8 Killinchy Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey gabled house of perhaps the early 1800s, with ‘half basement’ and greywacke rubble façade. The property is set on the E side of Killinchy Street and was probably originally associated with the former brewery/distillery to the E.

The W front façade is symmetrical and has a central, painted stone door surround with cornice enclosing the two panelled timber door with a rectangular fan light.( petal design and probably a recent replacement) To either side are two large window openings with three similar evenly spaced openings to first floor. The window openings, which probably had sash windows, now all have modern multi-pane windows with top openers and are flanked by modern unsuitable timber shutters. The openings all have stone window cills and stone flat arches to their heads. These window openings almost look as if they have been enlarged, but there appears to be no physical evidence to suggest so.

The S gable rises above that of its single storey neighbour. The visible portion is blank. The N gable has one window to the right side of the ground floor and a similar window directly above this to the first floor. Directly below is a recently enlarged window lighting the basement. Two large pipes rise up the centre of the gable. (one a boiler flue, the other a vent pipe.)

To the rear right of the E façade is a timber sheeted door with a recent and modern window to the extreme right. To the far left and right of the ground and first floors are tall window openings. To the centre half way between ground and first floors is a similar window lighting the half landing. All these openings appear to be original and have stone cills and flat arch heads as before, though all now have modern frames.

The roof is gabled and is finished with Bangor Blue Slates and has two brick chimney stacks, each with four matching pots. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

Historical information

This house belongs to the former Upper Distillery complex, situated to the east of Killinchy Street (for the history of this see below). Most of the buildings relating to the complex date from the later 1830s or 1840s, and were built in the wake of the damage caused to the distillery by the ‘Great Wind’ of January 1839. This house itself and the attached row to the west side of the complex (facing out on to Killinchy Street) may be pre 1834, however, as buildings in their position are shown on the OS map of that year, and a house matching the dimensions of the present dwelling is recorded in the contemporary valuation records. The property probably served as the manager’s residence. Since the final closure of the distillery in 1953, it has been a private residence.

THE UPPER DISTILLERY
Distilling on this site can be traced to the mid 18th century and one James Patterson who owned a ‘large malt kiln…with a good large house for the distilling business’. When Patterson died in 1761 the business was taken over by an Alexander Riddle who practised both distilling and brewing. Riddle gave up the business in 1767 and rented the buildings to John Andrews, (a local miller and ancestor of the later locally famous Andrews family) who installed William Murdock as manager. Andrews gave up the lease in 1788, but Murdock, who is described on his head stone as ‘the eminent distiller of Comber’ may have retained his connections with the business until his death in 1805.

What happened to the business after this is uncertain, but by the 1820s, at least, George Johnston and a Mr. Gilbert were in possession of the site which by this stage was given over to brewing. In 1825 Johnston went into partnership with John Miller and the building converted for use solely as a distillery. By 1846, (Johnston presumably having died or retired), Miller was running the distillery in partnership with a Mr. Cairns (probably James Cairns of near by Maxwell Court). By 1856 Miller was in sole ownership of the business and four years later acquired Comber’s other distillery (the ‘Lower Distillery’- formerly to the south of the Newtownards Road, but now almost entirely demolished).

Miller retired in 1871, at the age of 75, and both distilleries were acquired by Samuel Bruce. Bruce lived in England and installed as a resident partner a Mr. McCance [?or Blizard-McCance]. The Lower Distillery closed completely in c.1916 and the Upper gradually wound down production after 1948, closing for good in 1953. After this the business was acquired by an Inverness wine merchants, mainly for the stock. The equipment was dismantled and sold, and in 1957 the site was bought by local spirit dealers Hollywood & Donnelly, who sold off the remainder of the whiskey and appear to have used the buildings for storage. The former distillery buildings were later [?c.1960] sold to Mr. Jack Cook and a paper recycling business operated on the site until the mid 1980s. At present the former Upper Distillery is home to small industrial park.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M1B/2 Londonderry Papers- ‘Survey of the town, tenements and parks of Comber…1722’.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.38 1st valuation, Comber, 1834.
3 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
4 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), p.442.
5 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.505.
6 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
7 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library.]
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870).
9 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].
2 Brian Townsend ‘The Lost Distilleries of Ireland’ (Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd. 1997), pp.73-77.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey gabled house of perhaps the early 1800s, split level with ‘half basement’ and greywacke rubble façade. The property was originally associated with the former brewery/distillery to the east of it and may have acted as the manager’s residence. In recent years modern window frames have been installed and unsuitable shutters added to the front.