2 Mourne View Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay two-storey-with-attic Victorian mid-terrace house; built c.1879 and located on an elevated site to the west side of Newry Road, south of Banbridge town centre. Rectangular plan with two-storey canted bay rising to a canted dormer and two-storey return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof (mineral fibre slates and modern rooflights to rear slope) with blue/black angled ridge tiles; hipped roof to attic dormer with leaded ridges and hips; rendered chimneystack with moulded caps and clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on dentilled eaves. Walling is painted smooth render with dentilled moulded string course above ground floor canted bay window. Windows are mainly 1/1 timber sliding sash; round-arched to dormer and camber-arched to first floor with continuous sills to canted bay; uPVC to rear.

The principal elevation faces east; two-storey canted bay window with dormer to left with window to each face on each floor (square-headed to ground floor, camber-arched to first floor and round-arched to dormer). To right at first floor is a 2/2 camber-arched window; ground floor has a replacement panelled-and-glazed timber door with elliptical overlight surmounted by a hood mould with carved foliate stops.

The south elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB17/06/032C.

The west (rear) elevation has a replacement uPVC window to ground and first floor right; abutted at left by a two-storey return (ridge level below eaves level of main block). Return has various uPVC windows and a modern uPVC glazed door to south elevation. Gable of return has a diminutive timber casement window and a uPVC window to ground floor. North elevation has a 1/1 window with margin panes to first floor left; remainder not viewed.

The north elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB17/06/032A.

Setting

Set back from the street on an elevated site with small garden in shrubs to front enclosed by a smooth rendered wall. Two-storey painted brick outbuilding to rear yard (shared with HB17/06/032A). Outbuilding has a two timber-sheeted doors and two 2/2 timber sliding sash window with brick sills to first floor.

Roof: Natural slate / mineral fibre slates
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: Timber / uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The house is one of a terrace of five two-storey-with-attic dwellings completed in 1890 by local developer John Gordon and let out to members of Banbridge’s aspiring middle classes and petty bourgeoisie. According to a current resident, John Gordon was involved in the Armagh rail disaster of 12th June 1889 in which 80 people were killed and 260 injured and received a large amount of money because of it. It was this money which allowed him to complete the terrace, construction of which had begun in the late 1870s. Two of the houses were completed and inhabited by 1879 and a further three were added in 1890. The terrace was originally named ‘Mourne Terrace’ and from the 1920s ‘Mourne View’. (Freeman’s Journal; Belfast Newsletter)

Number two first enters valuation records in 1879 at a valuation of £21 and is a house, office and yard occupied by Anastasia Wilson and leased from John Gordon. Subsequent occupiers were Hugh W McCammon (1887) Thomas Pyper (1888) Walter S Davis (1892) and Margaret McMillan (1893). At the time of the 1901 census the occupier was spinster Margaret McMillan who ran the premises as a boarding house. Her two male boarders, from Tyrone and Wicklow, were working as bank clerks. In 1911 her boarder was a teacher from Dublin. Subsequent residents were Bessie Holton (1918) Robert Hayes (1927) John T Gailey (n.d.) Bessie G Holton (1928) and William E Holton (1954)

In the First General Revaluation the house was revalued at £24 and the occupier was Elizabeth Holton. Accommodation comprised three bedrooms, two receptions, a bathroom, kitchen, pantry, and scullery. James Gordon, the then owner of the houses complained about the valuation as there was ‘a bad rere with practically no approach to rere, this is a considerably old house having been built many years ago and requires a good deal spent on repairs yearly’. The valuer commented that it was a ‘good type terrace house on outskirts of town’ but had no garden and there was no room to drive in a car at the back.

The house continues in use as a dwelling.

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/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/4 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/2/B/1/D
8. Freeman’s Journal of 13th June 1889.
9. Belfast Newletter 26th October 1889
10. Belfast Newsletter 18th August 1899

Secondary Sources

1. Owner information

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-bay two-storey-with-attic Victorian mid-terrace house; built c.1879. Forming part of a terrace of five, all similarly well-preserved with much of the architectural detailing intact. This group is an example of a late-Victorian terrace, all with proportions and detailing typical of the style. Although unchanged and associated with the development of the town centre during the mid-nineteenth century, the terrace is of a relatively late date and not among the best examples of the type.