8 Mount Pleasant

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey two-bay mid-terrace Victorian dwelling, one of a terrace of four, built c.1894. Located off Tennyson Avenue, off Princetown Road in Bangor West overlooking Belfast Lough; west of Bangor Town Centre.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; hipped slate roof over projecting bay, leaded hips and terminating clay finial. Cast-iron rainwater goods with cavetto moulded gutters and circular downpipes; some uPVC replacements to rear. Chimney-stacks render with cornice detail and clay pots. Walling stucco render with projecting plinth, string, cill course and corbelling. Timber single-glazed 1/1 sliding sash with horns. Principal entrance door; timber four-panel bolection moulded; fixed light over; brass ironmongery.

The principal entrance faces east and is asymmetrically arranged. Front door located on the left; flanked by panelled pilasters, rising to scrolled foliate console brackets, supporting dentilled entablature; surmounted by plain raised pediment panel; square-headed window above with swept canopy on console brackets breaking moulded string. Three-storey canted bay to the right; square-headed windows to ground and first floor; moulded surrounds. Diminished round arched windows to second floor.

Left gable abutted by 7 Mount Pleasant (HB23/14/002A).

The rear elevation is abutted by subservient three-storey single-bay gabled return with lower eaves and ridge level. Various sized timber sliding sash windows throughout.

Right gable abutted by 9 Mount Pleasant (HB23/14/002C).

Setting
Elevated site overlooking Bangor Marina. Large sloping front garden detached from house by gravel car parking area; stepped access to elevated garden terrace. The rear of the site is enclosed by a continuous rubble masonry wall with timber sheeted access gate. General
setting; surrounded by similar stucco rendered residential terraces and villas from the same period.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Stucco render
Window: Timber
RWG: Cast-aluminium/uPVC

Historical information

This area of Bangor began to be developed towards the end of the nineteenth century as the town began to expand into a fashionable resort and commuter town following the opening of the railway in 1865. The area is shown as empty fields on the second edition ordnance survey map of 1858 but by the third edition of 1901, Princetown Road has been laid out in terraces and villas as far as the promontory, Wilson’s Point.

The land on which this terrace is built was initially owned by Viscount Bangor and was divided into plots and sold off by him in 1877. In 1894 the current terrace enters valuation records as a development by Robert Bowman, of four houses with yards and small gardens. Three of the houses are valued at £28 and the fourth, number 10, which occupies a slightly smaller plot, at £25. The four houses are shown in photographs dating from c1914 and c1921 (Crosbie, p.27 and 28) and are very similar in style and execution to ‘Bowman Terrace’, part of Queen’s Parade (HB23/07/011 C-J). Bowman Terrace had been built around 15 years previously by James Bowman, brick manufacturer and it seems likely that Robert and James Bowman were relatives. Bowman is listed in the 1880 street directory as a butcher of Main Street, Bangor and also as one of the town’s commissioners. (Belfast and Ulster Street Directory) The houses were let to tenants of the professional and petty-bourgeois classes, who were usually sufficiently well-to-do to keep at least one maidservant. (1901, 1911 census)

The first occupier to be noted in the current house is Mrs Gamble in 1894. At the time of the 1901 census the tenant is Jane King, a widow living on the ‘interest of money’ and her two adults sons, a tea merchant and an apprentice. Jane King was also caring for her young niece and nephew who were still at school. The household availed of a domestic servant from County Fermanagh, Lizzie McQuade. The house is recognised as being ‘first class’ due to its size and construction, containing thirteen rooms for the use of the family. (1901 census)

Sarah Blair, an American-born spinster was the subsequent tenant in 1906, having earlier lived in the adjoining house, number nine. The valuation is reduced to £27 in the same year. James Morrow is in residence in 1908 and by 1911 the house is occupied by James Anderson, a commission agent, and his County Cavan wife. Their daughter, a National School teacher was also living with the couple. (1911 Census) The Anderson family remained in residence until at least 1930. (Annual Revisions)
The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
4.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
5.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930)
6.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (c.1864-1899)
7.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (1898-c.1916)
8.Lawrence collection – image 11217
9.W A Green collection – images 348, 3104
10.Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1880
11.1901 census online
12.1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1.Crosbie, Jane E.M. “A Tour of North Down 1895-1925, Historic Photographs from the W.A. Green Collection at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1989

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three-storey two-bay Victorian mid-terrace dwelling, one of a terrace of four, built c.1894 now forming part of the larger terrace located on an elevated site overlooking the Bangor promenade. Its original character and robust detailing survive. It has group value with the other terrace buildings (HB23/14/002A,C&D) and is a good example of the type of larger terrace dwellings that formed part of the development of Bangor in the later 19th century after the arrival of the railway.

General comments

This record was previoulsy recorded as HB23/14/002