20 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace two-storey rendered former house, built c.1830, located on the east side of Main Street Hillsborough. Rectangular on plan, facing west with integral carriage arch to the north bay and two-storey over basement flat-roofed extension to rear. Now in commercial use to the ground floor.

Pitched natural slate roof with black ridge tiles and pair of rendered brick chimneystacks having clay pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins to either end. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement tripartite timber sash windows.

Front west elevation is four windows wide with an elliptical-headed carriage arch to the north bay. Square-headed door opening with smooth rendered surround and replacement timber panelled and glazed door opening onto two granite steps to the street. Above the door opening is a replacement 6/6 timber sash window. The carriage arch contains a modern steel gate giving rear access.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.18 (HB19/05/10), with boarded soffit to the carriage arch and painted rubblestone and brick wall exposed.

Rear east elevation abutted by L-plan flat-roofed two-storey over basement extension. Modern timber sash windows to the extension with concrete sills and exposed sash boxes. Steel steps and terrace supported on steel posts abuts the extension.

South side elevation abutted by neighbouring building No.22 (HB19/05/12A).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of two and three storey buildings of various periods lining the east side of Main Street. The rear plot has been developed with a pair of two-storey rendered townhouses, built c.2007, accessed via the carriage arch.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

No. 20 Main Street was built some time before 1833 as it appears on the first Ordnance Survey map for Hillsborough but does not appear on a plan of the town dating from c.1800. The house was built on former wasteground owned by a Mr. Bradshaw and is depicted on the Ordnance Survey and contemporary Townland Valuation map as a large square shaped building with an oblong out office at the rear of its yard (which was most likely the coach house), is depicted on the 1830s maps at the rear of the house. The Townland Valuation records that a Mr. Moses Tate occupied the house which was valued at £12.

By 1861 the house had lain vacant for some time but was occupied in that year by George Macauley, a local merchant, who let the house from the Marquis of Downshire. By that time the house had increased in value to £18. By this time the rear out office had been extended to the back of the yard and a number of small offices and houses are noted in Griffith’s Valuation. The valuer recorded the house as a 1B class dwelling measuring 13 yds by 8 yds and two-storeys high. Macauley occupied the house until his death in 1878. At that time he left effects of £300 to his widow Isabella Macauley who resided at No. 20 Main Street until 1886 (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 20/01/1878). In 1890 a Mr. William McCarthy bought the house from the Marquis of Downshire and let the house to a Ms. Eliza [Warren] who resided there until 1896 when James Magill, a Presbyterian grocer, ironmonger and oil merchant, occupied the house (Ulster Towns Directory 1910). James Magill (born c. 1865) lived at No. 20 Main Street with his wife Sarah and his three sons. The 1901 census building return records No. 20 as a 1st class dwelling consisting of 10 inhabited rooms and five out offices. Magill occupied the house until 1912 when the house fell vacant again. In 1914 a Mr. Joshua Morrow occupied the house and resided there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Walker tells us that Nos. 16 to 20 Main Street did not appear on an 1810 plan of Hillsborough and were therefore amongst the last of the houses to be built on Main Street (Walker). In 1974 Brett described the house, the ground floor then used as a furniture store, as ‘a four-bay two-storey house with coach arch, the ground floor and former three-light Georgian-glazed windows upstairs unhappily altered’ (Brett, p. 20); The windows have since been restored with Georgian-glazing. The building was listed in 1976 and in 1994 the ground floor became used as a craft shop. The first floor was converted into an apartment in 2007 when the ground floor was converted into a coffee shop. Since 2008 the ground floor has been converted into a delicatessen; no original features remain within the interior of the house as a result of these renovations (NIEA File).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI D671/M/8/25 – Hillsborough Map c.1800
2. PRONI D671/M/8/57/1 – Hillsborough Illustrated Map 1803
3. PRONI VAL/1/B/344 A-B – Townland Valuations 1834
4. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Town Plan 1834
5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
7. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
8. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
9. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930
15. PRONI Wills Catalogue – 1878

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.
2. Walker, S., ‘Hillsborough: An illustrated history and companion’ Belfast: Cottage Publications, 1994).
3. NIEA File – HB19/05/011.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Mid-terrace two-storey rendered former house, built c.1830 located on the east side of Main Street Hillsborough. There is evidence that the house was substantially altered during the mid-twentieth century when windows were widened and steel windows inserted. The front elevation has been improved in recent years with the addition of painted sliding sash tri-partite windows and although the majority of the building has been altered in ways that detract from its architectural character the front elevation contributes positively to the Hilsborough Conservation Area.