19 High Street, Donaghadee, Co Down

19 High Street, Donaghadee is a substantial two-storey Georgian house with basement, dating from circa 1800-10. It is set at the end of a terrace on the south-west side of High Street, next to Church Lane.

The front north-east facade is particularly impressive and serves as the main entrance. At the far left is a panelled door with a semicircular fanlight featuring tracery, surrounded by plain pilasters that support a broken pediment formed by the fanlight itself. Stone steps lead up to the doorway. To the right of the entrance is a sash window with Georgian panes. Further right stands a Venetian window with Georgian panes and spider web tracery to the semicircular arch section. The first floor carries four evenly spaced sash windows of similar character. The front facade is carried up as a parapet.

Below the ground floor windows, steps with rendered walls and wrought iron spear-head railings descend to the basement level, with a largely simple, recent-looking wrought iron pedestrian gate at the south-east end. The steps lead to a narrow paved terrace. The basement front facade has a doorway covered by a modern roller shutter, and to the south-east section a PVC window with a protective grill.

The north-west gable end has a window similar to the ground floor right-hand window, though one pane is now boarded. This gable merges with the north-west facade of a large two-storey gabled return featuring a double sliding sash window without panes at both ground and first floor levels. A single-storey, two-level lean-to extension with a small modern window adjoins this return. The rear has been extensively extended and little original fabric survives, having been largely obscured by a large single-storey lean-to extension to the south-east of the gabled return, which was added behind a two-storey hipped roof projection partly shared with No. 21. All rear openings are modern in both size and window frame style.

The front facade is finished in lined render and painted, as is most of the gable. The rear is finished in plain render and painted. The main roof is gabled and covered in pantiles. The return and extensions are finished with fibre cement and Bangor blue slates to the hipped roof projection. A mixture of cast iron and PVC rainwater goods is present, and there is a rendered chimney stack.

The site appears in Daniel De la Cherois's map of circa 1780, though the present house was constructed circa 1800-10. By the 1836 valuation records, it was in the possession of Mrs. Hawthorn with a rateable value of £10. The property later served as the local bridewell (circa 1840s) and subsequently as an RIC station (possibly circa 1870-1900). During the twentieth century it functioned as Donaghadee Post Office before being converted to a restaurant, "The Bridewell", in the later 1980s. It has since reverted to use as a private dwelling, though largely unaltered from its restaurant conversion.

The house, front railings, and walling are listed. The building lies within a conservation area.