16-20 Court Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey, gabled, terrace block on the N side of Court Street, to the SE of Newtownards town centre, consisting of two houses and a shop.

No.16- This house is currently vacant. Front (S) facade has ‘Ards’ doorway with plain sheeted door and semicircular fanlight, to right. Sash window to left of doorway with two similar windows to first floor. Simple surround to windows.
There was no access to the rear and the rear facade has been obscured by bushes in the back yard. The roof has ‘Bangor blue’ or Tullycavy-like slates. Single, part rendered, part brick, chimney stack. Cast iron rw goods.

No.18- This property is now a shop. To the ground floor is an ‘Ards’ doorway as previous, with panelled door and tracery to semicircular fanlight. To the left of the doorway is a recently installed ‘Regency’ style bow window with modern frame with Georgian panes. To the first floor are two windows with simple surrounds and modern frames with Georgian panes. Timber sign board above bow window.
The rear could not be clearly observed but there is a single storey store extension to the ground floor with some windows with modern frames to the upper floors on the main rear facade. The front facade is finished in lined render and painted, the rear is rendered and painted. The roof is covered in asbestos slates and there a large Velux window to the rear. Single rendered chimney stack to the E. Cast iron rw goods.

No.20- This property has a similar front facade to No.16 but with a recent panelled and glazed door, a Georgian paned sash frame to the window to the ground floor and modern frames to the first floor windows. To the rear is a single storey extension with modern openings, with modern frames to the windows on the upper floors of the main rear facade. Small attic window to exposed section of E gable. The rear is finished in unpainted cement render. The roof has rough Tullycavy-like slates. Cast iron rw goods. Partly rendered, partly brick, chimney stack to E. Rendered parapet to E. The rear facade has a neglected appearance.
High rendered wall to rear of entire block.

Historical information

Court Street itself appears to have been laid out in the 1840s, taking its name from the fact that the old 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, but the north side however, was never built up to the same extent, possibly to allow for future expansion of the town gas works, which was erected on this side in 1845. This block appears to be shown on the OS map of 1858-60 (though it is difficult to be certain if the entire block was present), and is probably roughly contemporary with the terrace to the south.

All properties appear to still have been dwelling houses when first surveyed in October 1972.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
2 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.105-106.
3 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.]
4 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

Two storey terrace of probably c.1850 containing three properties with ‘Ards’ doorways. No.16 is currently vacant but appears largely intact on the outside and may be on the inside also. No.18 is now a shop/workshop and has had a ‘Regency’ style bow window inserted at the front and modern window frames throughout as well as a radically altered interior with little original detailing. No.20 has a modern door and many modern window frames and its interior is largely gutted with the original layout swept away along with most of the original detailing.

General comments

No.20 was also noted under the ref. HB24/13/081 (now a dummy record).