Site of former 5-7 The Square, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5DX

Site of former 5-7 The Square, Comber

This site in the middle of a terrace on the west side of The Square once held a large two-storey house with shop, originally built in 1731. The building was demolished in 1998 and replaced by a new office built to roughly the same dimensions.

The original house was described during a survey in December 1970 as a long two-storey structure with an associated shop. The roof was slated, the chimneys rendered, and the walls were splatterdashed and painted. A cornice and parapet at the eaves featured a decorative panel and vase on the right side, with a base course below. The first floor had six sash windows and the ground floor had two sash windows, none with astragals. The ground floor frontage included, from left to right, a coachway with a flat elliptic arch head, two windows, a doorway at number 7 with a stone surround and cornice over the lintel, a panelled door with plain fanlight, and on the right a recently inserted shop front with recessed glazed door and grocer's shop window, all beneath a signboard supported by twin corbels at each end. The building was recorded as being in fair condition with approximately 52 feet of frontage.

An inscribed panel on the original building read: "This house built by John Milling, merchant in Comber A.D. 1731." The Milling family retained the property continuously until its demolition, living and trading from the premises throughout. By 1856, James Milling was recorded as a grocer and spirit and porter dealer. An 1846 directory noted that a coach and van from Killyleagh called at James Milling's every morning (Sunday excepted) at eight o'clock, suggesting the property operated as a coaching inn or similar establishment. By 1870, James Milling was running a hotel from the site. In 1886, another James Milling is listed as a draper, grocer, mineral water manufacturer, timber, coal and iron merchant, and undertaker. When the building was surveyed in 1970, a James Milling was still operating an undertakers business from the premises, which also incorporated a grocer's shop.

The building underwent alterations throughout its nearly 270-year history. The vase-topped parapet, which matched that of the neighbouring property to the south, was likely added around 1825, while the shop front was clearly inserted considerably after the original construction in 1731.

The new building constructed on this site incorporates the ornamental parapet vase from the original property, which has been placed on the new parapet.