7 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, three storey, Georgian terraced house of c.1780 set within the terrace on the SE side of High Street, to the E of Portaferry town centre.

The front façade faces NW and is asymmetrical. To the left of centre on the ground floor is the main entrance which has a timber panel door, with two upper panels glazed, set between recessed pilasters with a semi-circular false fanlight feature above. To the left of the doorway is a large tripartite sash window, with Georgian panes. Tripartite window as before to right of door and to the far right is a carriage entrance with plain timber sheeted double door.

To the first floor there are four windows. The first and third windows are as ground floor, with the second and fourth single sash with Georgian panes. This arrangement is repeated on the first and second floors but with all windows slightly shorter.

The exposed upper sections of the gables are blank. The rear façade could only be seen from a distance but to the right there is a large, two storey gabled return, with mainly small sash windows to the SW façade. To the main façade there is a small lean-to to the centre on the ground floor with a modern partly glazed door. There is a tripartite window (without Georgian panes) to each of the floors directly above the lean-to. To the left there is a much smaller sash window to each floor. To the second floor right there is a similar small sash window. To the far left on the ground floor is the rear of the carriage entrance

The front façade is finished in lined render and painted, the rear appears to be mainly finished in roughcast and painted.

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and three (fairly recent) brown brick ridge chimney stacks with (mostly) matching pots. There is a further chimney stack to the rear, close to the eaves to the right. Rendered parapets and eaves course. The gabled roof of the return is covered in Bangor blue slates also and has a very short brick chimney stack to its gable. Cast iron gutters and down spouts.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799 when it was in possession of James McCleery. This may well be the same house we see today, for the compilers of the 1835 valuation records graded the house 'B', that is, a relatively old building probably built in the latter half of the 18th century. At the time of this valuation the Rev. John Orr, Minister of close by Portaferry Presbyterian church (and the man responsible for the building of the present church) was resident. Orr remained there until the 1870s.

The property is shown much as today on the valuation plan of c.1835-38, but with a second, smaller, return to the left at the rear (next to the carriage gateway. On the c.1861 valuation plan, a large walled garden is shown to the rear of the house.

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 Jean McCartney, "Portaferry Presbyterian Church" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.1' (1977), pp. 19-23
3 Dick Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), p. 24
4 Amy Anderson & Joy Lyttle, 'Portaferry Presbyterian Church 1642-1992' (Portaferry 1992), pp. 2-4, 9, 12-13, 21

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, relatively plain, three storey, Georgian terraced house of c.1780 with carriage gateway and large two storey return to the rear. Externally the property is largely original.