7 The Strand

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description at October 2005: The building described below was demolished after planning approval c2000 and two replacement dwellings erected.

Description at Second Survey: Two storey terrace house with shop, of perhaps c.1840s, with small late Victorian/Edwardian gabled dormers and shop front. The property is set within the terrace fronting The Strand, to the SW of Portaferry town centre.

The front façade faces SW and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is the panelled timber house door with plain fanlight. Plain sheeted timber door with boarded fanlight to far left, which leads into a through passage to rear. Between left hand door and house door is a shop front with large six pane timber window with timber cill and adjoining recessed timber panel double door with fanlight, all encased with simple narrow timber pilasters. Sliding sash and case window with astragals to right of house door. Four similar unevenly spaced windows to first floor.

To the left at the rear is a two storey gabled return which is abutted (to right) by a lean-to which is oen at ground floor level. To its NW face the return has a a sash window to the first floor and a modern window to the ground floor. To the NW face of the lean-to section there are two sash windows to the first floor and one to right on the ground floor. To the NE face there is a sash window to first floor. Within the open section to the ground floor of the lean-to is the rear door. To the right of the lean-to section the main rear façade has a single sash window to the first floor, and a dilapidated glazed door to the ground floor. To the far right is the rear of the through passage (see above).

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates with single yellow brick chimney with bracketed corbelling and uniform pots. Eaves course. To the front there are three gabled dormers withed Bangor blue slate roofs, decorative barge boards, finials and brackets. Each dormer has a sliding sash and case window with two pane side windows. Cast iron gutters and down spouts.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799 in possession of William Brown. The (more accurate) valuation plan of c.1835-38 shows a building of similar plan to today, however, though the valuation returns tell us that this building was two storey, they also state that it was 'exempt', suggesting it was in poor repair. By 1861 the property is shown as today with the passage marked to the north west side. Whether this is substantially the same building as the 1830s is unclear, the fact that the earlier house was in poor order may suggest that the site may have been rebuilt on. The occupant in 1861 was one James McKibbin.

In 200 the house was demolished and replaced with 2 dwellings.

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) [The memoirs provide a description of John Maxwell’s Distillery, originally sited at the rear of the present hotel.]
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 UFTM WAG 609, 611, 612 W.A. Green Collection, photographs of Portaferry Quay, harbour, Shore Road etc.
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 Dick Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), p. 24
3 Dick Oram, ‘A short history of the Portaferry Hotel’ in Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No. 17 (1993), pp. 20-24.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site of former Two storey terrace house with shop, of perhaps c.1840s, with small late Victorian/Edwardian gabled dormers and shop front. Now replaced with 2 dwellings in 2000.