34 Shore Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain, two storey terrace house (now a doctor’s surgery) of probable pre 1834 origin, with PVC window frames to front and single storey extension to rear. The property is set with the Shore Road terrace, to the S of Portaferry town centre and overlooking Strangford Lough. The building follows the original line of the Shore Road terrace and set back from the rest of the S to the east but forward of that to the N.

The front façade faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is a plain timber sheeted door with two PVC windows to the left, and a single similar window to the right. First floor has four evenly spaced windows as before.

To the rear there is a single storey extension with a partly pitched, partly flat roof, and a modern window and door. To the left the rear façade of the main house projects. There are two windows to this projection, the lower of which appears modern and the upper of which has a sash frame. To the right of the projection there is another sash window.

The roof is gabled and has Bangor blue slates to front along with two fairly large Velux windows. The rear of the roof is covered in an articial slate. Cement render parapet to to N. Chimneys now removed. PVC gutter and down spout. Exposed section of west gable rendered.

Two storey rubble-built outbuilding to rear.

Historical information

The present owner has deeds relating to this property dating back to the 1770s. Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799 shows a building on this site in possession of a John Brown. Rev. Vincent McNabb, a distinguished Dominican scholar and memorable Hyde Park speaker, was born in this house in 1868.

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
3 Boniface Hanley, "Fr. Vincent McNabb, O.P. 'Unusual Grace'", in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.21' (1997), pp. 24-32

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two storey terrace house (now a doctor’s surgery) of probable pre 1834 origin. It has with PVC window frames to front and single storey extension to rear, and is of little architectural interest.