4-36 Belfast Road, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5EW

A long terrace of small, single-storey stone-built houses, probably dating from around 1830 or slightly earlier, situated on the west side of Belfast Road to the north-west of Comber town centre. The terrace follows the road northwards, with the line kinked at houses 22–24 to accommodate the road's curve.

The houses are constructed in rendered sandstone rubble, though houses 6–10 and 24 remain largely unrendered, displaying their rubble stone clearly. Each property (with the exception of number 4, which is double-fronted) has a similar arrangement of a doorway to the left and a window to the right. Number 4 has its doorway to the centre with windows either side.

Doorways are encased with simple V-jointed surrounds incorporating keystones. Most retain their original low height, though those to numbers 16, 18, 34 and 36 have been lengthened in recent times with alterations to their surrounds. Doors vary considerably: timber-panelled examples survive at numbers 6, 8 and 34; timber tongue-and-groove sheeted doors at numbers 10–14, 26, 28 and 32 (the last with a small glazed panel); number 26 has a plain hardboard-sheeted door; and modern partly glazed doors occupy numbers 4, 18, 22, 30 and 36, with a more traditional panelled and glazed door at number 24.

The front windows present considerable variation due to widespread modern enlargement and replacement. Numbers 4, 16, 18, 24–32 and 36 retain their original window openings, though most now contain modern timber or PVC frames; number 16 has a PVC sash window. Only numbers 12 and 14 retain traditional sash frames with vertical glazing bars (4 over 4). The enlarged openings throughout sport modern PVC frames. Number 4's rear roof features a small cast-iron skylight and a small flat-roofed dormer. Numbers 6–14, 18, 20, 32 and 34 all have at least one Velux window to the front.

The original roofs are covered in Bangor blue slates, each house having one rendered chimney stack. Most guttering and downpipes are modern PVC. A cast-iron street pump survives in the pavement to the front of number 24.

With the notable exception of number 4, all properties have been substantially extended to the rear with large modern additions, effectively doubling the size of each house. Those to numbers 6–18 are particularly large and overwhelmingly modern in appearance. The bulk of several extensions has broken through the original roof line, most notably at numbers 6, 8, 18, 24, 34 and 36, with the alterations to the last three particularly noticeable.

The terrace may date from around 1830 and possibly corresponds to the "new stone houses of 1-storey" referred to in the 1837 Ordnance Survey memoirs as having been lately built on the road to Belfast and chiefly occupied by labourers who kept small grocer's shops. The sandstone construction aligns with contemporary observations that most new buildings within Comber were of this material (rather than basalt, previously favoured), due to increased quarrying at nearby Scrabo Hill during this period. The absence of these properties from the 1835 valuation survey and the unavailability of mapping for the 1863 revaluation limits what can be definitively stated about the terrace's history after circa 1830.

Local tradition holds that the terrace was once known as 'Todd's Row', after an owner who allegedly lost all the houses in a card game to a man named Burgess. The Todd in question may have been connected to the public house to the south of the terrace, itself possibly constructed following the railway line's arrival in the 1850s. Various Todds appear in directories as proprietors of this establishment from the 1850s onwards, but the premises passed to a Mr. Burgess in the early 1900s; whether this occurred as a result of the alleged card game remains unclear.