13 The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced three-bay three-storey with attic over basement redbrick townhouse, built c.1780. Rectangular on plan facing south with flat-roofed return.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and shared brick chimneystacks to either end with clay pots, rebuilt to the west, larger rendered stack to the east. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to projecting brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Handmade redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing to a painted render extending to basement level. Square-headed window openings with rubbered brick flat-arches, painted masonry sills and early twentieth-century timber sash windows, 3/3 to second floor, 6/6 to remainder.

Three-bay three-storey over basement redbrick front elevation, showing evidence of a former central square-headed door opening, now replaced by a window, with a round-headed door opening to the left bay. Painted doorcase comprises: plain pilasters rising from plinth blocks to impost mouldings, archivolt moulding and keystone. Replacement timber panelled door, timber transom and replacement fanlight. Door opens onto granite step and granite paved platform extending to the central bay with eight granite steps. Steps and basement area enclosed by plain wrought-iron railing.

West side elevation abutted by No.12 (HB19/05/039B).

Redbrick north rear elevation abutted by flat-roofed single-bay two-storey return wiith an irregular arrangement of window openings having camber-headed window openings and timber sash windows of various dates.

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of four with three similar houses lining the north side of The Square and overlooking the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle. Enclosed garden to rear with rubble stone and brick walling.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

This house, named ‘Trumbull House’ by Lord Arthur Hill in the nineteenth century forms part of a terrace of four on the northern side of the Square dating from 1779. The house is shown, rather schematically, as a plain rectangle on an estate map of 1788. In a letter to Lord Downshire from his agent, John Gardner, dated February 1779, it is stated that, “we are now clearing the ground for the four houses to be built in the square”. The fourth house referred to has its entrance on Main Street. (Brett, p.89; Barry, p.40)

An estate map of c.1800 shows the house as the residence of the Rev. Mr Lassailles [sic]. Francis Edward Lascelles was curate at Hillsborough from 1795 to 1814 and married in the town in 1797. (Clergy of Down and Connor, Part II, p.84)

The house is present on the first edition OS map of 1833 and is listed as the residence of Dr John Cowen Paxton. It is a house, offices and yard valued at £10.10s. Dimensions are given.

In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), the house is the residence of Rebecca Halliday and is leased from the Marquess of Downshire. It is initially valued at £11.10s and later raised to £14. Dimensions are given for the house, a basement, scullery and two outoffices. The valuer comments that it is ‘twice as good a concern’ as its neighbour. Rebecca Halliday is listed in an 1866 street directory as a ‘china, glass and earthenware dealer’.

Many of the houses in the Square were given ‘Downshire’ names during the last quarter of the nineteenth century by Lord Arthur Hill who was the younger brother of the fifth Marquess and lived at Hillsborough Castle as his agent. ‘Trumbull’ is a family name of the Downshires. (Barry, p.40)

By 1878, James Harrison is in residence. In 1884 the valuation is reduced to £10, the valuer commenting that there are no outoffices by this time and that the valuation is therefore too high. A succession of tenants follows: George Allen in 1887, Jane Degg (1906) and William Jess (1923).

According to Brett, this house was for many years the home of the painter and poet Patric Stevenson (1909-83). Stevenson was a landscape painter who became president of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1970. Examples of his work are held by the Ulster Museum and the National Museum of Ireland. (Brett, p.89; Snoddy, p.633)

The house has remained in use as a domestic dwelling and was listed in 1976. Renovations took place in the early 1990’s including work to the roof. (NIEA file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/14 – Townland Valuation Field Map (c.1830)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/344A-B – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Townland Valuation Town Plan (c.1834)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14/A-E – Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
10. PRONI VAL/12/E/102/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan ([c.1864]-1909)
11. NIEA file – HB19/05/041
12. Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1866

Secondary Sources

1. Barry, John “Hillsborough, A Parish in the Ulster Plantation” Belfast: William Mullan & Son Ltd, 1982
2. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
3. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996
4. Snoddy, T “Dictionary of Irish Artists, 20th Century” Dublin: Merlin Publishing, 2002

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

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced three-bay three-storey with attic over basement redbrick townhouse, built c.1790 retaining its fine Georgian style and proportions. The house retains a wealth of original fabric both to the interior and exterior and conforms to the level of craftsmanship typical of its late eighteenth-century origins. With the overall composition intact and forming part of an impressive Georgian terrace, this house plays an important part in the setting to both the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle(HB19/05/076A).

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered was previously HB19/05/041