First Presbyterian Church, North Street, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, BT38 7AE

First Presbyterian Church, North Street, Carrickfergus

A double-height Italianate Presbyterian Church dating from 1827, with its front elevation remodelled around 1860. The building is Grade B1 listed and situated on the west side of North Street within a conservation area, set back from the street in a tarmac parking lot.

The church is rectangular on plan, facing east, with an early-nineteenth-century gabled full-height organ outshot to the rear. The roof is hipped with natural slate, finished with blue and black angled hip and ridge tiles and replacement moulded metal gutters. The walling is painted smooth render over a plinth with V-jointed quoins.

The principal east elevation is symmetrical and dominated by a central pedimented breakfront with dressed stone quoins, a frieze with cornice, and a leaded parapet to the right end. The left end is surmounted by a belfry stage. The ground and first floors are separated by a platband over V-jointed banded rustication. The breakfront is flanked by paired Giant Order pilasters with full Ionic entablature and a cornice-moulded pediment over. A date plaque embedded in the centre of the pediment reads "FOUNDED MDCCCI / REBUILT MDCCCXXVII."

The belfry tower is detailed as a church with a hipped roof, Scotia-moulded base, bracketed cornice, and round-headed louvred apertures with sills on brackets, moulded impost-courses, and hoodmoulds. It features a single aperture to each cheek, paired apertures to the front with a centred porthole over, and a single square-headed diminutive aperture to the rear.

Windows throughout the building are varied: most are painted timber casements in painted reveals with painted stone sills. The round-headed windows feature multi-light design with intersecting stained glass glazing above, whilst square-headed windows contain stained glass panels. The front elevation has been refenestrated with uPVC windows, which detract from the building's character. The south elevation is five windows wide with a window to each floor; the ground floor right-end window is a painted timber 9-over-6 sash. The north elevation also has windows to both floors; the ground floor left-end window is a painted timber 9-over-6 sash. The rear west elevation is centrally abutted by the organ outshot. Exposed sections at either side feature single mezzanine-level round-headed stained glass casement windows.

The interior is particularly fine, retaining many original features, with numerous high-quality stained glass windows throughout. The building is characterised by classical ornamentation typical of Presbyterian church building of its era and remains of considerable social and cultural importance to Carrickfergus.

A modern linking block has been attached to the rear, connecting the church to the modern church hall to the south-west, though this addition is of no architectural interest. The North Gate and town wall are located to the north, and the Church of Ireland Parish Church of St. Nicholas lies to the south-west.

Historical Context

The site formerly held a Presbyterian Meeting House erected approximately a century before the current building. The first stone of the present church was laid by Reverend James Seaton Reid in 1828, with construction completed in 1827 and a total cost of £2,000. The Townland Valuation of 1836 records a Presbyterian Meeting House on North Street valued at £59 15 shillings and 2 pence, together with a session house valued at £1 3 shillings and 10 pence, with a national school connected to the property. Griffith's Valuation of 1860 records a Presbyterian Church and yard, occupied by Reverend James White and leased from the trustees, with the total property valued at £35. Valuation Revisions from 1894 record no change in valuation. James Boyle's Ordnance Survey memoirs of 1840 describe an "Orthodox Presbyterian Meeting House" situated in a neatly enclosed space on the western side of North Street, near the northern centre of the town. The building comprises a vestibule or hall opening by two doors into the main body, which contained 79 pews, with a committee or session room on the gallery. The building appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and second edition of 1857, reflecting the area's development history.