Second Presbyterian Church And Hall, Strand Road, Londonderry

Second Presbyterian Church and Hall, Strand Road, Londonderry

A Gothic-style three-bay gabled Presbyterian church built in 1847 to designs by Stewart Gordon. The church is constructed of random rubble local schist with Barony Glen sandstone dressings. It stands within a compact site that includes a church hall to the north side and a former school house to the south side. The building is located on the west side of Strand Road, set behind a low reconstituted stone and concrete wall with piers and iron railings above, in close proximity to the River Foyle to the north east. The site lies within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

The church is rectangular on plan with its principal elevation facing east onto Strand Road. The east elevation features a projecting central bay containing a Gothic-style arched doorway beneath an ogee hood-moulding, flanked by narrow angled and diagonal ashlar schist and sandstone buttresses. The entrance doorway is approached by a short flight of wide concrete steps with a concrete ramp to the left side and painted handrails. The central bay is flanked by tall lancet windows with a wider lancet light directly above the door. Pointed pinnacles rise from each corner of the schist walling. A two-stage octagonal sandstone tower, 60 feet high, rises above the central bay with lancet openings that are alternately infilled by blind timber panels and timber ventilation slats.

The south elevation of the nave is of random rubble schist and sandstone, five bays wide, with painted stone surrounds to lancet light windows. Cast-iron guttering is mounted on out-and-up iron brackets discharging to a uPVC downpipe. This elevation is abutted to the rear by a high rendered boundary wall facing onto North Edward Street, which overlooks the City Factory.

The west (rear) elevation presents a kneelered gable-end facing onto North Edward Street overlooking the City Factory. It has a rendered painted finish with coping stone and two tall lancet windows with painted stone surrounds and metal mesh grilles. The north elevation is of smooth-rendered unpainted finish and is abutted by the adjoining church hall along its entire length. The exposed section above the hall's roofline shows five equally spaced Gothic-style arched windows.

The pitched slate roof to the main church has black clay ridge tiles with two copper ventilation cowls centred on the ridge. Windows are lancets with coloured glass and margin panes.

Abutting the north side of the church is a 1960s rock-faced concrete hall with rendered dressings which projects forward from the church and school building.

To the immediate south of the church is a former school building, built in 1850. This structure has random rubble schist walls to its east gable-end elevation with a sandstone bellcote at the apex. The east elevation is abutted by a single-storey rectangular flat-roofed battlemented entrance porch with rendered 'lined-and-marked' unpainted walling containing a centrally placed shouldered window opening on a sandstone sill. The north side of the porch has a shouldered door opening with chevron timber sheeted double doors with plain overlight. The south side of the porch is blank.

The south elevation of the former school building, facing Patrick Street, has four shouldered window bays on stone sills. The north and west elevations are abutted by a rendered ruled and lined extension which has a shouldered-window bay to the right of a shouldered door opening on its south elevation. The former school house is fitted with uPVC rainwater goods and has a slated pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles.