16-17 The Square, Portaferry, Co Down BT22 1LW

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, formal, three storey, terrace house of perhaps c.1850 with Ionic portico and early to mid Victorian stucco decoration to front. The property may be a remodelling of a pre 1834 two storey dwelling (possibly originally a hotel, which was raised in height and had the present mouldings added to the front c.1850. The property now contains a shop to the ground floor with an apartment to the first and second floors. The building is located in the centre of the terrace on the W side of The Square, in Portaferry town centre, and is built on a slope running S to N. Dimensions- c.17m frontage.

Front (E) elevation is almost symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is the entrance portico with free standing plain tapered Ionic columns on plinths with cushioned bases. Egg and dart, or echinus, pattern in volutes on columns. Modern glazed door. To either side of the entrance is a large window, now with fixed light frame. Each window has an entablature with scroll supports. Panelled pilasters between windows and portico. These rise through the upper floors. To the far right on this floor is a panelled door which leads to the apartment.

The first floor has three windows openings, as ground floor, but with mid Victorian frames, each consisting of three vertical panes in elliptical headed frames and scallop pattern in some top corners. Cill course.

The second floor is as first floor but with the addition of a tall parapet with bracket decorations and mouldings between. Prominent electrical cabling under cill course.

The S gable rises above its neighbour and has two windows with modern frames to attic level.

The front façade and gable are rendered and painted with in/out vermiculated quoins and a bevelled base (to front).

To the rear there is a large three storey return which is U shaped at first and second floor level and encloses a lightwell. The return has a flat roof which now doubles up as a terrace.

The main roof is gabled and covered with Bangor blue slates. The attic rooms are mainly ligthed via Velux windows. Four yellow brick chimneys with coping.

Historical information

A building, then in the possession of a Taylor Trevor [?or Trevor Taylor], is shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799.

An article from the 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society' for 1988 concerning the property, states that during the early nineteenth century the building was a hotel owned by the Keown family, probably the ‘small but good hotel on the market square’ referred to in the OS Memoirs of 1832-34. The same article further states that Mrs. Keown sold the property in 1833 and that in 1852 a local ‘sewed muslin’ manufacturer named Joseph Wallace bought the lease, built premises at the rear and renovated the house. Wallace, we are told, ran a successful embroidery business there until 1866.

The above sequence of owners does not exactly correspond with what the contemporary sources tell us, however. Firstly, whilst it is possible that the building was indeed a hotel, which may have been owned by the Keown family, there is no evidence (from the valuation records at least), that it was later occupied by a Joseph Wallace. On the contrary, the first valuation returns of c.1835 record the owner as one William McCleery, with those of 1863 stating that the building was relatively newly built at that point (grade A-) belonged to The Northern Banking Company, but was unoccupied and 'a very bad property…offered on a lease at £18 [even though it] cost over £2000'. It appears likely therefore that the property was constructed some time between c.1840-60 and may have been orignially intended for use as a bank.

In the later 1800s the property was sold to a John Lawson, a woollen draper. Lawson converted the ground floor to a drapery shop, which remained in possession of his descendants until 1966. James and Mary Thompson then acquired the lease, and though they too had a background in the drapery business, they continued trading from their original premises in Ferry Street and left 16-17 The Square vacant. The present owner took over the tenancy in 1978 and has run a small grocery store from there ever since.

References- Primary sources
1 Walter Harris, 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down' (Dublin 1744), p. 44. [ Harris describes Portaferry as ‘a market town, but irregularly built, and few other than thatched houses in it’.]
2 'Taylor's and Skinner's Maps of the roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777)
3 PRONI D.552/B/3/3/1 Savage/Nugent Papers: ‘A Plan or Map of the Town of Portaferry’ by Patrick O’Hare, 1799 [The
Savage/Nugent Papers contain many documents relating to Portaferry and the surrounding area]
4 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
5 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991)
6 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
7 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
8 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
9 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
10 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65],
Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
12 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
13 PRONI VAL/2B/3/14 Second valuation, 1863
14 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
15 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
16 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
17 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
18 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
19 PRONI Laurence Collection: Photograph of The Square, Portaferry c.1900. [Reprinted in Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.10 (1986), p.24.]
20 PRONI VAL/12E/112/2- Valuation maps of Portaferry, 1902, with revisions of 1935

Secondary sources
1 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
2 PRONI Portaferry: Sources for Local History (PRONI ?1970s)
3 R. Pierce, A. Gray, R. Oram, 'Taken for Granted: A Celebration of 10 years of Historic Buildings Conservation', (Belfast, 1984)
4 F. Duff, ‘The Story of a House, 16 and 17 The Square, Portaferry’ in Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.12 (1988)
5 Ulster Museum RW.240 Welch Collection- Photograph of The Square, Portaferry c.1890-1900. [Reprinted in 'Journal of Upper Ards Historical Society, No.12' (1988), p. 29.]
6 R. Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society' No.16 (1992)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, formal three storey house with Ionic entrance portico and mid-Victorian decorative mouldings to front, which may have assumed its present form in c.1850, when the upper most storey may have been added and the stucco work applied. This remodelling may originally have been carried out with the intention (never fulfilled) of converting the building to a bank. This building is a dominent feature of Portaferry town centre.