4 Mourne View Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay two-storey-with-attic Victorian mid-terrace house; built c.1890 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 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 course. Walling is painted smooth render with dentilled moulded string course above ground floor canted bay window. Windows are round-arched 1/1 timber sliding sash to dormer and 1/1 timber sliding sash to ground floor; camber-arched uPVC replacements to first floor; continuous sills to canted bay.

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 is a window at first floor and at ground floor, 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; HB17/06/032E.

The west (rear) elevation was not viewed.

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

Setting

Set back from the street on an elevated site with small garden in shrubs to front enclosed by a smooth rendered wall. Original terracotta and black square tiles to front path.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: Timber
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 four first enters valuations records in 1890 as a house office and yard valued at £21 and leased from John Gordon. The initial occupant is John Symes followed by Andrew Harvey (1891). Subsequent occupiers are William John McCaghey (1901) Beattie (1902) and W J Holton (1908). At the time of the 1901 census the occupier was 26-year-old William John McCaghey who worked as an insurance agent and a book-keeper in a linen factory. He lived with his wife and two young children. In 1911 William James Holton, bank clerk, lived at the house with his wife and one-year-old son. The family kept a domestic servant.

Holton was followed by Alexander O Mulligan (1914) Alexander Small (1934) Bertie Boyd (n.d.) Morrison (40) and Sarah Elizabeth Morrison (51).

The First General Revaluation (1933/4) listed the accommodation as three bedrooms, two receptions, a bathroom, kitchen, pantry and scullery. The rent was £45 plus taxes and the house was revalued at £25,a slightly higher valuation due to the fact that it was one of only two houses in the terrace to have a garage.

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.1890. 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.