Site of former 5-9 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Originally the site was occupied by three, three storey dwellings which were destroyed in a terrorist bomb in 1976. The site is now occupied by a plain, two storey terraced block c.1980s, containing two houses. This block is built on the angle of Church Street and set slightly back from the line of the terrace.

The original houses were described in the first survey of November 1970 as, 'Three storey houses on angle of street terrace. Roofs slated, chimneys rendered and brick. Walls rendered, lined and painted. V-jointed pilaster quoins. No.9 has two second floor and 2 first floor, drop hung, two light windows [with] horizontal astragals. Keystone over first floor windows. Ground floor has panelled door [with] plain fanlight and keystone. Then shop front- two windows with recessed door, all framed with panelled wood pilasters and mullions with flush top architrave, on which is small sign board. Window sashes- two light with elliptical arch heads. Door flush panelled and glazed. Plain fanlight.

Nos.7 and 5. Four second floor and four first floor drop hung windows, no astragals. On ground floor No.7 has drop hung window, as above, and recent flush door- windows framed with panelled pilasters and recessed layered lintel. Doors flush panelled, narrow fanlight. Windows in four panes. Condition fair. Frontage about 52ft'.

Historical information

Buildings are shown on this site on Patrick O'Hare's map of 1799 and the OS map of 1834. The valuation plan of c.1835-38 states that much of the the south east end of Church Street was then filled with low two storey dwellings, suggesting that the three storey houses which stood here until recently were built some time after this. Judging from their late Georgian style appearance, however, and the fact that their plots are shown on the c.1861 valuation plan, they may have dated from the mid 19th century, perhaps the 1840s.

The buildings were demolished after bomb damage incurred in 1976. Two modern houses now occupy the site.

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/1/3/24 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

Site containing two modern two storey dwellings, formerly occupied by three, three storey terrace dwellings of possible mid 19th century construction. The original buildings were demolished after an explosion in 1976.