6-8 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey terrace house of perhaps c.1850 or later, with shop front. The building is set on the W side of Church Street just N of Portaferry town centre, and is now a derelict and badly dilapidated shell with the interior entirely gutted and floors removed.

The front façade faces E and is asymmetrical. The ground floor has two (almost square) shop windows to either side of shop door. Doorway to apartment at far right. Frames etc. now removed from windows. Boards and remnants of doors set in doorways and boards set in window bays. Moulded entablature above shop front. Render broken above shop front revealing heavy timber beam. Moulded hood over apartment doorway. The first and second floors windows each have two windows with moulded surrounds. These windows are also boarded over. Front façade rendered and painted.

The rear is obscured by rampant ivy growth.

The gabled roof is covered with fibre cement slates. Yellow brick chimney, with no pots, to S. Metal guttering, PVC down pipe. Plan slightly on the squint on north side.

Interior completely gutted with all floors and partitions removed.

Contractors Note
This building has been bought recently and is scheduled for complete renovation. Front (east) elevation ground floor.

Historical information

Patrick O’Hare’s 1799 map shows a building on this site in the possession of a James McMullan. The valuation returns of c.1838 state that the house on the site at that stage was an old two storey building in the hands of one Hugh McDowell. The present building may represent a raising in height of the 1838 house, but without recourse to physical evidence, it is difficult to be certain of this. It is also difficult to say whether the shop front is original or not. If original this would suggest that the present building probably dates from the later 1800s.

The resident in 1863 is recorded as a Samuel Bailie.

The property was abandoned in 1976, after it was damaged by a near by bomb explosion.

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three storey terrace house, with shop, of perhaps c.1850 or later. This property was abandoned after bomb damage in 1976 and the interior has been largely lost.

General comments

Previously part of HB24/01/038.