tower. The east elevation is largely blank except for a high-level circular window at the centre, set within flush sandstone surrounds and containing a timber-framed Star of David. The lower right portion of the east elevation is abutted by a single-storey-with-basement mono-pitched L-shaped return in stone, dating from the later 19th century, with modern timber casement windows in square-headed surrounds with sandstone lintels and sills. The east elevation also forms part of the boundary wall and contains a single diminutive window. Large windows are present to the west and south elevations of this return, and timber-sheeted doors to the south, with a modern replacement door below at basement level; both doors are accessed via brick steps that were concreted in recent decades.

The three-stage tower has single narrow plain-glass windows to its lower stages — one square-headed and one lancet to the north and east respectively — blind loops and a trefoil to the middle stage, and studded timber sheeting to lancets in the east and west gable-heads, with moulded labels over.

The interior retains eight stone corbels described as beautifully decorated with floral carving in imitation of vine, ivy, oak and watercress, carved by P. Doherty of Derry. Valuer's notes from the 1930s confirm that the building was originally constructed with Sunday school rooms and a heating chamber beneath the church itself. A new pipe organ was installed in 1951 by the firm Evans and Barr, and in the same year a new pulpit was placed in front of the organ pipes, which remains in situ. The organ was refurbished by the Irish Organ Company in 1980, and the church itself was renovated in the late 1980s. The organ was refurbished once more in 2008.

The principal façade is approached from New Row via two sets of stone steps leading to the north and south porches. These steps are flanked by stone walls with saddleback coping and gablet caps, which support cast-iron gates and matching railings. To the north is a pebble-dash wall and walkway, with terraces beyond the yard to the south, which was being remodelled at the time of listing to provide universal access via the southern porch; this yard also contains a detached electrical substation. The site is bounded to the east by a rubblestone wall, with a replacement timber-sheeted door to the north-east yard and a steel door to the south yard. Remodelled brick steps give access from the enclosed north-east yard to the rear return and basement below.

The building was listed in 1977. It represents an important historical and architectural element within Coleraine, and retains largely intact architectural detailing. It also holds social significance for the local Congregationalist community, whose origins in the town date to 1836 and whose history is directly shaped by the religious and social upheavals of 19th-century Ulster. The listing extends to the church itself, its gates, and railings.