20-22 South Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey gabled block set in the terrace on the E side of South Street, to the S of Newtownards town centre.

The front (W) facade of no.20 has a modern glazed entrance to the far left, a large modern shop window to the centre and an elliptical headed carriage arch with modern roller shutter. To the first floor are four windows with modern frames. To the rear are three small first floor windows with modern frames (with bars over). To the first floor is a recent looking, single storey, lean to extension. To the left of this is a large doorway with timber sheeted double doors, with the rear of the carriage entrance to the left of this. The front facade is finished in lined render and painted black. The rear is finished in plain cement render.

The front facade of no.22 has a large modern shop front to the ground floor and a modern window to the first floor. To the rear is a single storey (recent looking) flat roofed extension, with a modern framed window to the first floor of the main rear facade. Both facades are rendered with the front painted and the rear unpainted.

The roof of the entire block is covered in Bangor blue slates. No chimney stacks. PVC rw goods.

Historical information

South Street was laid out in the 1760s as part of Alexander Stewart’s new regular grid-like street plan based around the new market house (to the north). By 1834 the eastern side of the street was only partly developed, but this site appears to have been occupied. Thus this block could have been built between c.1760s and the 1830s. When first surveyed in October 1972 the block contained two dwelling houses, with an ‘Ards’ doorway to No.20.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654 Londonderry Papers
2 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 6.
3 PRONI VAL 1B/34 p.107 1st valuation Newtownards parish, Newtownards, c.1836 (see also associated town plan).
4 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
5 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.105-106.
6 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 terrace block formerly containing two dwelling houses, now converted to shops with modern shopfronts, doors and windows. The internal layout of both properties has been substantially altered, with little original fabric remaining. Modern extensions to the rear. The building does not meet the test for listing, but is of local interest retaining its traditional terrace form and carriage arch.