Methodist Church, Gates And Railings, Sandy'S St., Newry Co.Down, See General Comments

Methodist Church, Gates and Railings, Sandy's Street, Newry

A restrained single-volume Methodist church with its façade gable facing south and set obliquely onto Sandy's Street. The building dates to 1841, as recorded on a moulded-edge recessed stone plaque with raised lettering set in the tympanum of the façade.

The church has a natural slate roof with pedimented gable, half-round cast-iron gutters, circular downpipes, and a circular copper ventilator to the centre of the ridge. The façade is lined cement render on a chamfered granite plinth with a painted projecting stone platband at first-floor level and painted stone pediment dressings. A broad raised render platband runs across the façade at eaves level, with a painted moulded stone cornice to the pediment. The platband and coping are returned at the corners to the thickness of the wall.

The ground floor is blank except for a central ashlar granite door case raised up three granite steps. The door case comprises four square columns with simple moulded heads, forming a large central door flanked by narrower side doors, and supports a granite entablature over which is a cornice and shallow pitched blocking course level with the platband. The central doors consist of three painted timber leaves (the right two hinged together), each with three raised and fielded panels. The side doors are similar, two leaves wide. All have stained glass transoms over them. At first-floor level, the central section of the façade is slightly recessed and contains a round-headed stained glass window. Similar windows to the left and right are centred on wall panels either side of this recess.

The left (west) elevation is lined render with a projecting stone eaves course. It has four equally spaced round-headed stained glass windows to first-floor level as on the front façade, and below them are three shorter segmental-headed stained glass windows in line with the first three upper windows from the left. The wall under the fourth window is blank. All windows have granite cills. A later hall abuts at the extreme left.

The right (east) wall is exactly as the left wall but has four windows to ground floor and a continuous rendered projecting platband to first-floor cills.

At the right, a short low rendered brick wall connects the corner of the church to the corner of the detached manse.

The later hall is aligned with its axis parallel to that of the church but offset to the left, so that it projects beyond the left wall of the church and is inset from the right wall. It has a pitched natural slate roof with verges coped in concrete, a rendered chimney rising from the wall head at the right, half-round metal rainwater goods, and plain lined render walls throughout.

The offset elevation to the front left (south) of the hall has a small opening casement with granite cills and segmental heads to each floor. The left (west) elevation has three unequally spaced openings: at the right, up one granite step, is a shallow projecting door case with a lead-covered pedimented head containing a pair of six-flat-panel grained timber doors with a segmental-headed fanlight over, now infilled with plywood to leave a small rectangular window. At the left and at the centre is a large segmental-headed sliding sash window with wide margin glazing and horns, with granite cills set high so the top of each window is just below eaves level. Above the door case is a short segmental-headed, margin-paned window with a central pivot light, its head in line with the two to its left.

The rear (north) gable has plain lined render walls on a raised base course with two high windows matching those on the left elevation. A small louvred ventilator is positioned high in the gable.

The east façade also has two high windows matching those on the left façade. At the left are two smaller windows, both 1/1 sliding sash above a short three-pane fixed light.

In the gap between the hall and manse, abutting the back of the church, is a small outbuilding with a natural slate monopitch roof, half-round plastic gutters, and harled walls. It has a timber-sheeted door with a four-pane transom.

At the back of the hall is a narrow alley, to the rear of which is a small single-storey outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof and an adjoining flat-roofed garage.

Along the Sandy's Street frontage is a wrought-iron railing with foliated arrowhead tops over a chamfered granite plinth. Cast-iron compound gateposts contain a pair of wrought-iron gates with horizontal quatrefoil motifs across the middle. A smaller side gate at the right is hung from a single gatepost.