46 Shore Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey late Georgian terrace house with attic, probably built c.1825, with Edwardian gabled dormers to front and modern kitchen extension to rear. The property is set within the terrace on the E side of Shore Road, to the S of Portaferry town centre.

The front façade faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. Slightly to the right of centre is the main entrance doorway with timber panel door encased with simple pilasters, entablature and cornice. Tripartite sliding sash window to left with somewhat broad mullions and Georgian panes. Single sliding sash window to right with similar panes. All windows set on stone cills supported by console brackets. Three first floor windows as right on ground floor. The front façade is finished in unpainted lined render with moulded quoins.

To the ground floor left on the rear façade are a pair of modern French doors. To the right of this is a small window with fixed light frame. To the right again is a very large single storey extension of modern construction. To the left on the first floor is a small-ish window with modern frame. To the left of this are two stairwell windows. To the right of these is a first floor window, as far left. The rear façade is finished in plain unpainted render.

The gabled roof is covered in Bangor blue slates. To the front there are two gabled dormers with sliding sash windows, as before only smaller, multi pane side windows and decorative barges and finials. To the rear there is a modern flat roofed dormer and a large Velux window. Two yellow brick chimneys with bracketed corbelling. Eaves course, cast iron gutter and down spout. The rear extension has a hipped roof covered in Bangor blue slates.

Historical information

A building, in possession of a Thomas Savage, is shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map. The present house was formerly the Methodist manse, and could well be the relatively newly built dwelling of the same dimensions recorded in the valuation retrurns of 1838 as the home of one Reverend Mr. Smyley.

Photographic evidence suggests the dormers are early twentieth century additions.

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/- 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 UM W05/82/3 Welch Collection, photograph of the shore front, Portaferry etc.
19 PRONI VAL/12E/112/2- Valuation maps of Portaferry, 1902, with revisions of 1935

Secondary sources
1 St. Patrick’s Church Ballyphilip 1762-1962 [Souvenir booklet] (Portaferry, 1962), pp.32-33, 39
2 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
3 Sr. Mary Mercy (nee Isobel Cummings), "Memories of Portaferry in the early years of this century" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards
Historical Society, No.9' (1986), p. 23
4 Dick Oram, "The Buildings of Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.16' (1992), p. 24

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Fine two storey late Georgian terrace house of c.1825 with attic, probably built as a Methodist manse, with Edwardian gabled dormers to front and modern kitchen extension to rear.