2-4 Cuan Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terrace consisting of two small two storey houses set within the narrow dog leg lane of Cuan Place (running from Ferry Street to Castle Street), possibly dating from c.1870.

The front elevation faces roughly N and is asymmetrical. No.2 [HB24/01/023A] has a plain timber sheeted door to left with plain narrow fanlight and narrow cement render surround. Timber four pane window to right of door with segmental arch heads to two upper panes. Similar surround as door. Similar window directly above to first floor only slightly shorter.

To the E the house abuts an outbuilding. To the rear there is a modern single storey flat roofed extension. To the first floor main façade there is a modern door.

The front façade is finished in pebbledash, the rear in plain render.

The gabled roof is covered in Bangor blue slates with a Velux window to the rear. Rendered chimney stack shared with No.4

No.4 [HB24/01/023B] has similar door and windows to No.2, but in ‘mirrored’ arrangement with door now to right, and with two windows to the first floor.

To the W the house abuts another building. To the rear there is a modern, single storey, flat roofed extension to rear. The façade finish and roof are as previous. Cast iron gutter and down spout with hopper.

Historical information

Buildings shown on this site (then known as ‘Rock Alley’) on Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map, in possession of Henry Smyth and Andrew Ash. On the 1834 OS Map a much smaller building on the site (mainly where the present No.4 now stands), which belonged to John Maxwell's distillery (the bulk of which stood further to the W) . On the valuation map of c.1861 a short terrace of four dwellings are shown, but the plan of both the present Nos.2 and 4 looks slightly different than that shown on the OS town plan of 1900, suggesting that both date from the latter decades of the 19th century, perhaps (judging from the window frames), the 1870s.

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

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

Two small two storey houses possibly dating from c.1870. They have usual fenestration to the front elevation which adds to their character.