5 High Street,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, two storey terrace house of c.1835-40, situated on the N side of High Street of the E end of High Street, Comber. The building is set on the squint.

Front (S) façade has a James Gibbs style ‘Ards’ doorway to the left of centre with a modern PVC door and semicircular fanlight. To the left of the doorway is an enlarged window with modern frame. To the right is a similar window and to the right of this is a carriage entrance with shallow elliptical arch head and double timber sheeted doors. To the first floor are four sash windows, unevenly spaced. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted.

To left on the ground floor of the rear façade is the rear of the carriage entrance. To the left of this is a window with modern frame, then a doorway set at an intermediate level (with a modern glazed door and modern metal staircase). There is a small fixed light window directly beneath the staircase. To the right of this is a set of modern ‘patio’ doors to the immediate right of which there abutts a single storey section (much modernised) which stretches N and joins with a large two storey former outbuilding (now a much modernised office). To the first floor of the rear façade are three unevenly spaced windows of varying size, but all with modern frames. Two of these windows (to left and centre-left) may have been reduced in size. The rear façade is mainly unrendered, revealing a mainly sandstone construction.

The W gable is blank and finished in unpainted rough cast.

The gabled roof is covered in asbestos slates with two chimney stacks, one mainly rendered and the of fairly recent looking red brick construction. PVC rw goods.

Historical information

This site is shown occupied on earliest maps of Comber, dating from the 1720s. The map to accompany the first valuation of the town in 1833, however, appears to show a longer building on the general site, which, according to the valuers’ notes, does not appear to have even been a dwelling. A building which appears to match the plan of the present, but without the outbuildings, is indicated on the 1834 OS map and the whole ensemble is shown on the revised map of 1858. Thus it would appear that this property is undoubtedly pre 1858, but was probably built after 1834, with its Gibbsian ‘Ards’ doorway and sandstone construction perhaps suggesting c.1835-40.

A photograph of the property taken in December 1970 shows that the windows to the ground floor front had already been enlarged at that date, but the render underneath both is still fresh and unpainted, suggesting they were enlarged recently.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/1-4 Londonderry Papers- maps relating to Comber town 1721-c.1850.
2 PRONI D.654/M54/4, 6-7, 12, 15, 24, 28-32, 34 Londonderry Papers- maps relating to Cow Lane, Comber 1793-1810. [High Street used to be known as Cow Lane- confusingly, however, it is called ‘Mill Street’ on the 1834 OS map, even though the actual Mill Street is(and was) a separate thoroughfare to the north.]
3 PRONI VAL 1B/316A 1st valuation, Comber.
4 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
5 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), pp.28, 33.
6 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
7 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber. [The map to accompany the 2nd valuation was never deposited at PRONI, making it impossible to ascertain the details of many properties within Comber at this date.]
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

Large two storey terrace house of c.1835-40 with Gibbs style ‘Ards’ doorway. The front ground floor windows were enlarged c.1969. The ground floor of the property has been used for commercial purposes in recent years.