48-50 East Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey gabled block on the N side of East Street, consisting of two houses, originally a weaver’s house and store.

HB24/09/013A No.48 takes up the W side of the block and is currently undergoing extensive renovation. Front (S) facade has a slightly left of centre doorway with PVC partly glazed door with fanlight. The doorway has a plain sandstone surround, but placed above this surround are a pair of elaborate console brackets and a cornice, undoubtedly added in the mid to late nineteenth century, and out of keeping with the original overall randomness of the facade as a whole. To the left of the doorway is a window opening, now with a PVC frame. To the right of the doorway is a similar window. To the first floor are three, irregularly spaced, windows as ground floor.

The W gable merges into the W side of a rear two storey lean two section (probably added in the later 1800s). To the ground floor of this gable are two windows, as front, to the left and centre. To the first floor is a left of centre opening which is currently boarded.
The rear of the lean to has a modern glazed door and PVC window to the ground floor and two windows to the first floor the right of which is PVC, but with that to the left possessing a sash frame with margin panes and coloured glass. Attached to the E face of the lean to (an to the rear of the main house) is a small single storey lean to projection, with a PVC window to its N face. To the left of this (on the main house) is a glazed door with adjoining ‘sidelight’ window, with another door opening (with sheeted door) to the left of this. To the first floor is a PVC window.

Much of the facade of this house has had its render removed , but appears to be undergoing preparation for a new coat of render. As a result most of the facade has a rough and ready appearance but the rubble construction is clearly visible as are the brick dressings to some window openings. Eaves course.

The roof has asbestos free slates with a parapet. Concrete brick chimney stack. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods.
Large outbuilding to rear (which is said to have acted as the weaver’s store after the present No.50 became a dwelling), extended and repaired in recent times.

HB24/09/013B No.50 was originally a store, converted to a dwelling in the later nineteenth century. The front facade is much smaller than No.48’s, but has a similar doorway to the left, but with panelled timber door. To the right of the doorway is a square window with a PVC frame. To the first floor is a single window set on a cill course, with PVC frame and moulded surround. The front facade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins. Eaves course.

The E gable is blank and some render around the chimney breast area has been untidily ‘patched’.

To the rear there is a large two and single storey flat roofed return with modern windows and door.

The roof is covered with asbestos free slates with a brown brick chimney stack to the gable. Velux windows to rear. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods.

Historical information

During the later 1760s and 1770s Alexander Stewart, who had become landlord of Newtownards in 1744, embarked upon a scheme of extensive improvements to the town. The centrepiece of these deveopments was the construction of the new market house, around which a new more regular street pattern was laid out, and sixty new houses added between c.1769 and 1777 ‘mostly built of stone or slated’.

This particular block may have began life as one of these new houses, but as the owners suggest (and the irregularity of the facade demonstrates) No.50 was probably originally a store. The valuation records of c.1836 state that this block (then part of a longer terrace) was part of ‘eleven houses exempt’, that is below rateable value.

The mid to late Victorian decoration to the doorways (and the coloured glass window to the rear of No.48) could suggest that the present No.50 was converted to a dwelling in the late 1800s [?c.1870s]. At this time also No.48 may have had the lean to extension added to the rear.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘The town and tenements of Newtown in the County of Down...1720’ reprinted in Trevor McCavery Newtown: a history of Newtownards (Dundonald 1994) p.79. Though the author of this book gives no reference as to this map, the original undoubtedly belongs to the Colville estate maps contained within the Londonderry Papers [PRONI D.654/M1A].
2 PRONI D.654/M34/1-26 Londonderry Papers, maps of Newtownards Corporation, 1811-26. [The Londonderry Papers contain many documents (including maps and leases) dealing with the development of the town of Newtownards from the 1700s onwards.].
3 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 6.
4 PRONI VAL 1B/34 p.100 1st valuation Newtownards parish, Newtownards, c.1836 (see also associated town plan).
5 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
6 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.105-106.
7 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation, Newtownards parish, Newtownards 1863. [The town plan to accompany the 2nd valuation does not appear to be held at PRONI thus making it difficult to match the information contained within the written record with actual buildings.]

Secondary sources
1 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown: a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), p.88.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two storey gabled block set on the north side of East Street, formerly a weaver’s dwelling house with store attached, now two dwellings. This block, which may date from the late eighteenth century, has an irregular facade which appears to have been altered in the later 1800s, at which time decoration was added to the door surrounds. It may have been at this point that the store was converted to a house.