Castle Restaurant etc

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large three storey snecked random rubble former warehouse of c.1830, converted to shops and apartments c.1980s.

Front S elevation ground floor has an off centre low elliptical arch ‘cart way’ and cement render surround flanked on the left by two sash windows, with vertical astragals and concrete cills, with three similar windows to the right. Timber ice cream parlour sign above first and second windows and timber restaurant sign over third, fourth and fifth windows. First floor has six windows as before, except for third off centre window which is broader and shorter with two vertical astragals to each pane. This window has a boarded up section between it and the second floor window directly above, with windows and boarding now filling what must have doors to the upper warehouse levels. All upper floor windows have steel lintels. Second floor has six windows, as before, in similar arrangement to first floor only with slightly taller third window.

East gable is abutted by more recent warehouse with only upper, blank, section visible.

The west gable has a timber and glazed door to the far left and two second floor windows as front elevation. Shop sign to first floor.

The rear has two plain sheeted timber doors to the left and centre of the ground floor with a small modern lean to extension (with single timber door) to the right. Traces of off centre former coach arch (similar to front elevation), now blocked up, on ground floor. There are five windows to the first floor and six to the second, all similar to before. Former third window on first floor now blocked up. Various PVC soil vent pipes to rear. Yard to rear mainly enclosed with random rubble wall. Weighbridge in ground to left at front elevation.

A stone wall encloses a rear yard area.

Pitched roof with Bangor blue slates and small off centre gable (formerly for lifting gear) above area of former upper level doors. Aluminium extruded ogee gutters and PVC down spouts.

Historical information

This building appears to be the newly built grain store belonging to William Warnock, recorded in the 1838 valuation. It may have originally have been used in connection with the distillery complex belonging to one John Maxwell, which was sited close by, on the south side of the present Castle Street.

By 1861 the store (which was still in the hands of the Warnock family) had a mill pond directly to the rear, which fed the near by corn mill (which had been built/converted on the site of the abovementioned distillery). The building appears to have been used as a store (for various goods), up until c.1980s, when it was converted to shops with apartments to the upper floors.

References- Primary sources
1 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
2 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991)
3 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
4 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
5 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
6 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
7 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
9 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
10 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [In print.]
11 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
12 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
13 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
14 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
15 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
16 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)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large three storey snecked random rubble former warehouse of c.1830, converted to shops and apartments c.1980s. This former mill remains an impressive building.