12 Arthur Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-terrace single-storey with attic, Tudor-style Victorian workers house built c.1830; rectangular in plan form with a single-storey modern extension to the rear. Located off Ballynahinch Street, north of St Malachi’s Parish Church. (HB19/05/001)

Pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles over; dormer window centrally located, cast-iron gutters with uPVC downpipes. Replacement brick chimneystack shared with adjoining building with two clay pots. Walling is rubble masonry galletted with brick surrounds to doors and windows. Sandstone elliptical arched alleyway with long-and-short surrounds. Windows are modern top and side hung, double glazed, timber casement, painted white with lattice lead applied to face; sandstone cill with cement repairs; robust half circle sandstone label moulding, matching label-mould over alleyway. Replacement timber sheeted front door.

The front elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged with the ground floor window on the left of the front door. The arched alley-way, shared with the adjoining dwelling, is located to the right of the front door. The alleyway is a former access to rear yard; now provides secondary access to modern extension.

The left elevation abuts the adjoining dwelling number 10 (HB19/05/050O)

The rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey modern extension.

The right elevation forms part of the passageway between the adjoining dwelling, number 20. (HB19/05/050Q)

Setting:

The buildings forms part of a pair of matching terraces lining the street. The street is accessed by a single entrance of the Ballynahinch Street; the other end of the street closed in by a large rubble masonry wall. An arched opening in the wall has since been infilled.

Roofing Natural Slate
Walling Coursed Rubble with brick and sandstone surrounds
Windows Timber casement
RWG uPVC

Historical information

The OS maps indicate that Arthur Street was built at various stages throughout the first half of the 19th century. Brett (p.216) suggests that the earliest houses that appear on the 1833 OS map date from 1820s and were erected primarily to accommodate workers and tenants of the Downshire Estate. Although the individual valuation of each building was not high enough to warrant an entry in the Townland Valuation 1828-40, the town plan c.1834, clearly identifies 6 dwellings on the street. By the second edition OS map of 1858, the remainder of the street, as it appears today, is shown.

Field evidence supports the OS map evidence which identifies the earliest part of the street to be constructed using random rubble masonry with granite moulding and arched alleyways. A second phase comprising four more dwellings, may have been erected later where sandstone is used in place of granite and the walling changes to squared galletted rubble; the later part constructed c.1850 (Walker p.39) is from a more regular cut stone laid to courses.

Number 12 appears to have been built as part of the earlier half of the street c.1830, owning to its location and masonry type. Griffiths Valuation 1862 identifies the owner as John Smyley and values the house and yard at £2 10s. The valuer comments that the rents are ‘moderate’. This house has only one bedroom at first floor, hence valued slightly lower than the neighbouring house. Various changes of occupier ensue.

All the houses on the street were instated with a yard to the rear; a ‘pit’ for household waste and a dry toilet. The coal was typically stored in a hole under the stairs adjacent to the living room and the water was supplied from either a tap located at the top of Arthur Street, or a pump at the end of Wapping Street. (Hillsborough Old Guard)

12 Arthur Street was listed in 1974 and has undergone various 20th century alterations, including a bathroom and kitchen extension in 1975, which has unfortunately contributed much to the loss of its original features. (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/B/344A-B – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Townland Valuation Town Plan (c.1834)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14/A-E – Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/102/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan ([c.1864]-1909)
10. Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1896
11. NIEA file – HB19/05/050R

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2. Hillsborough Old Guard “Beloved Of My Heart – Little Hillsborough Town”, 2009

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Single-storey stone terraced house with attic dormer, built as part of 23 similar houses for workers in the Downshire Estate during the mid nineteenth-century. Displaying its original façade with dressed stone archway and stone hood mouldings, the building retains its original modest style and proportions. Despite having lost its original doors and windows and having had many original materials replaced internally during recent renovations, it constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street, HB19/05/050A-V).