35 Victoria Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9BD

35 Victoria Road, Holywood

A two-storey-over-basement with attic three-bay semi-detached townhouse, built around 1855 and located to the south of Victoria Road near Holywood town centre. The house is one of a pair known as 'Mill Bank', built in the style of Thomas Jackson and equally well-preserved. It stands on the site of a water-powered mill supplied from an artificial dam, close to a disused windmill. The pair form a good example of the urban residences that developed in Holywood following the opening of the railway in 1848, which attracted merchants and professional people seeking easy access to Belfast.

The building is rectangular on plan with a portico to the front and projecting box-bay to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is fitted with terracotta ridge tiles and rectangular brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. The main walling is Flemish-bonded red brick with painted sandstone quoins and portico; the gable is roughcast render to the rear, with rubble stone to the ground floor and a sandstone plat-band between ground and first floors. Windows throughout are primarily 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with painted masonry continuous sills and flat-brick lintels. Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods are set on painted masonry eaves, and the guttering is original throughout.

The principal elevation faces north across four openings. The ground floor features a portico with four semi-engaged Doric columns with antae and two Ionic columns, surmounted by a plain entablature with pediment and cornice having dentilled eaves. Sash glazing is fitted to the cheeks. The inner doorway has a bolection-moulded two-panelled timber door with brass door furniture, paned side lights and transom light with pilaster jambs and panelled pilaster mullions. An original cast-iron glass lamp is mounted to the portico. A sunken basement is surrounded by cast-iron railings with two openings to the left and a single opening to the right; an exposed section of porch has window openings either side.

The east elevation displays two round-headed 2/2 timber-framed windows with horizontal glazing bars to the attic. The south (rear) elevation has a single opening either side of a central projecting box-bay, with multi-paned windows to the left. The box-bay itself is two openings wide, with narrow 2/2 timber-framed windows with horizontal glazing bars to the left (not extending to the second floor) and a simple timber door at ground floor to the centre. The right bay contains glass-panelled double-leaf doors at ground floor with flat brick surround, glazed sidelights and transom light, accessed by three brick and stone slab steps. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining semi-detached pair.

The house is set back from the road with a small tarmacadam parking area to front. Painted masonry walls with coping stones and polygonal gate piers with pointed caps enclose the forecourt. A large mature garden extends to the rear, enclosed by hedgerow and fencing.

The architectural detailing is of good quality and remains largely intact. Victoria Road began development around 1850 to provide homes for merchants and professional people attracted by the railway. The small river running behind the house is thought to have marked the border between Scottish and Irish plantations. The disused windmill nearby is sometimes referred to as a 'Martello Tower', perhaps performing that function during the Napoleonic wars, though it was in use as a windmill until the 1840s.

The house first appears on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. In Griffith's Valuation it is recorded as 'Mill Bank', leased from Andrew Cowan by Joseph Bigger and valued at £50. The valuation was reduced to £35 5s. in 1892 and to £31 in 1902 following appeal. The property was occupied by a succession of tenants including Edward McHugh (1880), Edith Russell (1900), James McGee (1906), John Russell (1908), William Hartley Patterson (1909), Mary Irvine (1915), and Raymond Burke (1920), who also became immediate lessor. Maud Houston occupied the house in 1923.

The house is associated with Andrew Joseph McKenna (1833-1872), a journalist and lawyer. McKenna married Catherine McHugh, daughter of Edward McHugh, and moved to Millbank where he died in 1872. Educated in Cavan and Maynooth, McKenna wrote poetry for newspapers including The Nation under pseudonyms. He became the first editor of the Catholic newspaper Ulster Observer in 1862, but following pressure to resign due to his liberal views, he founded the Northern Star, which also attracted criticism from the Catholic establishment. The paper ceased publication following his death. McKenna was admitted to the bar in 1865 but his legal career was cut short by his death. William Hartley Patterson, an architect who occupied the house in 1909, was apprenticed to William Henry Lynn and worked at the office of Graeme, Watt & Tulloch in Belfast where he became a partner, before emigrating to Canada.