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

Methodist Church, Gates and Railings, Sandys Street, Newry

Erected in 1841, this Methodist church is a single-volume structure of restrained classical design, with a façade gable facing south set obliquely onto Sandys Street. The interior, largely original and of dramatic double-height form, contains galleries on three sides. A later hall to the rear and a detached manse to the rear right (dating from the early 1870s, with the hall added sometime between 1873 and 1903) form part of the wider composition. The entire ensemble, including the attractive and unusual rear hall and the elegant front railings, is of special architectural interest, complemented by the quality of the adjoining buildings and the general setting.

The church presents a restrained exterior with a natural slate roof, pedimented gable, half-round cast-iron gutters, and circular downpipes. A circular copper ventilator sits at the centre of the ridge. The façade is lined with 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 and painted moulded stone cornice run across the façade at eaves level. At the centre of the tympanum is a moulded-edge recessed stone plaque bearing raised lettering reading "Methodist Church 1841". The platband and coping are returned to the thickness of the wall at the corners.

The ground floor of the façade is blank except for a central ashlar granite door case, raised on 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 supporting a granite entablature topped with 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 doors have stained glass transoms above. The central section of the façade is slightly recessed at first-floor level and contains a round-headed stained glass window. Similar windows to 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. Four equally spaced round-headed stained glass windows light the first floor. Below are three shorter segmental-headed stained glass windows aligned with the first three upper windows from the left. The wall under the fourth window is blank. All windows have granite cills. At the extreme left, the later hall abuts the church. The back gable is also abutted by the double-height hall; the exposed section of this gable is rendered and blank.

The right (east) wall is identical to the left wall but features four windows to the ground floor and a continuous rendered projecting platband at first-floor cill level. At the right, a short low rendered brick wall connects the corner of the church to the corner of the manse.

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

The hall's offset elevation to the front left (south) has a small opening casement with granite cills and segmental heads on each floor. The left (west) elevation contains three unequally spaced openings: at right, up one granite step, 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); and at left and centre, large segmental-headed sliding sash windows with wide margin glazing and horns. The granite cills are set high so the tops of these windows are just below eaves level. Above the door case is a short segmental-headed, margin-paned window with central pivot light, its head in line with the two windows to its left. The rear (north) gable has two high windows matching those on the left elevation, plus a small louvred ventilator high in the gable. The east façade likewise has two high windows matching those on the left, with two smaller windows below—both 1/1 sliding sashes above a short three-pane fixed light.

In the gap between the hall and manse, abutting the back of the church, stands a small outbuilding with a natural slate monopitch roof, half-round plastic gutters, and harled walls, with a timber-sheeted door topped by a four-pane transom. At the back of the hall, a narrow alley leads to a small single-storey outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof and an adjoining flat-roofed garage.

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

The church is listed within a conservation area and remains in active use as a Methodist place of worship.