19 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey house with basement, of c.1800-10, set at the end of a terrace on the SW side of High Street, next to Church Lane.Front NE facade as an entrance to the far left. This consists of a panelled door and semicircular fanlight with tracery. The door is surrounded with plain pilasters supporting a pediment which is broken by the fanlight. Steps to doorway. To the right of the doorway is a sash window with Georgian panes. To the far right is a Venetian window with Georgian panes and spider web tracery to semicircular arch section. To the first floor are four evenly spaced sash windows, as before. The front facade is carried up as a parapet.

Just below the ground floor windows are steps down to the basement level, steps which are enclosed by a low rendered wall with wrought iron spear head railings and a largely simple, recent looking wrought iron pedestrian gate to the SE end. The steps lead to a narrow paved terrace. To the ‘front’ facade (NE) of the basement level is a doorway covered by a modern roller shutter. To the SE ‘facade’ (i.e. the section directly below the steps leading to the front entrance) there is a PVC window covered by a grill.

The NW gable end has a window, as front to the right on the ground floor, a pane of which is now boarded. This gable merges with the NW facade of a large two storey gabled return which has a double sliding sash window (without panes) to the ground and to the first floor. This return facade merges with the NW facade of a single storey (two level) lean to extension which has a small modern window at ground floor level.

The rear has been extended on a number of occasions and little of the original facade appears to remain, having been obliterated largely by another large single storey lean to extension (to the SE of the gabled return), which itself has been added to the rear of a two storey hipped roof projection, partly shared between this property and No.21. All rear openings appear to be modern both in terms of size and of window frame style.

The front facade is finished in lined render and painted, as is most of the gable. The rear is mainly finished in plain render and painted.

The main roof is gabled and covered in pantiles. The return and other extensions are finished in a combination of fibre cement, and Bangor blue slates to the hipped roof projection. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods. Rendered chimney stack.

Historical information

The site of this house is shown occupied on Daniel De la Cherois’s map of c.1780, however, the present house may date from c.1800-10. The c.1836 valuation records note that the house, was in the then possession of a Mrs. Hawthorn and had a rateable value of £10, however, at some point the property was used as a the local bridewell (?c.1840s) and then later (possibly c.1870-c.1900) as an RIC station. During this century the building served as Donaghadee post office, but was converted to a restaurant (‘The Bridewell’) in the later 1980s, but has now reverted (albeit largely unaltered)to its original function as a private dwelling.

References- Primary sources
1. ‘A map of the town of Donaghadee...’ [c.1771-90]. [This map was prepared for Daniel
De la Cherois, who inherited much of the town and its hinterland in 1771. As Daniel died in 1790, the map can thus be dated tosome time between 1771-90. At some point someone has written on the map ‘about 1780’, a date which may be accurate.]
2. PRONI VAL 1B/32 p.3 1st valuation, Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee., c.1836. [See also accompanying town plan.]
3. PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 3.
4. PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee, 1863. [The town plan for the 2nd valuation is not available at PRONI and therefore it is difficult to match the properties listed in the valuation with actual buildings.]

Secondary sources

1. Archaeological survey of Co. Down (HMSO 1966), p.397.
2. Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977), p.15.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Substantial two storey Georgian house of c.1800-10 with basement, set at the end of a terrace. The front facade of this house with its Venetian window and fine pedimented doorway is particularly impressive.