150 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay three-storey Victorian end-terrace townhouse, built c.1855 and located to the south of High Street in Holywood town centre. Rectangular on plan with three-storey return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with brick chimneys having terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on overhanging corbelled eaves with paired brackets. Walling is Flemish bonded red-brick with smooth painted render to rear elevation; vermiculated block quoins. Windows are a variety of timber framed sliding sash with flat brick arches; canted bay to ground floor is 2/2 (having horizontal glazing bars) with moulded window surround divided by Doric pilasters, plain entablature with dentilled frieze and corbelled eaves: segmental-headed 6/2 windows and continuous sill to first floor; 1/1 to second floor and uPVC to rear.

The principal elevation faces west and is two openings wide. To right is canted bay. Entrance accessed by two stone steps; door has four raised-and-fielded panels with transom light; panelled pilaster surround with console brackets surmounted by corniced canopy.

The north gable is abutted by adjoining building; HB23/19/009E.

The east (rear) elevation has a single opening to left at each floor; abutted to right by lower three-storey return. Return has single opening to first and second floor at gable; ground floor abutted by masonry off-shot. Exposed section to left with two openings to each floor; ground floor with replacement timber door to left.

The south elevation has a window to left at each floor, each as those on the front elevation.

Setting

Situated to the south of High Street in Holywood town centre, with St Comcille’s Church and Tower (HB23/19/009) directly to south. Paved rear yard enclosed with masonry wall; timber gate gives access to paved and gravelled rear garden, enclosed to south by timber fence and to east by outbuilding. Small garden to front with paved pathway; enclosed by simple cast-iron railings and gate with hedgerow to west.

Roof: Natural Slate
Walling: red-brick and render
Windows: Timbeand uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The houses are first shown on the second edition ordnance survey map, captioned ‘Walmer Terrace’. According to Merrick, they were built in 1856 and housed a variety of merchants and professional people who were attracted to Holywood, following the opening of the railway in 1848. (Merrick, p.29) The terrace was also home to at least three members of the clergy, a Catholic priest, a Presbyterian missionary and a Church of Ireland curate.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the houses as ‘Walmer Terrace’. They are all leased from Andrew Cowan who also owned the semi-detached pair of houses called ‘Mill Bank’ (HB23/20/056A-B) which was built at about the same time.

The current house is occupied by Samuel Ferguson. It is a house, yard and small garden valued at £31 which is later raised to £33. The rent is £38 plus taxes. Dimensions are given for a house, return and out office. The next tenants are Benjamin Hatton (n.d.) and Rev James O’Laverty (1875)

Rev O’Laverty appears to have lived in the house after the completion of St Columbkille’s church (HB23/19/009) and before the parochial house was converted for his use (HB23/19/011).

Mary A Campbell (1887) and Rev George T Rea (1900) follow as tenants. George T Rea was a Presbyterian Minister who spent many years as a missionary in India and by 1900 had retired to Holywood where he was an elder in the High Street Presbyterian church. Rea was the author of a memoir of his fellow Presbyterian missionary and his wife, William and Fanny Beatty, which recounted their experiences in India and Holywood. The Beattys lived nearby at No 2, The Crescent between 1887 and 1900 (HB23/20/033). (Witness, Belfast Evening Telegraph, Rea)

Holywood entered something of a decline in the late nineteenth century due to several factors, including the arrival of trams in Belfast in the 1870s which meant that the mercantile and professional classes had many more residential areas to choose from. The valuation is reduced to £26 in 1875 but a stable to the rere is added at a valuation of £4. In 1880 the stable is deleted and added into the description of the house. The valuation is reduced further to £22.10s in 1904 following a complaint. Valuer’s notes of this period give a plan and dimensions of the building and state that the rent is £30 reduced from £35 yearly. The houses have 5 bedrooms and 2 receptions, hot and cold water and a bathroom. The valuer comments that this house has a stable. Mary Barry (1904) and Anna Mary O’Neill (1906) are the next tenants.

The valuation was reduced to £19 in 1912. John Madden became the occupier and the lessors became the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Chapel in the same year.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
4. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/53 – Valuer’s Notebook (1900-06)
7. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/54 – Valuer’s Notebook (1906-12)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/123/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1860-c1866)
10. PRONI VAL/12/E/123/2/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1867-1900)
11. Witness, 9th December, 1910
12. Belfast Evening Telegraph, 7th November, 1910

Secondary Sources

1. Merrick, Tony “Buildings of Holywood” Holywood: Holywood Advertiser, 1986
2. Rea, George T “A Broken Journey: Memoir of Mrs Beatty, wife of Rev. William Beatty, Indian Missionary”, 1894

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-bay three-storey Victorian end-terrace townhouse, built c.1855. The interior has been modernised but good historic details remain and the original floor-plan survives. This building forms part of an important group, being one in a terrace of six. The terrace is good of its type and illustrates the ongoing growth of Holywood in the mid-19th century

General comments

Please note this record has now been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB23/19/006