Moore Memorial Hall, Ballywatt Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry

Moore Memorial Hall is a detached church hall built in 1910 to designs by Vincent Craig, constructed in a free-style Arts and Crafts-inflected manner that Craig characterised as Art Nouveau. It stands within the grounds of Ballywatt Presbyterian Church, on the west side of Ballywatt Road to the east of Coleraine, in the townland of Ballywatt Leggs. The hall was named in memory of Miss Harriet Moore of Montreal, whose bequest funded its construction; a memorial inside the building records: "This hall has been erected to the memory of Miss Harriet Moore of Montreal in grateful recognition of her munificent request to the congregation of Ballywatt: 1910 A.D." The builder was R. Young of Ballymoney.

The building has a rectangular plan with a single-storey canted projection to the northeast, a quadrant corner bay set into the re-entrant angle, a gabled entrance porch to the northwest, and a large modern L-shaped extension to the southwest. The extension is sympathetically detailed to match the original hall and does not harm its character, though it is of little architectural interest in its own right.

The roof is pitched and covered in rosemary tiles with rounded ridge tiles, raised stone verges, plain finials, and kneeler stones. There is an octagonal chimneystack to the northeast gable and a broad ashlar sandstone chimneystack to the southwest gable. Cast-iron rainwater goods with cavetto moulding are carried on projecting sandstone eaves. The walls are built in random squared rock-faced blackstone with ribbon pointing and red sandstone dressings. A chamfered sandstone string course tops a tall plinth at the northeast elevation.

Windows throughout are bipartite mullioned leaded lattice with coloured glass, set in chamfered blocked sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills, unless otherwise noted. The northeast elevation features a gable abutted at ground floor by a canted projection with a hipped roof. The gable itself has a wide, shallow, segmental-headed rectangular tracery window with three cusped-headed lights, the central light being narrower than the outer two. The canted projection has a tripartite mullioned window with cusped heads. The quadrant corner bay at the left of the re-entrant angle is spanned by mullioned four-pane segmental-headed windows.

The southeast elevation has four sets of bipartite windows and is abutted to the right by the gabled entrance porch, which opens to the northeast. The porch has a timber-sheeted entrance door set within a pointed segmental-arched opening with a chamfered blocked sandstone surround, accessed by three concrete steps. Above the door is a lozenge-shaped terracotta datestone in a moulded surround, carved in high relief and reading "19 / MOORE / MEMORIAL / HALL / 10". The southwest elevation of the porch has a cusped-headed window, and the left cheek has a bipartite cusped window. The northwest elevation has six evenly spaced bipartite windows, with an offset buttress dividing the windows at the far left and at the north corner.

The hall sits on a large site bounded to the east by a roughcast rendered wall with roll-top coping along Ballywatt Road. Ballywatt Presbyterian Church, also designed by Vincent Craig and constructed in 1895 on the site of a meeting house dating from the 1830s, stands to the south of the hall and is accessed via a set of concrete steps with modern metal handrails. To the east of the site is a granite obelisk memorial dedicated to three members of the congregation who died during the First World War. A modern metal swing gate stands to the southeast, and a mid-20th-century cement-rendered single-storey hall of little interest lies to the southwest. The entrance from Ballywatt Road to the east consists of original square red ashlar sandstone piers with tall polygonal caps on chamfered pedestals, supporting original cast-iron gates, with a modern cattle grid at the entrance. The hall and church together form an important group in the surrounding landscape, both being fine examples of the work of Vincent Craig.

Vincent Craig (1869–1925) was the younger brother of James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He established his first practice in Belfast in 1891 and was known for favouring an aesthetic approach over functionalism, a characteristic also evident in his design for Portstewart Presbyterian Church (erected 1903–1905). His preference for the internationally fashionable Art Nouveau movement set his Presbyterian church designs apart from the predominantly classical approach typical of the Victorian period in Ulster.

The hall did not appear on Ordnance Survey maps until the fourth edition of 1922–31, although a datestone confirms its 1910 construction. Before the hall was built, the congregation used a smaller hall to the west of the church, which is visible on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904. Despite the construction of both Craig's church in 1895 and the hall in 1910, the valuation of the site remained unchanged at £10 until the cancellation of Annual Revisions in 1930. The hall was first formally valued in the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, when it was assessed at £65, owned outright by the trustees of Ballywatt Presbyterian. Its value was increased to £76 by the end of the second revaluation in 1972. The congregation of Ballywatt Presbyterian can trace its origins to 1748, when members broke away from the Ballyrashane congregation, along with members of nearby Roseyards and Derrykeighan, to join the Anti-Burgher Synod and form a Seceder cause in the parish. The current church building dates from 1895, constructed on the site of the earlier 1830s meeting house.

Following its listing in 1976, Ballywatt Presbyterian Church underwent a major restoration project carried out by J. S. Dunlop, who re-roofed the building in rosemary tiles, replaced the leadwork, repointed the masonry, and completely redecorated the interior. The congregation numbered approximately 166 families as of 2006. The hall continues in use as a hall and retains a high degree of architectural authenticity. Its listing extends to the hall itself, the gates, and the boundary walling.