15-16 The Strand

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey 'terrace' house with full height canted bays and carriage gateway, whose Edwardian appearance disguises a much older structure. The main portion of this building to the east of the gateway was built in in the 1770s. In c.1870 the portion to the west of the gateway (formerly the site of a small coast guard station of c.1820) was added to the house, and in c.1905-10 the entire front façade was remodelled with the building ot the bays. To the rear of the house is a large three storey warehouse complex, largely dating from the 1780s and originally built as part of a brewery. The property is set at the end of the terrace at the west end of the Strand, overlooking Strangford Lough.

The front façade faces roughly S and is asymmetrical. Off centre front doorway with timber panel door and large plain fanlight. Moulded fluted surround to door with small decorative keystone. Immediately to left of door is a two storey three sided bay with hipped Bangor blue slated roof with moulded cement render ridges and a small decorative finial. Similar bay to the far left, with finial now broken. Bays have three sliding sash windows without astragals to both floors.

Windows to first floor slightly shorter. Cill courses to first floor. Surrounds to all windows same as door. Ground floor of all bays finished in plain render, first floor in pebbledash. First floor between bays finished in lined render. Chamfered plinth to bays and entire front elevation. Vermiculated chamfered quoins to the first floor and plain chamfered quoins to the ground floor.

Large coach doorway between first and second bays with uneven plain sheeted timber door and wicket gate. Paired sliding sash windows to first floor above coach doorway with surrounds as bays. Bay immediately to right of front door similar to before but broader. Single sliding sash window on first floor directly above front door. Three steps to front door fanning out from door and bounded by the inner sides of the bays on either side of door. Dentilled eaves course.

Exposed W gable has three sliding sash windows to far left, one each to the ground and first floors with the other to the right at an intermediate level. Gable finished in lined render.

To the left side of the rear is a two storey mono-pitch roofed return first floor and with a glazed door to the right of the ground floor and a 4 over 4 sash window to the right side of the first floor. The roof falls towards No. 14. To the right of the return is a small, single storey lean-to return with modern windows and door and a velux window to the roof. To the far right is a segmental arch headed coach arch. To first floor is a modern window above the coach arch with a sash window to the right. A tall yellow brick chimney sits to the right of centre at eaves level of the main roof. There are four cast iron sky lights.

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates to the E side and what appear to be asbestos slates to the W. Stone parapet in middle of roof (marking the 'join' between the original house and the portion added c.1870s). Three yellow brick chimney stacks with bracketed corbelling and matching pots. Cast iron ogee gutters and square down spouts.

Large line of snecked rubble warehouses to west at rear with an assortment of doorways windows, a large arch and a small gable which formerly held lifting gear. Warehouses part two and part three level but all same height and under one continuous pitched roof. Evidence of other (now demolished) structures to east also.

Historical information

Structurally, this house appears to have an interesting history. Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799 shows buildings on the site where the main portion of the house itself now stands, as well as the present warehouse complex to the rear, all surrounding a courtyard. This warehouse complex was originally a brewery, built by one John Maxwell, during the 1780s. The house to the front appears to have been a separate property at this point and, according to deeds held by the present owner (1997), was built in c.1770, some years before the brewery. The valuation records of 1838 support a 1770s date for the house, stating that it was 60 years old at that point.

The same valuation records tell us that by 1838 the house consisted of all of that above and to the east of the gateway, (i.e. the bulk of the dwelling as we know it today) and was in the hands of a Julia Johnston. The warehouse complex to the rear still a separate property (now belonging to a William McCleery). By this stage it had ceased to house a brewery but was simply used as stores. To the west of the gateway (on ground now occupied by the house) there stood a separate property, a small single storey 'coast guard watch house' which (according to letters within the Nugent Papers), was built around 1820.

This grouping of three separate properties consisting of the house, the coast guard station and the warehouses was still in place when the second valuation was carried out in 1861, with the house at this point in the hands of a Hugh Brown. Strangely the owner of the warehouses at this point is not recorded.

At some point between 1861 and 1900 the coast guard station was demolished, (possibly in c.1870s when the new larger station was built to the south end of Portaferry), and house extended beyond the gateway and onto its site. This may have involved the total demolition of the station, or simply its extending and remodelling. As the station itself is recorded as single storey (10ft in height) in 1838, demolition may have been a less troublesome option. The house remained in this expanded (with the portion to the west of the gateway used as an office) until c.1905-10 when the three full height bays were added to the front. These may have been the work of James McCausland, a shipbreaker who owned the house and the warehouses in the early years of the 20th century.

After McCausland the property was acquired by a Mr H.T. Barrie, who used the warehouses to store potatoes for shipping out.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.366/102 Lease from Patrick Savage to John Maxwell, 13 June 1780
2 PRONI D.552/B/3/3/1 Savage/Nugent Papers ‘A Plan or Map of the Town of Portaferry’ by Patrick O’Hare, 1799
3 PRONI D.552/A/6/7/1-58 Savage/Nugent Papers Letters dating from 1820-21 regarding, among other things, the building of the coast guard station at Portaferry
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), p.17
2 Fred Hammond, "The “Brewery Yard” Church Street, Portaferry" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No. 3' (1979), pp.13-14
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.8 (1984), pp.21-24

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey 'terrace' house with full height canted bays and carriage gateway, whose Edwardian appearance disguises a much older structure. The main portion of this building to the east and above the gateway was built in in the 1770s. In c.1870 the portion to the west of the gateway (formerly the site of a small coast guard station of c.1820) was added to the house, and in c.1905-10 the entire front façade was remodelled with the building ot the bays. To the rear of the house is a large three storey warehouse complex, largely dating from the 1780s and originally built as part of a brewery. Together this complex has a very interesting history and is of much architectural interest.