11-13 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively large, two storey terrace block, possibly c.1830, and now a house and shop. The property is built slightly on the squint on the E side of Church Street, just to the N of Portaferry town centre.

The front (W) façade is now asymmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door (to house) to with plain moulded surround and simple entablature set on decorated brackets. Two sash windows to the left with moulded surrounds and slim concrete cills. To the right of th house doorway is modern timber and glazed shop door with fanlight (now covered) and sidelight. Fixed light shop window to left set in elliptical arch with supporting pilasters and stone cill. Modern PVC shop sign above door and window.

To the first floor are five unevenly spaced windows, as ground floor left. Entire front facade finished in unpainted rough cast render with in/out quoins.

The N gable has one single pane fixed light window to the left side at attic level, but is otherwise blank. It is finished with unpainted rough cast and the left side merges with a c.2m high, rendered garden wall.

The lower part of the rear facade is obscured by the high garden wall. The first floor has a modern two pane window to the far left and far right and a similar window to the left of centre. (set slightly higher) To the right of that to the centre is a small high level window, fixed light, single pane.

The gabled roof is covered with fibre cement slates and two yellow brick chimneys with corbelled decoration and matching pots. PVC gutters and down spouts. There are two Velux windows to the left side of the rear of roof.

Lane way leading to Parochial house between No.13 and No.17 originally the site of single storey house [demolished ?c.1968].

Historical information

Building(s), in possession of Donald [?Morrison] and [?] Robinson, are shown on this site are shown on Patrick O’Hare’s map of 1799. Given the fact that much of the south east corner of Church Street was demolished in the 1960s and 1970s, and the difficulty in matching certain sections of the 1838 valuation town plan with modern maps, it is difficult to to pin point what was actually standing on this site in the 1830s. There were some two storey houses in the general area, as well as some (possibly single storey) dwellings which were exempt from rating.

Judging from its appearance, it is possible that the present building could date from c.1830. It may have been the newly built two storey house with gateway owned by a James Cooper, which is recorded in the 1838 valuation, a suggestion supported by the fact that a James Cooper is listed as the resident of the dwelling on this site in 1863, the present property is of the same dimensions as that of 1838, and the idea that the shop window to the south side of the present building looks as if it were once a carriage gate.

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

Relatively large and much altered, two storey terrace block, possibly c.1830, now containing a house and shop.