1-5 Court Street & 34 South Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Site, at the corner of Court Street / South Street, of former two storey block containing three houses and a shop. The block was probably constructed in the 1840s and had ‘Ards’ doorways, sash windows and a hipped roof. One of the houses also incorporated a shop front [?No.34 South Street]. When first surveyed in October 1972 the block was described as ‘poorish’. The site is now taken up with a car park.

First Survey Record.

'2 storey block of three houses. Roof slated. Right hand hip end.. Chimneys rendered. Walls rendered and lined. 7 First floor double/hung windows, first 2 have no astragals, others Georgian panes. Gd Floor has Ards doorway, blocked up window. Ards doorway, blocked up window - window as above - Shop front with 4 narrow panelled pillasters below signboard with dentiled cornice, enclosing e 2 shop windows, 9 large Georgian panes and cheval de fris on sills and recessed doorway with door glazed and flush panelled, wide plain fanlight. Bevel right/hand quoin. No 5 doorway has 5 course archivolt blocked pillasters. Sunrise fanlight and flush panelled door. No 3 doorway similar but plain fanlight.
Condition poorish. Frontage about 65 feet.'

Historical information

Court Street appears to have been laid out in the 1840s, taking its name from the fact that the near by medieval priory served a court house between 1817 and 1850. The revised OS map of 1858 shows that the south side had been completely developed by this date, with a long unbroken terrace stretching along the entire length and including the block formerly on this site. All houses within the block appear to have been vacant when first surveyed in October 1972, but were demolished at some point after this [?c.1985]. The site is now taken up with a car park, partly landscaped with shrubbery.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654 Londonderry Papers [This collection contains many documents relating to the development of Newtownards.]
2 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 6.
3 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
4 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.105-106.
5 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.]
6 UFTM WAG 944 W.A. Green Collection- Photograph of the old priory and Court Street, c.1910.

Secondary sources
1 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown: a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), pp.35, 80, 117, 146, 159, 190.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Site of former two storey block of 1840s origin, demolished some time after 1972 with site now taken up with a car park.