Site of 51-63 High Street, Comber, Co. Down

Site of a former two-storey terrace of seven houses on the north-west side of High Street, Comber, west of the town centre. The houses were of probable pre-1834 origin and were demolished around the 1980s.

At the time of survey in December 1975, before demolition, the terrace comprised seven properties (numbered 51 to 63) arranged under three roof sections. The roofs were slated with gable ends, and gables on the right-hand sides of numbers 55 and 61. Chimneys were rendered and of brick construction.

The front walls were rendered with rough cast finish, painted cream, and featured margin quoins with a plain base. Numbers 63 and 61 had three first-floor drop-hung windows with horizontal astragals on the first floor (though number 61's first-floor windows lacked astragals). These properties had two ground-floor drop-hung windows. Central doorways featured smooth stone surrounds, with number 63 having moulding over the lintel, framing plain fanlights and flush panel doors. All windows had shouldered margin surrounds.

Numbers 59, 57 and 55 each had three first-floor drop-hung windows with horizontal astragals. The ground-floor arrangement was door-window-door-two windows-door, with the first and third windows following the pattern above. The second window had Georgian panes. Doorways had flush panel doors framed with plain stone surrounds.

Numbers 53 and 51 had two recent first-floor two-light steel casement windows with Georgian panes and one first-floor drop-hung window with horizontal astragals. The ground floor featured a drop-hung window with horizontal astragals, a doorway with plain stone surround and moulding above the lintel framing a flush door, and a further door with plain stone surround framing a glazed and panelled door. A drop-hung window with horizontal astragals was positioned to the right. All windows had shouldered margin surrounds. The frontage measured approximately 90 feet.

The condition was recorded as fair at the time of survey. The terrace was demolished sometime after 1975, and a new terrace was subsequently built roughly in its place.

Historical records indicate that this site was occupied from at least 1722. The 1834 valuation records that this end of High Street, then known as Cow Lane (and erroneously named Mill Street on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map), possessed 23 exempt houses (properties under rateable value). The terrace described above likely belonged to this group and probably dates from the late 18th or very early 19th century.