23 Killinchy Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial two storey terrace house which probably began life as a single storey dwelling/dwellings with the upper level added perhaps c.1830. The house is set in the terrace on the W side of Killinchy Street.

The front (E) façade has a doorway to the centre left on the ground floor with a fairly modern panelled and glazed door encased with painted stone surround. To the left of this are two sash windows with Georgian panes (eight over eight to far left, six over six to left). To the right of the doorway are two similar windows (eight over eight to right, six over six to far right). To the right of these is a large elliptical arched carriage entrance with timber sheeted double doors. Above the arch is a traditional looking projecting sign. To the first floor are six sash windows, as ground floor (six over six) and largely evenly spaced. The front façade is now covered in ivy growth, but the stonework to the façade is as Nos.25 & 27, i.e. greywacke rubble to the lower level, Scrabo sandstone to the upper level.

To the rear all the windows have PVC frames. To the immediate right of the rear of the carriage arch is a ground floor window. To the right of this there is a small lean to section with a window to its W face. To the immediate right of this the main façade projects. To the ground floor of the projection there are two windows, that to the right somewhat enlarged. To the right of this there projects a modern looking, single storey, gabled kitchen extension, which links to a large two storey outbuilding (now somewhat modernised and extended and used as a craft studio). To the first floor on this projecting section are two windows, with a further two on the ‘recessed’ portion of the façade to the left (N). The rear façade is mainly unrendered except for a small section to the ground floor (to the immediate right of the carriage arch). To the far right the façade is covered in ivy growth.

The roof is gabled with natural slate to the front and asbestos to the rear. Two small cast iron skylights to rear of roof. Two small concrete brick chimney stacks. Mixture of PVC and cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

What is now Killinchy Street is shown as a narrow country lane, without any buildings, on the 1722 map of Comber. By 1834 some development had taken place and this site was occupied. Unfortunately most of the houses in this terrace were not of sufficient value to merit recording during the 1833 valuation survey, however.

From the difference in stone types to the front façade of this house we know that the property began life a single storey dwelling/s. It (or they) may have been one of the ‘new stone houses of 1 storey…lately built on the roads to Belfast an Downpatrick’ referred to in the OS Memoirs of 1837, but the fact that the lower storey was built in greywacke rubble (a material which had largely ceased to be used in house building in Comber after c.1830) suggests that it may have been somewhat older, perhaps c.1800. Judging from the the use of sandstone to the upper storey and the style of the door surround, it is possible that the building may have been raised in height around c. 1840.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’.
2 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
3 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.32.
4 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861 [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library- the map to accompany the valuation is missing making it largely impossible to be sure of the occupants of most houses within Comber at this date.]
6 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey terrace house which began life as a single storey dwelling/dwellings but was raised in height probably around c.1835-40. The rear windows now have PVC frames and there is a small kitchen extension which links to a large two storey former outbuilding (now converted to a craft studio).