26 Shore Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This house is just south of the middle of a terrace of five, relatively plain, two storey dwellings of various sizes, probably mainly of mid 19th century construction, but somewhat altered in more recent times. The terrace is set near the N end of Shore Road, just S of the junction with Steel Dickson Avenue.

The front elevation of the terrace faces roughly W.

This is a double fronted house with a roof at a slightly steeper pitch than others in the terrace. The front façade is symmetrical and has a central timber panel door, with double PVC top hung windows to either side and three similar windows to the first floor. The front facade is finished in banded rustication and painted with chamfered plinth. To the rear there is a large, modern, two storey extension.

The gabled roof is covered in fibre cement slates to roof with cement render parapet to N. S side of house on the squint. Brown brick chimneys to N and S. Cast iron gutter and down spout.

Historical information

Terrace appears substantially on Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map, with a building on part the site of what is now No.18 in possession of James McKibbin, buildings on the site of Nos.20-22 in possession of John Smyth and those on the site of Nos.24-26 in possession of Patrick Savage and Edward Conway respectively. Interestingly the sizes of the properties drawn by O’Hare match the properties we see today.

The valuation returns of c.1835 record five houses on the site, a large two storey dwelling to both north and south ends of the terrace (in possession of a William McDowell and a John McDowell respectively) and three more modest dwellings in between, which were exempt from rating. The second valuation of 1861 records seven properties, with the site of the present No.24 occupied by what appears to be a single house divided between two occupants, and the present No.18 two dwellings. It is possible that the terrace as we see it today was complete at that stage.

The OS town plan of 1900 shows a arrangement much like that of 1861, but with No.24 one single property. At some point prior to the 1970s No.18 took its present form, incorporating the smaller dwelling to the south.

No.24 appears to have been a shop in the early 1900s at least.

References- Primary sources
1 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]
2 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
3 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991)
4 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
5 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
6 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
8 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65],
Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
9 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
10 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
11 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [In print.]
12 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
13 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
14 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
15 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
16 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
17 UFTM WAG 609, 611, 612 W.A. Green Collection, photographs of Portaferry Quay, harbour, Shore Road etc.
18 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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

One of a terrace of five, relatively plain, two storey dwellings of various sizes, probably mainly of mid 19th century construction, but slightly 'modernised' in recent times. This property is much altered and is not of listable quality.