1 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large formal two storey gabled Georgian house of c.1815-30, with later bay windows and single storey gable extensions, now a health centre. The building is situated on the N side of Church Street, to the W of St. Mark’s parish church.

Front S facade has central timber panelled door with semicircular fanlight with ‘spider’s web’ tracery and sidelights also with decorative tracery. Simple architrave to doorway. To either side of the doorway is a three sided flat roofed bay with sash windows with ‘Georgian’ panes to each side. Simple architraves to window openings. To the first floor are three similar, but smaller, windows set on a cill course. Below the cill course is a similar course, broken by the parapets of the ground floor bays. Box eaves on corbels with frieze moulding.

Attached to each gable are matching single storey sections each with a flat roof and pierced balustrade with cornice on corbels. The front facade of each is flush with that of the main house and each contains a group of three sash windows (as before), with the outer windows on each much narrower and separated from the centre window by fluted ‘piers’.

The upper portion of the W gable of the main house is blank, but that to the E has a small attic window with semicircular arch head and sash frame (as previous).

The main feature of the rear facade was originally a central two level hipped roof return. However, in recent times the entire ground floor of the rear has been greatly extended and now sports a large sprawling flat roofed section. Whilst this section is modern some concession has been made to the original building in terms of symmetry, window frame style and render.

The original rear first floor facade is still visible with the top half of the hipped roof return in the centre with a central sash window (as front), with a similar window to either side of the return to the main house.

The entire facade is finished in plain rendered with chamfered quoins to the front.

The main roof is gabled with Bangor blue slates to both it and the hipped roof of the return. To the rear of the main roof are three evenly spaced flat roofed dormers with small sash windows as before. Tall sandstone chimney stack to each gable. Cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

Regent Street was originally laid out in c.1811 and was intended to link to the new coach road from Belfast (now the Belfast Road) to Frances Street and thence to the road to Donaghadee. This house was probably built shortly after the completion of the street, possibly around c.1820. The map of the Street (drawn up to accompany the valuation records in 1833) show the house with the return, but without the bays to the front. At this stage the property was in possession of Robert Thompson. On the 1858-60 OS Map an extension appears to have been added to the east gable, which could correspond to the present single storey section, though if this is so it is slightly puzzling that the matching section to the west gable is not indicated also . The three sided bays may have been added in c.1850-60.

In recent times the extension to the west gable was used as a garage, but has since been restored. The extension to the rear appears to have been built c.1990.

This section of Regent Street became known as Church Street some time between c.1835-55, presumably with the development of Frederick Street/William Street, which split the east and west sections of Regent Street.

References- Primary sources
1 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.]
2 PRONI VAL 1B/322 1st valuation, parish of Newtownards, Corporation North, 1833 (with accompanying map).
3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Edition 1833/4 Co. Down 6.
4 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Revision 1858-60 Co. Down 6.
5 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation, parish of Newtownards, Corporation North, 1863.

Secondary sources
1. Trevor McCavery 'Newtown, a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), pp.105-107.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large two storey late Georgian house of c.1820, with later bay windows and single storey extensions to gables. This building is now used as a health centre and there is a large sprawling single storey extension to the rear. The interior layout has been extensively altered and ‘modernised’.