7 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace symmetrical three-bay two-storey early nineteenth-century red brick house with attic over railed basement, built early 19th century and remodelled c.1878. Rectangular on plan facing east on the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough.

Pitched natural slate roof with lead ridges and pair of rebuilt brick chimneystacks to either end and three lead-lined dormers to rear pitch. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to stepped brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, lime-wash rubblestone walling to basement. Square-headed window openings with original 8/8 timber sash windows (re-glazed with imperfect glass), and painted masonry sills.

Front elevation is three windows wide with a central round-headed door opening containing original timber tripartite doorcase. Timber door with four flat panels and iron furniture flanked by pair of sidelights and slender panelled pilasters supporting lintel cornice and webbed timber fanlight over. Door opens onto granite step and granite flag bridging basement area, flanked by decorative cast-iron railing embedded into low granite plint wall enclosing basement area to either side. Various original timber sash windows and masonry sills to basement level. Cast-iron former RUC wall-mounted street light attached to front elevation.

South side elevation abutted by No.9 (HB19/05/018).

Rear elevation is three windows wide with a central double-height round-headed stairhall window, reinstated c.1990. Remaining windows are camber-headed with timber sash windows, 6/6 to the ground floor, 8/8 to the first floor and originally 6/3 to the attic dormers. Rear elevation abutted by timber-frame conservatory to the basement level.

North side elevation abutted by No.5 (HB19/05/016). Carriage arch to No.5 reveals painted brick and rubblestone north party wall.

Setting:
Facing east as part of a terrace of varying house types lining the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough at the foot of the hill. Single-storey slated garage structure to rear yard also enclosed to the west by a two-storey rubblestone former coach-house with replacement roof and replacement steel casement windows. Single storey 20th century glass house to west of outbuildings with original brick, timber and glass frame and piped heating system and bolier house. Site extends as a long landscaped garden to the west. Rear accessed via carriage arch to No.5.

Historical information

On an early map of Hillsborough (c.1800), the site of No.7 Main Street is shown as a gap site. The current house first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map for Hillsborough where it is depicted as a simple oblong building. The Ordnance Survey and Townland Valuation maps indicate that in the 1830s No. 7 Main Street was a terraced house situated between Nos. 5 and 11 Main Street. A former coach house at the rear of the house appears on the Townland Valuation map as an L-shaped building at this time. The Townland Valuation book records that the house was owned by a Mr. James Bradshaw and was worth £14.

Griffith’s Valuation tells us that in 1861 the building was used as the local Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks (which also included No. 5 Main Street, former home of the Hillsborough Brewery Manager and at that time a residence for police constables (HB19/05/016)). The Barracks were let from a Mr. Hercules Bradshaw, a local magistrate and owner of a distillery in Culcavy. Bradshaw let both premises at a joint annual rent of £40. The valuer records the building as a 1+ house measuring 15 by 9 yards and two-storeys high; a small additional house and a number of large offices are also noted in the valuation record including the current coach house. Nos. 5 and 7 Main Street were valued at £35. in 1861, however in 1878 No. 5 was listed as a separate dwelling and the Barracks was reduced in value to £24. 5s. The Police Barracks was exempt from valuation and in 1896 was bought by the Marquis of Downshire. In 1901 the Ulster Town Directory recorded that a Sergeant Wilson and Constables Lamont, Lynch, Leonard and Boyd worked in the Barracks. By 1910 this detachment had been replaced by a Sergeant Walker and Constables Noble, Mulholland, Keane and Wilson (Ulster Town Directory 1901; 1910). There was little change to the premises until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 after which the Barracks was used as an office for the War Department. It was still occupied by the War Department until 1924, perhaps due to the revolutionary violence prevalent throughout the country in the aftermath of the Great War. Following partition the Barracks continued as the Royal Ulster Constabulary headquarters for the Hillsborough area. By the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the Barracks were valued at £28.

Field inspection supports a date of c.1820; the owners believe that the house was refurbished c.1878, having found signatures on a wall during their renovations. The police station operated from these premises until 1938 and during the Second World War was used by American Soldiers who lodged in the attic space. At that time an upstairs hall window was blocked up for security reasons although it has since been reinstated by the current owners. The First Survey of Historical Buildings however, recorded that the R.U.C. Barracks continued to operate from No. 7 Main Street until 1967 (First Survey). In 1974 Brett described the house as ‘a good three-bay two-storey brick house, with uncommonly wide windows, 16-pane Georgian Glazed, semi-circular-headed three-light doorcase with cobweb fan’ (Brett, p. 22). Walker tells us that No. 7 Main Street was built at the same time as No. 5 but that both were likely to have been built upon the foundations of earlier 17th century houses as ‘the building material changes from brick to stone beneath the level of the railings, indicating that the street level in this area was raised substantially at some stage.’ The basement of the house still shows evidence of its former use as a cell (Walker). This former Police Barracks was listed in 1976 (NIEA File). The current owners have occupied the house since the 1980s. Owners have reported that the single storey heated glass house to west of outbuildings was built by previous owners and was used in 20th century to supply vegetables to the locals.

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. Ulster Towns Directory (1901; 1910).

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. First Survey Record – HB19/05/017.
4. NIEA File – HB19/05/017.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A mid terrace symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic over railed basement redbrick house, built early 19th century, refurbished c.1878. on the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough. The house has a well proportioned front elevation and retains much of its original fabric to the interior including the 1870s elements as well as some remnants from its use as an RIC / RUC barracks. An important building of both historic and architectural importance in a prominent town centre setting, it has group value with no. 5 Main Street, Hillsborough, (HB19/05/016), also formerly part of the local Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks.

General comments

Listing Criteria R, S & T also apply