43-45 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DX

A two-storey gabled block on the south side of Frances Street, originally built around the 1860s as two separate houses (numbered 43 and 45) but now converted to offices and internally integrated as a single property.

No. 43 has a front facade with a panelled door and fanlight featuring margin panes with coloured glass. The doorway is encased with fluted pilasters and curved brackets that support a dentilled cornice with curved blocking above. To the left is a window opening with a simple surround and cornice with similar blocking. To the right stands a canted bay with windows on each side set on a cill course, topped with a cornice and blocking. The first floor contains three moulded windows set on a cill course with brackets, though these do not appear evenly spaced. All windows throughout the block now have modern frames. The lower half of the facade is finished in rusticated render, the upper half in plain render, and the whole is painted. The eaves course is punctuated with decoration. The west gable is blank and finished in lined, unpainted cement render.

At the rear, the ground level falls away to reveal a basement. At basement level is a sheeted door roughly at centre with a window to the left. Directly above this window is a taller window serving ground and first floor levels. To the right are three windows stacked vertically, lighting the stairwell. The two lower windows feature semicircular arched heads with decorative leaded and stained glass, with the uppermost arched window also carrying decorative leaded and stained glass. Two narrow windows sit at corresponding levels to the right of the arched windows. The rear is finished in roughcast and unpainted. A small lean-to boiler house is attached at basement level between the two buildings. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates with two large rendered chimney stacks—one to the gable and one shared with No. 45. Two large modern flat-roofed dormers sit to the rear. Metal and PVC rainwater goods are present.

No. 45 is smaller than No. 43 but matches it in architectural detail. Its front facade has a doorway to the right and a canted bay to the left, with two first-floor windows matching No. 43's pattern, except the central window of the canted bay is now a modern glazed door. The east gable matches the west gable of No. 43. At the rear, ground and first-floor windows appear to the right, with decorative stained and leaded glass to the ground-floor window. At stairwell levels to the left are three windows. The lower windows have semicircular arched heads; the uppermost is larger and features stained and leaded glass. A blocked doorway outline remains visible at basement level. The roof matches No. 43 except for a single flat-roofed dormer to the rear. Metal and PVC rainwater goods are present.

Railings have undoubtedly been removed from the front of the block. A wheelchair access ramp with painted metal handrails stands to the front, mainly in front of No. 45, with cast iron bollards fronting No. 43.