First Non- Subscribing Presbyterian Church, John Mitchell Place, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2BP

First Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, John Mitchell Place, Newry

A T-planned Gothic Revival granite church and tower facing west towards John Mitchel Place at its junction with William Street. The building is constructed of squared random granite rubble with dressed granite buttresses and openings, and is roofed with pitched natural slate.

The main elevation comprises a gable end with a projecting tower and entrance at the right. The gable is surmounted by a stone finial and features a stepped buttress at its left corner. It contains a large traceried Gothic window with chamfered jambs and cill and a voussoired hood, with a small lancet vent above.

The square-plan tower rises three stages over a raised plinth and is surmounted by an octagonal stone spire. Stepped ashlar buttresses rise to the spire at each corner of the tower. The ground stage, which faces the street, contains the main entrance to the church: a pair of vertically sheeted timber doors with large iron hinges, set beneath a steep Gothic gabled and finialed porch. The first stage rises clear of the abutting gable and contains a louvred ogee-headed lancet opening flanked by identical blind openings on either side. The wall of the second stage is recessed slightly behind the general line of the wall and is delineated by three sloping cill courses at its bottom and a flat arch at its top, containing a pair of blind Gothic lancets. The tower is topped by an ogee-moulded cornice. The front cant of the tower has a lucarne at its base and small sloping buttresses on each flanking cant. The right elevation of the tower mirrors the principal façade except that the ground floor has three small ogee-headed lancet windows divided by colonettes at its base instead of a door. The east elevation is identical to the front elevation but the ground stage is plain. The left elevation is identical to the right side from the first stage upwards.

The right elevation of the church, forming the south-facing section of the nave, has two traceried Gothic windows with chamfered surrounds to the right of the tower, separated by a stepped buttress, with a small vent below each window. To the right is a gabled south transept with paired corner buttresses similar to the main façade. Its gable contains a window smaller than that on the main façade and a ventilation slit above, whilst its left cheek contains a lancet window. The left (north) elevation of the nave is identical to the right elevation except for a third window in place of the tower. The gabled north transept at its far end is also identical except for a steeply gabled porch on its right cheek, with the left pitch of its roof continuing to ground level.

The east-facing walls of the transepts are abutted by a block to the rear. A gable rises from the eaves at the middle of this wall and contains a small vent at its apex. At the back of the nave is a two-storey block set at right angles to it, running the width of the nave, with a natural slate gabled roof and walls of squared granite rubble with strap pointing. Its south-facing gable has a large segmental-headed window opening extending over both floors with a modern painted timber window insert. The corresponding north gable is identical but contains an original traceried timber window, with a lean-to porch to a basement door below. The east elevation of this block is abutted by a later extension, with a gable rising from the middle of this wall and a tall stepped chimney to its right.

A one-storey hall with a flat roof and cement-rendered walls abuts the rear. It features a granite entrance porch with a pair of modern doors and segmental transom light at its south end in the angle with the adjoining block. Along its back wall are three sets of nine-paned windows and a pair of three-paned windows.

The church is bounded by a squared strap-pointed rubble granite wall with splayed copings and gabled piers, pitched along their outside faces. Gabled and buttressed gate pillars rise from this wall. The front of the wall is surmounted by decorative wrought iron railings.

The pitched slate roof features coped and parapeted gables with a gablet at the bottom of each verge, half-round metal gutters and downpipes to the sides.