4-36 Belfast Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long terrace of stone built single storey houses of probably c.1830, set on the W side of the Belfast Road, to the NW of Comber town centre. The houses follow the road northwards, with the terrace, kinking with the line of the road Nos.22-24.

The small front façade of each property has a similar arrangement, but with many minor variations between each. All of the houses (bar No.4 which is double fronted) have a doorway to the left and a window to the right. The doorways are all encased with a simple V-jointed surround with keystone and most have retained their original low height except for those to Nos.16, 18, 34 and 36, which have been lengthened recently, with changes to their surround in the process. Door styles range from timber panelled (Nos.6, 8 and 34), timber tongue & groove sheeted (Nos.10-14, 26, 28 and 32-the last with a small glazed panel), modern partly glazed models (No.4, 18, 22, 30, 36), with a more traditional panelled and glazed door to No.24. No.26 has a plain hardboard sheeted door.

Many of the front windows have been enlarged and sport modern frames, and whilst Nos.4, 16, 18, 24-32 and 36 retain their original openings they have modern timber or PVC frames (No.16’s is a PVC sash window). Only Nos.12 and 14 have retained a traditional style sash frame, both with vertical glazing bars (4 over 4). The enlarged window openings all have PVC frames.

No.4’s doorway is to the centre with a window either side of it. Most of the front facades are rendered and painted, but Nos.6-10 and 24 are mainly unrendered, displaying their sandstone rubble constructions.

With the notable exception of No.4, all of the properties have been greatly extended at the rear. All of the extensions the writers were able to survey were modern and in all cases so large as to effectively double the size of the house. Those to Nos.6-18 are very large indeed and overwhelmingly modern in appearance. Some, by their shear bulk, have broken the roof line of the original dwelling, notably Nos.6, 8, 18, 24, 34 and 36, the alterations to the last three properties particularly noticeable.

The roofs of the original sections of each house are covered in Bangor blue slates and each house has one rendered chimney stack. Nos.6-14, 18, 20, 32 and 34 all have at least one Velux window to the front. The rear of the roof of No.4 (which is the only rear roof untouched by a modern extension) has a small cast iron skylight and a small flat roofed dormer. Mainly PVC rw goods.

Cast iron street pump in pavement to front of No.24.

Historical information

This terrace may date from c.1830 and may have been among those houses referred to in the 1837 OS memoirs as the ‘new stone houses of 1-storey’ which it was reported had been lately built on the road to Belfast and ‘which are chiefly occupied by labourers who keep small grocer’s shops’. Another clue to the terrace’s age may also be gained from its sandstone construction, for the memoirs also noted that most new buildings within Comber were composed of such material (as opposed to basalt which had been favoured in the past), due mainly to the increased quarrying at near by Scrabo Hill during this period.

The fact that none of the properties were valuable enough to be noted in the 1835 valuation survey of Comber and the unavailability of the map to accompany the second valuation of 1863, means little can be said for definite about the history of this terrace post c.1830. Present residents have stated that it was once locally named ‘Todd’s Row’ and that the aforementioned Todd lost all of the houses in a card game to a man named Burgess. The Todd in question was probably the owner of the public house to the south of the terrace (itself possibly constructed in the wake of the nearby railway line in the 1850s). Various ‘Todds’ are listed in various directories as proprietors of this establishment (or a previous pub building on this site) from the 1850s onwards. However, at some point in the early 1900s passed to a Mr. Burgess, but whether the premises were gained in a card game and whether the houses were as well is unclear.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/1-4 Londonderry Papers- maps relating to Comber town 1721-c.1850
2 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.72 1st valuation, Comber.
3 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
4 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), pp.28, 33.
5 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber.
7 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.303-305.
8 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

Long terrace of small, simple, single storey houses of c.1830 or slightly earlier. Recently, many have had their single front window openings greatly enlarged and almost all has large modern extensions to the rear. Some these extensions have risen slightly above the original roof line.