14 The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large and impressive, two storey, double pile house of perhaps c.1760-80, extended at the rear and decoration added to front c.1840. The house is set at the E end of the terrace on the N side of The Square.

The front (S) façade is symmetrical. In the centre of the ground floor is a timber panelled door with two pane fanlight. The door is flanked by two Doric columns. Beyond these are narrow three pane sidelights, with panelled aprons, which in turn have square outer pilasters. The columns and pilasters support an entablature which has a central projection, cornice and moulded laurel wreath motifs to the edges of the projection and the outer edges. The entablature is topped with a shaped blocking course (which follows the line of the entablature projection) with anthemion blocks to the edges of the projection and the outer edges (i.e. directly above the wreaths). Shallow blocking course above entablature.

To either side of the doorway are two sash windows without horns but with Georgian panes (6 over 6). These windows each have a moulded surround topped with decorative moulded brackets with panelled blocks supporting a cornice-like entablature with a moulded laurel wreath (as doorway) as the frieze beneath. Cheval de fris to cills.

To the first floor are five slightly smaller windows with much more simple surrounds with brackets to cills. The front façade is finished in lined render with full height fluted pilasters to wall edges with Corinthian-like capitals. Eaves course. Chamfered base.

The E façade is double gabled. To the left side on the ground floor is a large modern window. To the first floor centre left is a small window with a modern frame. To the centre right is a sash window (as front), now partly obscured by ivy (as is much of this façade). To the right at attic level is a similar but smaller sash window, also partly covered in ivy. The façade (underneath the ivy) is covered in lined render.

The W façade is exposed at the left hand side. There is a semicircular headed sash window (with Georgian panes- 6 over 6) at lower landing level to the right. There is a much smaller sash window with Georgian panes (3 over 6) above this, with a similar attic window at a slightly higher level to the left of this. This façade is finished in painted lined cement render.

To the far left on the ground floor of the rear façade is a double sash window with Georgian-like panes (6 over 6 in both). To the right of this is a timber sheeted stable door, then a square-ish window with modern single pane frame, then a large modern window. To the far right is a small sash window. To the far left on the first floor is a large tripartite sash window with Georgian panes. To the left of this a sash window, as front with a similar window to the far right. Between these windows in a very small sash window. The rear façade is finished in unpainted lined cement render.

The roof is gabled and covered in pan tiles to front and natural slate to rear. There is a small cast iron skylight to the rear and two next to the well of the roof (one of which lights the attic level lobby). Two rendered chimney stacks. Cast iron rw goods.

To the E side of the house there is a carriage gateway which leads to the rear yard. The ‘front’ gates are wrought iron and may date from the last century (or early this century). To the yard entrance there is a high wall in sandstone with a tall carriage arch with an elliptical head and red brick dressings. The carriageway is bounded on the E side by a tall fieldstone (greywacke) rubble wall.

The yard contains a two storey gabled outbuilding with a mainly rough cast finish (but now largely covered in ivy).

Historical information

The site of the present house is shown occupied on the Colville’s Comber estate map of 1722. A lease map of the square dating from 1786 includes a small naïve drawing of the front elevation of a building on the site which largely matches the present (down to the gateway to the east side) except that to the right of the central doorway there are two windows with another doorway between. This particular property, the map tells us, was the then possession of an Alan Ralph. Ralph is mentioned in title deeds of the property (in possession of the present owner) dating from 1789 and a further lease map of 1801.

The OS map of 1834 shows a building equivalent to the front gabled portion of the present house, with what appears to be a return to the rear. The dimensions of this property, which are given in the contemporary valuation records, confirm this and show that the house was two storey, possessed a basement and attic and was judged by the valuers to be on reasonable age- probably 18th century. Interestingly, the same records have some pencil annotations, which appear to have been written in the later 1830s or early 1840s, giving dimensions which match those of the present building exactly (and appear to be confirmed by the revised os map of 1858). This would suggest that the house recorded in 1834 was either extended c.1840 to give the present double pile building, or that the present building was built as a whole at this point.

There is, however, a potentially important clue to the building’s age. In the small attic room to the west front the gable wall shows evidence of once having two windows. This would suggest that the front gabled portion of the house predates that next to it within the terrace, a building which itself is most certainly pre 1834 and is shown as two storey and much as today (along with its pedimented doorway) on the abovementioned ‘pictorial’ lease map of 1786. Moreover, Dr. Philip Robinson (UFTM), who visited this property a few years ago, informed the writers that the roof truss construction in the front portion of the house is of a type common in the mid 18th century, and differs from that in the rear- which is later.

Thus, the weight of evidence suggests that this property is in origin mid eighteenth century and was extended c.1840. The latter date also probably witnessed the application of the decorative mouldings to the front façade. The same façade may also have been ‘re-jigged’ at this stage also as the pictorial map of 1786 shows what appears to be a second doorway to the right [?perhaps leading to a one time shop or office].

The changes to the house were probably therefore the work of Dr. Jonathan Allen, who is recorded as owner of the house in 1834 and who remained there until his death in 1857. Though the property remained in Allen family ownership until the early 20th century at least, it appears to have been leased, for a Robert McCartney is recorded as the occupant in 1861. At some point (possibly prior to 1886 onwards) it also appears to have served as a branch of the Northern Bank. The present owner acquired the house in 1950.

To the rear and east of this house, the Allen family also owned a small tannery which is noted in the 1833 valuation and which remained in business until c.1900, when James Allen converted the site for the production of traction engines. The latter business has long since ceased trading and the site is now partly occupied by a modern chemist’s shop.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’.
2 PRONI D.654/M54/1 Londonderry Papers- ‘A rough plan of the undermentioned tenements in the town of Comber, April 1786’ by David Geddas. [‘Pictorial lease map of the north side of The Square.]
3 PRONI D.654/M1B/18 Londonderry Papers- ‘A survey of the tenements out of lease in the town of Comber survey’d A.D. 1801’ by David Geddas. [This map shows the edge of Alan Ralph’s property but shows no particular details of the property because Ralph’s plot was not ‘out of lease’ at this stage.]
4 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824).
5 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.56 1st valuation, Comber, 1834.
6 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
7 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.442.
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.505.
9 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
10 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library.]
11 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870).
12 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.303-305.
13 MBR Photographs of The Square, Comber, c.1900-1950. [These photographs appear to be mainly copies of those belonging to the Laurence Collection (with original negatives held at the NLI in Dublin)].
14 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Secondary sources
1 Norman Nevin ‘The Story of Comber’ (c.1980s) [typescript in Comber library].

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large and impressive two storey double pile house set at the end of a terrace, whose front half probably dates from the mid 1700s, with the rear half from c.1840. The front façade has decorative mouldings to the openings which may date also from c.1840.