4 Ferry Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The left hand house in a two storey terrace block containing two houses of possible pre 1834 origin. The block is set on the sloping E side of Ferry Street, just to the S of Portaferry town square.

The front elevation faces W. To the right on the ground floor is a timber sheeted and glazed entrance door. To the left of this is a large window with modern frame. To the far left is another timber sheeted and glazed door, which leads into a passageway leading to the rear garden. Stone cills. To the first floor there are two windows, both with modern frames much as before. That to the left is smaller whilst that to the right is as ground floor.

The front façade of the whole block is finished in lined render and painted.

To the rear there is a large single storey flat roofed extension with modern windows. There are two first floor windows, and a window to the right of these, set at a slightly lower stairwell level (whose frame could not be observed in its entirety). The rear façade is finished in unpainted rough cast.

The gabled roof of the block is covered with modern composite 'slates'. Single, small, gabled dormer with a sash window fluted pilaster surrounds, decorative brackets, barge boards and finials. Slates to sides of dormers. To the rear there are two Velux windows. A blue (?engineering) brick chimney with simple corbelling and matching pots. Curiously the chimney is constructed ‘lengthways’ with its longer sides facing front and rear. Cast iron gutters and down spouts.

Historical information

A lease of this site, stipulating the construction of buildings, was granted to James McMullan in 1776. In c.1835 the portion of the site (now nos 4 & 6) was occupied by two, two storey houses (which may have been those constructed by McMullan), then in the hands of an Elizabeth McDowell and a [?]Nathaniel McCarter. By 1846 No.4 was in the hands of a Charles Press and housed the local Post Office and by c.1861 No.6 was the local constabulary station (which had been in Church Street in the 1830s). No.4 continued to serve as a post office until some time between the early 1870s and c.1890, whilst No.6 remained as a police station until shortly after 1861, when a newly built premises were built further along Ferry Street (the present No.16).

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 Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [In print.]
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 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 Sr. Mary Mercy (nee Isobel Cummings), "Memories of Portaferry in the early years of this century" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.10' (1986), pp. 21-24
4 Jack Orr, "The Postal Service in Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No. 11' (1987), pp. 2-4
5 David Dunlop, "Rock Angus- No.2 Ferry Street" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.15' (1991), pp. 12-13
6 R. Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society' No.16 (1992)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The left hand house of an informal pair of two, two storey houses of probable pre 1834 origin, with small late Victorian gabled dormers. This house now has little architectural character.