106 Seacliff Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5EZ

106 Seacliff Road is a two-storey, three-bay Victorian mid-terrace dwelling, one of six houses built c.1855. The building is located on an elevated coastal site overlooking Belfast Lough, east of Eisenhower Pier, surrounded by other Victorian and Edwardian terraces.

The house has a rectangular plan form with two two-storey rear returns and an enclosed yard. It features a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, overhanging timber eaves and bargeboards. The walls are constructed of sandstone rubble with smooth rendered band course and a smooth rendered canted bay. Rendered and yellow brick chimney stacks with clay pots are shared with adjoining buildings. The rainwater goods comprise uPVC semi-circle gutters with cast-iron circular down pipes.

The principal elevation faces north-west and is asymmetrically arranged. The front door is centrally located, constructed as a timber four-panel door with brass ironmongery, with a fixed light containing margin panes over it. A small lean-to canopy supported on masonry wall brackets covers the entrance, with red brick and plaster surrounds. Above the door is a small round-arched sash window on the first floor. The left-hand bay rises to a shallow pitched gable embracing a two-storey rendered canted bay with a leaded hipped roof. Ground and first floor windows occupy the right-hand side. Windows throughout are square-headed timber 2/2 sliding sash (horizontally divided) with margin panes, replacement red brick surrounds, and continuous cills to the canted bay.

The rear elevation includes a mono-pitched two-storey return on the left with roof alteration and modern roof light, plus an additional flat-roofed single-storey extension projecting from the north face into the enclosed yard. An L-shaped mono-pitched two-storey return comprising stairwell, upper floor accommodation and external storage abuts the left side.

The front garden and rear garden are separated by a large flagstone path leading to the front entrance, flanked by shoe scrapers on either side. A car park has been constructed to the front. A modern rear extension has been added, though the building's special character, style, proportion and architectural detail remain largely unaltered. It has significant group value as part of the terrace and makes a positive contribution to the coastal setting.

Historical context

The houses, originally known as Clifton Terrace, were among the earliest properties built along this stretch of coast. They first appear captioned as Clifton Terrace on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, at which time they were surrounded by open countryside. A photograph from around the 1870s shows the terrace as one of the few developments along the coastline at that period. By 1901, the area had been filled with substantial properties for professional and mercantile residents, reflecting Bangor's development following the arrival of the railway in 1865.

The terrace is listed in Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) as the property of William Cowan, with Robert E Ward as the local landowner and immediate lessor. Each property was described as a 'house, offices, yard and pleasure ground' valued at £20. William Cowan was a grocer and wine and spirit retailer with premises in Church Lane and Joy Street, Belfast. He died in 1862, a wealthy man, and his company, William Cowan Ltd, became celebrated for producing Cowan's No 4 Old Irish Whisky. One house was let to Andrew Cowan, cited in William's will as a 'gentleman' and possibly his son.

The Belfast Newsletter reported in May 1857 that the terrace had been built "in the very best manner, embracing all modern improvements in ventilation, and every convenience that can be desired. Each house contains a large Dining-Room, Five Bed-Rooms and Servants' Apartments, two water-closets, Kitchen, Scullery and two pantries, all well-enclosed with a good yard." Each house originally had twin returns: one housed the kitchen and scullery, while the second contained stores, a water closet and a maid's room above. The 1901 census indicates that the houses contained 11 rooms and were deemed first-class due to their size and construction.

In 1877 the terrace passed to Hugh Furey, who let the houses to lodgers while retaining one for his family use, as William Cowan had done. Furey is listed in a 1900 street directory as a draper, family grocer, tea, wine and spirit merchant of Main Street, Bangor.

At the time of the 1901 census, number 106 was occupied by George J O'Neill, a commercial traveller in wholesale stationery and printing from Cork, his Cornish wife, their four children, an aunt from Devon and a domestic servant. Adelaide Campbell, an aged spinster, was tenant in 1908. Thomas Hughes, a retired accountant, occupied the house at the 1911 census as a widower, living with his daughter and a domestic servant. By 1914 his daughter, Jane Hughes, was head of the household. Subsequent tenants included Alfred Cotter (1923) and Annie Douglas (1929). The house continues to be used as a dwelling.