6 The Crescent, Holywood, County Down, BT18 9AY

An attractive and well-maintained three-storey two-bay Georgian terraced townhouse built around 1830, located south of High Street close to the centre of Holywood. The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey gabled return and extension to the rear. It features a pitched natural slate roof with rectangular brick chimneystacks having stone plinth and terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with drive-in brackets are fitted to the main building, with uPVC rainwater goods to the rear extension.

The external walling is painted smooth render with quoins and plinth, with a plat band between ground and first floor. Windows throughout are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash units (unless otherwise noted) with projecting stone sills. The principal elevation faces north and is two windows wide, with smaller 3/3 windows to the second floor. The entrance is positioned to the right, accessed by two stone steps. The door is double-panelled with brass furniture, framed by moulded Doric pilasters, with a slender transom light surmounted by moulded frieze and cornice with scrolled console brackets. To the left is a canted bay window with 2/2 sliding sash glazing with horizontal glazing bars and dividing Doric pilasters. The east elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The rear elevation has a window opening to each floor and is abutted to the left by a two-storey gabled return, which is further abutted by a single-storey castellated extension. An entrance door to the east is framed by pastiche Doric pilasters, with three window openings to the south. The west elevation is abutted by an adjoining building.

The terrace is located in a secluded square with mature trees, enclosed by a brick wall with modern electric gates to the north and by mature hedges to the east and west. Two outbuildings of no real interest stand to the rear of the property. The architectural detailing of the terrace is of quality and largely intact. External inspection indicates that the original floor plan survives. The house represents a good example of the type in original condition and has group value within its own terrace, which combines with an adjacent Victorian terrace located at right angles to form the square. The setting of the informal square survives in relatively original form.

According to local history sources, this terrace began life as a single farmhouse in the late eighteenth century, situated at the edge of Holywood village. In the 1820s the plot was taken over by Hugh Stewart and redeveloped to create a terrace of four houses. Hugh Stewart had been appointed Post Master of Holywood in 1822 and was responsible for a number of housing developments, including Holywood's first public baths. In the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 all the houses are listed as the property of Hugh Stewart, and this house was valued at £11 8 shillings. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 the house was occupied by Edmond Lord and valued at £17. Dimensions are given for the house in the valuation records, with stables and carriage houses listed to the rear of the terrace. A valuation town plan dating from around 1860 to 1866 notes that the plot in front of the houses was used for potatoes.

In Hugh Stewart's will dated 1858 he bequeathed the houses in the Crescent to his daughter Harriet Kennedy "for her own sole use and benefit independently of her present or any future husband" with the instruction that "she be not at liberty to sell alien or mortgage or anticipate the same during her life but that at her death she may will them to whom she pleases". He further directed that a £12 annuity be paid to his daughter Susan Greenfield "out of the rents derived from the Crescent lying behind the house in which I at present dwell". Hugh Stewart's grandson became the immediate lessor of the properties following his grandfather's death. By 1863 Lewis Kamcke was the occupier, with John Anderson and others serving as immediate lessors. Kamcke was a partner in the firm of William R Kamcke & Company, linen merchants with offices in the White Linen Hall.

The valuation was reduced in stages to £14 in 1874 and then £11 in 1892. The house subsequently changed hands among multiple occupiers including James Todd (1887), Lewis Robbin (1900), John Brown (1902), Margaret E Hughes (1918) and John Dugan (1930), among others. In 1903 the valuation was raised slightly to £13 following the addition of a bathroom. The architectural interest of the property lies in its style, proportion, ornamentation and setting, while it holds group value within its terrace context and is of local historical interest.