26-30 Victoria Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Group of three, largely identical, three storey houses of c.1890s, set in the terrace on the W side of Victoria Avenue.

HB24/09/017A No.26. To the left on the front (E) facade is the doorway which is surrounded with panelled pilasters with decorative brackets and a cornice. Timber panelled door with plain fanlight. To the left of this are twinned sash windows with horizontal astragals and moulded surrounds. The cills are set on brackets. Directly above this window are similar twinned windows to the first floor but with segmental arch heads. To the right of these is a single similar window. The facade is topped with a gabled half dormer with decorative barge boards and finial. This half dormer contains a semicircular headed sash window with surround much as before. The window is set on a cill course with brackets.

To the rear is a two storey gabled return with various window and door openings some of which now have modern frames. To the rear of the main building is a large-ish mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor (which appears to have been enlarged) with a sash window to the first floor.

The front facade is finished in lined render and painted, the rear in cement render and unpainted. The roof is covered with Bangor blue slates with two yellow brick chimney stacks (with a similar stack to the return). Small cast iron skylight to rear. Cast iron rw goods.

HB24/09/017B No.28 is similar to No.26 but with modern PVC doors and windows, extensions to the rear return, a flat roofed dormer to front and rear (the front one replacing the original gabled dormer). Sections of PVC rw goods. Return chimney stack removed.

HB24/09/017C No.30 is similar to No.26 but with modern window frames throughout and a Velux window to the rear. The return now sports an enlarged window. The ground floor window to the rear of the main house has retained its original opening (unlike No.26). Return chimney stack removed.

Historical information

As its name hints at, Victoria Avenue was laid out in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, though it was originally intended to be called Railway Avenue. Thus the buildings within it date from either this year or shortly afterwards, for in 1891 it was remarked that the houses were going up ‘faster even than was anticipated’. As this section of the terrace is close to the north end of the street (i.e. further from the town centre) it may have been one of the later portions to be built.

References- Secondary sources

1 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown: a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), p.168.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Terrace containing three, unexceptional, three storey late Victorian houses built c.1890s. The front facade of the terrace is still largely intact, though No.28 has lost its gabled half-dormer and both it and No.30 sport modern window frames. No.26 is largely original both inside and out.