3 The Crescent

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay polychrome brick mid-terrace house, built 1864, located to the south of High Street, close to the heart of Holywood town. Rectangular on plan with single-storey return and glass-roof conservatory to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with rectangular brick chimneystacks having stone plinth and terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with drive-in brackets. Walling to principal elevation is Flemish bonded polychromatic brick with dentilled brick course to ground and cornice to first floor; north elevation is smooth rendered; rear elevation is painted smooth render. Windows are timber-framed 2/2 sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars and stone sills; yellow brick surrounds, variously detailed.

The principal elevation faces west, is symmetrically arranged and is three openings wide. Ground floor has paired window openings between brick pilasters and dentilled cornice over continuous with string course. Central entrance up bull-nosed stone step; door is double panelled with brass door furniture having transom light and side lights.

North elevation is abutted by adjoining building, HB 23/20/033B.

East (rear) elevation has three window openings to first floor; abutted at ground floor by single storey return to right which is abutted to south by slightly projecting glass-roof conservatory.

South elevation is abutted by adjoining building, HB 23/20/033D.

The terrace is located in a secluded garden with mature trees, enclosed by a brick wall with cast-iron electric gates to north. Small garden to front with lawn and shrubbery enclosed by a polychromatic brick wall; accessed by a stone step with a central paved pathway. The rear garden is enclosed by rubble stone wall.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: brick/render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron ogee

Historical information

These houses are newly drawn onto the valuation town plan dating from c1860 to c1866 and are listed in the fieldbook in 1864 as ‘four new houses, nearly finished’. Each has dimensions of 12x9x2x1a with returns of 4x1½x2x1a and 5x3x2x1a. They are all houses and yards valued at £24 and leased from Hugh Stewart, possibly the grandson of Hugh Stewart, the developer of numbers 5 to 8, the Crescent in the 1820s. The will of Hugh Stewart senior appears to indicate that his grandson took over the management of 5 to 8 the Crescent after his grandfather’s death, and he may, therefore, be the Hugh Stewart who built the new terrace.

By 1867 the occupier is James Campbell, who, according to Merrick, was the owner of a bonded warehouse at no 13 Corporation Street, Belfast. By 1867 Matilda Brett is in residence. Sir Charles Brett, solicitor and author of many publications on architectural heritage recalls in his ‘Buildings of North County Down’ that, “in this house, after his marriage...my great-grandfather Charles Brett, settled his widowed mother and his five sisters...The last (and youngest) got married and went to New Zealand, in 1881; her mother died here in 1886. The other sisters lived on here for half a century: the last of them lived in this house until her death in 1935”. Brett recalls the house as the current 8, The Crescent, but it is in fact this house, numbered 8 in valuation records, but today number 3, that was the home of Matilda and her five daughters. Elizabeth C Brett is the occupier in 1892 and Annie Brett in 1902. Annie became the immediate lessor in 1924. (Merrick, p.54, Brett, p.175)

The valuation is reduced in stages to £20 in 1884 but no reason for this is given.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
4.PRONI VAL/12/A/3/53 – Valuer’s Notebook (1900-6)
5.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
6.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-C – Annual Revisions (1888-1930)
7.PRONI VAL/12/E/123/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1860-c1866)
8.PRONI VAL/12/E/123/2/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1867-1900)
9.PRONI T1342/5 – Will of Hugh Stewart dated 12th March 1858

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2.Merrick, Tony “Buildings of Holywood” Holywood: Holywood Advertiser, 1986

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 mid-Victorian three bay two storey mid-terrace polychromatic brick house, c. 1860 situated in an informal square. The architectural detailing on this terrace is of quality and is largely intact. The original floor plan survives and the interior is in original condition. Polychromatic brick is of note in this area. The house is a good example of the type in original condition and has group value within its own terrace, which combines with an earlier terrace (HB23/20/034A-D) located at right angles to this one to form the square. The setting of an informal square is of note and survives in relatively original form.

General comments

This record was previously recorded as HB23/20/033