Presbyterian Church, King's Road, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 9PU

Presbyterian Church, King's Road, Whitehead

A double-height Gothic Revival Presbyterian Church built around 1900, located on the west side of King's Road. The building is rectangular in plan with a square tower to the south-east, a double-height gabled projection to the east, and an attached single-storey link block to a hall to the north-west.

The roofs are pitched and covered in natural slate with concrete verges and a parapet to the tower. The walls are constructed of rock-faced squared-and-snecked basalt over a stepped plinth on the principal elevation, with red brick quoins and dressings. Offset buttresses with stepped weathering are a prominent feature. Red brick in English garden-wall bond is used elsewhere on the building.

The principal elevation faces east and is gabled with a central gabled projection. A pair of pointed-arched-headed rebated chamfered entrances are accessed by seven stone steps and are set within a pointed-arched-headed recessed red sandstone bay. The doors are double-leaf vertically sheeted timber, surmounted by a central cinquefoil roundel. This arrangement is surmounted by a string course and a central sandstone pointed recess with a continuous stepped string course. At upper level, a large pointed-arched-headed window with panel tracery is surmounted by a further stepped string course and a blind narrow slit window to the apex. This is flanked on either side by offset buttresses, diminishing to the upper levels, and small windows. Offset buttressing extends to left and right.

A four-staged square tower abuts the left side of the principal elevation, with set-back buttresses and stages separated by brick string courses. The tower contains a single window at the first and second stages, and two pairs of cusped round-arched-headed louvered openings in red sandstone surround at the third stage. The belfry stage is octagonal with sandstone quoins and contains a square-headed opening with paired cusped round-arched-headed louvered openings. To the right, a canted single-storey return with a window to the north-east abuts the principal elevation.

The south elevation has five pairs of windows at upper level, separated by buttresses. At ground floor, each bay contains a square-headed tripartite window with red sandstone mullions and segmental-headed voussoirs, with corbelled eaves. The tower abuts at the right, with a pair of windows to the second stage and upper stages detailed as on the principal elevation. Access to the basement is via stone steps through a segmental-headed timber louvered door. A modern hall abuts at the left.

The north elevation is detailed as the south elevation, with the hall abutting at the right and a return at the left. The west elevation is abutted by the modern hall, with the exposed wall remaining blank.

Windows throughout are pointed-arched-headed with stepped brick surrounds and voussoirs containing leaded stained glass, with flush red sandstone chamfered sills.

The site is bounded to King's Road to the east by hedging, with access through square reconstituted stone entrance pillars with recessed panels supporting a pair of cast-iron gates. To the south, a single gate is supported by brick pillars.

The rainwater goods consist of cast-iron ogee gutters and round downpipes.