Hughes House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A late-Georgian three-storey four-bay terraced office, formerly two separate buildings and now one, built c.1800 and located to the north side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre. Square on plan with full-height return and single-storey flat-roof extension to rear; return abutted at a 90% angle by a two-storey former stable block.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks having terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is painted ruled-and-lined render on a contrasting plinth. Windows are replacement timber sliding sash; 3/6 to second floor and 6/6 to first and ground floor, all with projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is five windows wide to second and first floor. Ground floor has large double-leaf timber-sheeted doors to former square-headed carriage-arch at right; to left of centre is a replacement four-panelled timber door, flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a plain entablature and segmental-arched overlight. Two windows to left of entrance, single window to right.

The north-west gable is abutted to second floor by adjoining building (HB17/04/010E). The upper section is blank.

The north-east (rear) elevation projects to right with a window to first and second floor and is abutted at ground floor by the single-storey flat-roof extension. To right is the full-height return with a variety of timber casement windows to southeast elevation; northeast elevation is abutted at a right angle by the two-storey former stable-block (now converted).

The south-east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB17/04/010B).

Setting:
Street-fronted and forming part of an early-nineteenth century terrace adjacent to Seapatrick Parish Church (HB17/04/001). The rear return is abutted at a 90 degree angle by a former stable-block forming a central yard.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current building was formerly a pair of dwelling houses, dating from c1840, and used as residences and consulting rooms for members of the medical profession. In recent years the two houses have been modified and can now be treated as a single building.

The Church Street terrace, of which the current buildings form a part, dates from between c1800 and c1865 but primary evidence suggests that the terrace was built up around a core of simpler buildings dating from the earliest days of the establishment of the town. As Banbridge has grown, the terrace has been rebuilt and improved, gradually coming to reflect the boom in the town’s fortunes brought by the growth of a worldwide linen trade. By the early nineteenth century, these Church Street houses were desirable addresses and the terrace could lay a fair claim to be Banbridge’s ‘Harley Street’ providing a series of consulting rooms and surgeries for doctors, dentists and even a vet. To this day, several houses in the terrace provide office accommodation for professional people.
Early maps of Banbridge are often highly stylised and open to a degree of interpretation but a 1703 map of the ‘Bann Crossing’ shows a single-storey three-bay dwelling in the vicinity of the current terrace which may well have been the first building on the site. A new bridge was erected across the Bann in 1712 and in subsequent years the town began to grow as a centre of the linen industry, holding the largest fairs for linen cloth in the County of Down by 1744. By this time the town was the property of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough who laid out the streets and encouraged people to build by granting sections of land at nominal rents in perpetuity added to which were ‘town parks’ or small farms in the neighbourhood of the town. (Linn; Magennis) Maps of 1755 and 1771 show buildings on the site as does the first edition OS map of 1833 but there are gaps in the terrace at this stage and valuation records show that the current buildings were subsequently rebuilt/remodelled. The current houses are shown as rectangular on plan with returns and outbuildings to the rear.

The houses which are today numbered six and seven, are treated throughout valuation records as two separate buildings. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) lists the occupants as J L Griffin and Mr Blackwood and dimensions are given for two houses, a return and a two-storey outbuilding, valued at £12 and £10. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation, the dimensions of the house have altered, suggesting that there has been rebuilding/remodelling c1840 and the second edition OS map of 1860 confirms that the building is now wider, closing the gaps in the terrace. George Tyrrell, the county coroner, and occupant of the neighbouring house is the likely developer. Number six is now the home of Captain George Bowen of the Royal Navy who leases the property from George Tyrrell. The house, offices, yard and garden are valued at £19 and £1 for the yard and garden. Dimensions are given for a three-storey dwelling with returns and two outbuildings one of which is thatched. The neighbouring building, also three-storey with two outbuildings, is valued at £16 but is vacant at the time of the valuation.

By 1871 the tenant of number six was Richard James Tyrrell, son of medical doctor George Tyrrell who was the owner of the house. (Will of George Tyrrell) The house passed to William Dobbin MD in 1879 and Dobbin remained resident at the time of the 1901 census. Dobbin was a General Practitioner and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland who lived with his wife and two adult children, his son a student barrister. The family kept a general domestic servant from County Tyrone. By 1911 the house had passed to physician and surgeon Robert Martin who had qualified in Edinburgh and who lived with his wife, his daughter and his widowed sister. A servant lived with the family, Margaret Kearney from County Leitrim. Subsequent occupiers were Samuel S Harvey (1922) and dentist, George Hamilton (1926). A photograph of 1911 has survived which shows numbers six and seven Church Street. Each house had a separate entrance and first survey photographs show that the separate door to number seven remained until the 1980s. It has now been replaced by a window. A chimney stack and the ornamental railings to the front of the houses have also been removed since 1911. (Young and Quail)

At the time of the First General Revaluation in the early 1930s George Hamilton was leasing the house from the Representatives of George Tyrrell. The house, offices and garden were revalued at £25. Accommodation comprised four bedrooms, two receptions, a surgery, kitchen, scullery and bathroom. The valuer commented that the house was in ‘moderate condition’ but ‘dark at back’. The plan and dimensions show the house and rooms over the gateway, and, to the rear, a return and scullery with corrugated iron roof, an ‘old building’ of glass, a coal store and an earth closet.

Annual Revisions lists the occupiers of number seven as James Morton (n.d.) Richard James Tyrrell (n.d.) Martha Woods (1871) Samuel Boyce Charles Smith (1882) Marion Radcliffe (1883) George G Tyrrell, solicitor and son of the owner of the building, (1888)(Belfast Newsletter, Will of George Tyrrell) Robert Dodds (1893) and Miss Canavan (n.d.). At the time of the 1901 census the occupier was Margaret Canavan, an unmarried woman of 35 who worked as a civil servant and lived with and supported her two sisters Lizzie and Edith. Canavan was followed by Alexander Rooney (1904) Thomas A Niblock (1906) and at the time of the 1911 census Dr James McKee an unmarried General Practitioner of 26 who was an Irish-speaker. Dr McKee kept a servant from County Tyrone, also an Irish speaker. A series of medical doctors followed, George Gordon took over the house in the 1920s but died in 1924 (Will of George Gordon), then came Dr J Connolly.

At the time of the First General Revaluation of the 1930s Herbert Anderson of the RUC leased the house from Henry McAleavey, and the house, offices and garden were revalued at £30. The accommodation comprised on the ground floor; ‘very narrow dark lobby’, waiting room, surgery, kitchen (tiled) and small scullery. On the first floor were a bathroom with ‘good bath’, lavatory and WC, two sitting rooms and on back bedroom. On the top floor were two front bedrooms and one back bedroom, a yard and offices in ‘poor condition’ and a small garden plot at the rear of the neighbouring house. The valuer commented that the house had been ‘considerably added to and renovated, in very good condition but not attractive as dark and cramped’. The plan and dimensions show the house and adjacent gateway, now part of number eight, that has been converted into a garage. There is a return and scullery to the rear together with coal houses and sheds to the rear. The rent was £52 a year in 1933 but in 1941 was reduced to £40, even though members of the RUC ‘usually had to pay top rents’ and the valuation was therefore also reduced to £25. In 1947 it was pointed out that the house no longer had use of the garden. Subsequent tenants were Henry Skehin (1942) and James J McAleavey (1946). The building has since been converted for use as offices.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL /1/B/348A Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64C Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7A-C Annual Revisions (1899-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/4 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/2/A/5 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
11. PRONI Will of George Tyrrell, died 5th May 1868
12. PRONI Will of George Hamilton died 24th September 1939
13. PRONI Will of George Gordon died on 6th April 1924
14. PRONI D695/M/1 Banbridge 1703
15. PRONI D695/M/2 County Down 1755
16. PRONI D671/M/1/7 Banbridge 1771
17. Belfast Newsletter 27th October 1862
18. Pigot & Co Directory 1824
19. Belfast Directory 1841/2
20. Post Office Directory 1843

Secondary Sources
1. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935
2. Magennis, P “Banbridge, An Illustrated History and Companion” Donaghadee, Cottage Publications, 1996
3. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
4. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Banbridge” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-storey three-bay late-Georgian terrace house, formerly two separate buildings and now one, built c.1820. The Georgian proportions and architectural detailing are largely intact although there has been some loss of historic fabric as a result of change of use to offices. Located on an early street and forming a terrace with No 5(HB17/04/010B) comprising some of the earliest development for the professional classes that is also part of a group (HB17/04/010A-G) demonstrating changes reflecting the boom in the town’s fortunes brought by the growth of a worldwide linen trade.

General comments

This record incorporates HB17/04/010D.