34-35 The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey terrace house of perhaps c.1840, with small dormers. In c.1900 part of the ground floor was converted to a shop, with extra doorway inserted to front. The building is set within the terrace on the E side of Portaferry town Square.

The front (W) façade is asymmetrical. Roughly to the centre of the ground floor is a panelled door with single pane fanlight. To the left of this are two sash windows. To the right of the door is a recessed glazed doorway (leading to the office). To the right of this is a window with fixed light arch headed frame. Painted timber sign board above office doorway and window. To the first floor are four evenly spaced windows, as ground floor right. Prominent electrical cabling fixed to front façade at eaves level. The front façade is finished in unpainted lined render.

The rear of No. 34 has recent panelled and part glazed timber door to ground floor. No 35 has a ply faced modern door to the left with a two pane sash window to the right. Three sash windows to the first floor with differing cill heights. The rear façade is finished with plain render.

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and yellow brick chimney stacks with matching pots on each stack. Cement render parapets. Two dormers ‘segmental arch’ vaulted roofs. Sash windows to front of dormers with glazing to sides.

Historical information

A building, then in possession of a Widow Caughey, is shown on this site on Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799. The valuation returns of 1838 state that at that date the site was occupied by an old low two storey house in the hands of a Samuel Matthews. The building today is taller and deeper than that of 1838 suggesting that the present structure is a later rebuild. Judging from the overall form form of the present building, however, the rebuilding of the property may have taken place shortly after c.1838, (perhaps c.1840).

In 1863 the resident is recorded as William Donnan. The conversion of part of the ground floor to commercial use appears to have taken place in the early 1900s and may have been carried out by the then owner, Mr. Robert Denvir, who ran a drapery shop here and later a hairdresser’s salon.

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
2 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
3 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
4 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
5 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.520-23
6 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
8 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
9 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [in print]
10 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
12 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
13 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
14 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
15 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.11
2 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.10 (1986), pp. 21-24

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large and well proportioned two storey terrace house of perhaps c.1840, with small dormers. In c.1900 part of the ground floor was converted to a shop, with extra doorway inserted to front.