Former warehouse (now office)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey gabled tourist office, originally a small warehouse of probable pre 1834 origin. The building is constructed in random rubble and is situated to the front of Portaferry Castle with its back to Castle Lane. Now sympathetically renovated and currently used as the local office of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and a visitor centre.

Front (west) elevation ground floor has four openings. Large coach doorway to far right with elliptical arch head, now filled with modern toughened glass and glass door. Tho the immediate left is a tall sash window (6 over 6). To the left of this is a timber sheeted door with plain fanlight. At the far left side is a flight of steps which brings one down past a sliding sash window whose bottom half is now obscured by the steps. The still visible upper sash has horizontal and vertical astragals. Red brick dressings to all openings on this facade. Small, traditional style, projecting sign to upper right of coach arch. Decorative cast iron post to wall at far right [?originally part of a gate].

First floor has four (almost) equally spaced, sash windows, as ground floor, only shorter (also 6 over six). The north gable is mainly blank but has two square ventilation openings with grills to the eaves and a large hexagonal N.I. Tourist Board sign below. The east elevation has three small fixed light windows half way up on the right side, and two long projecting vertically hung N.I. Tourist Board banners.

he south gable is finished in lined render and has two windows to the ground floor as ground floor front elevation, and two first floor windows, similar to before but with semi-circular arch heads.

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates. There are stone skews, with decorative finials and a central rendered chimney stack with simple corbelling and two decorative pots.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 and the valuation plan of c.1835-38. The valuation returns of c.1835 state that the property was then a 'shed and loft' which stood in Thomas Gelston's 'shop yard'. They also indicate that the structure was relatively recently built at that point (it was graded 'A'), suggesting that it originally served as a small 'shed' or warehouse.

By 1861 the building housed a saw mill belonging to one Conyngham Miller (who lived in the large house just to the west- now known as 'Barholm').

During the 1960s and 70s the building was in possession of Queen’s University and was used as part of their Marine Biology Station. In the 1990s it was converted to an office and visitor centre for Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

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)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Well proportioned and detailed two storey gabled office, originally a small warehouse of c.1810-20. The building is constructed in random rubble and was sympathetically renovated in the 1990s for use as a NI Tourist Board office and visitor centre.