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

A two-storey-over-basement end terrace townhouse built around 1850, located to the south of Victoria Road in Holywood. The building is part of a significant architectural group and retains much of its original character and quality detailing.

The house is square on plan with a two-storey gabled return to the rear. It is roofed in pitched natural slate with rendered chimneystacks fitted with terracotta pots. The principal north-facing elevation is three openings wide, with cast-iron ogee rainwater goods and hoppers on bracketed eaves (plastic rainwater goods fitted to the rear return).

Windows throughout are 1/1 timber-framed sliding sashes. Those on the first floor have segmental heads and are fitted with projecting continuous sills. The first-floor windows feature moulded architrave surrounds with keyblock details, apron panels, and corbel brackets supporting the sills. The walling is painted smooth render, with the ground floor displaying band rustication and elongated keyblock details over the windows. The entrance is framed by a reticulated block surround with a plain keyblock, and accessed via two stone steps. The entrance door is a single-panel timber door with carved detail and brass furniture, topped by a plain transom light.

The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The south (rear) elevation features a first-floor window, a modern timber double-leaf door to the ground floor with a small modern cast-iron balcony, and a modern timber door to the basement level accessed by two masonry steps with a uPVC window to its right. The gabled return contains a uPVC window to the first floor and uPVC windows to the basement and ground floor on its exposed section. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The building sits set back slightly from the road with a small front garden bounded by a hedgerow and timber fence. Access to the entrance is by two stone steps over the basement, with decorative cast-iron railings to the front.

Victoria Road began development around 1850 to provide homes for merchants and professional people attracted by the opening of the railway in 1848, which afforded easy access to Belfast. This mercantile and professional class sought healthier and more attractive surroundings outside the city. The terrace was first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'Martello Terrace'. Griffith's Valuation records it as a terrace of three houses with returns of identical dimensions: 6½ x 9½ x 2 feet for the house and 3 x 4½ x 2 feet for the return. The terrace was shown on the valuation town plan with L-shaped returns. This house was valued at £20, later raised to £22, with a rent of £25.

The terrace name changed to 'Martello Crescent' around 1880 and to 'Lower Martello Crescent' in 1899. In 1891, the return was raised a storey and a bath installed, leading to a valuation increase to £20. Following a landlord's complaint in 1895 that the houses were difficult to let, the valuation was lowered to £17. The valuer noted there was a kitchen in the basement storey and the rent was then £21 plus taxes. A succession of tenants occupied the house: Jane F Higginson (1863), Frances Higginson, Jane Higginson (1887), Reverend John Shilliday, a Presbyterian missionary to India (1895), Mr Gillespie (1900), Margaret Patty (1917), and Harold Abernethy in 1925. Margaret McHugh was the lessor from 1924. The house continues in use as a domestic dwelling.