4 High Street, Holywood, County Down, BT18 9AZ, ***See General comments***

An end-terrace symmetrical three-bay three-storey Georgian townhouse built around 1790, located south of High Street in Holywood town centre. The building illustrates the growth of Holywood during the late 18th and early 19th century and remains a relatively rare example of late 18th century housing in the town.

The house is rectangular on plan with a full-height projecting stairwell to the rear. It has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and rendered chimneysstacks. The walling is painted smooth render. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash in moulded surrounds with projecting masonry sills, with diminutive windows to the second floor; replacement sash windows are fitted to the rear. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods run along the eaves. The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged across three openings. A six-panelled timber entrance door with brass door furniture is set in a deep recess with panelled pilasters, plain entablature and cornice. The east elevation, abutted to the left by the adjoining building, has a single opening to ground and first floor. The south (rear) elevation has two windows to the first and second floors, two windows to the left of the ground floor and one to the right, a central stairwell with two windows, an exposed section to the left with a diminutive window to the top and a modern timber door to the ground floor, and an exposed section to the right with a single window to the ground floor. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The setting is on Holywood's main street, set back from the road with a small paved garden to the front enclosed by a painted masonry wall with piers and decorative cast-iron railings. A communal tarmacadam car park lies to the rear.

The house is one of a pair of Georgian appearance and may have been built together. A map of Cultra dated 1775 does not show the houses, as the development of Holywood had not yet extended into Ballykeel townland at that date. A map of 1819 shows a terrace in the location of the present house. The house and its neighbour were the venue of Holywood "squeezes", fashionable evening social gatherings held in the 1790s and 1800s which sometimes continued through the night.

The house was listed in the Townland Valuation (1828–40) as one of three dwellings owned by John Rowley, valued at £11.8s. By Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), ownership had passed to John Hunter, with the valuation rising considerably to £25, possibly indicating remodelling at this time. A valuation town plan of around 1860–1866 shows the house had been extended to the rear. The tenant during this period was Samuel M McGee, proprietor of the firm John G McGee & Co with premises in the Pantechnetheca warehouse in High Street, Belfast. The firm were tailors, clothiers and general outfitters, specialising in woollen drapery and London hats. McGee also lived in Alfred Street, Belfast and his Holywood residence may have been an escape from the dirt and clamour of the city and an opportunity to partake of sea bathing.

In the fieldbook of 1867–79 the valuation was reduced to £23, and in 1886 further reduced to £15. The valuer noted in 1886 that the house was said to be let at £12 minus taxes but if so was let very much under its value. Holywood was becoming less desirable as a place of residence towards the end of the century and these changes may simply reflect this. The house was let to various tenants including Matilda Morgan (1880), Susan Lynn (1882) and William M Downing (1887). The landlord became E and P Stokesberry in 1886.

William M Downing remained in residence in 1901 and was recorded in the census of that year as a master bookbinder of 57 years living with his English wife and their son, a furniture salesman. The house was designated first class due to its size and construction and at that period had eleven windows giving onto the street, suggesting there were dormer windows along the roofline.

By 1911, William Downing had moved to the adjoining house and Charles Horton, a flax buyer of English birth, was living in the current house with his wife and two young children. Mary Adams became landlord in 1916, but by 1923 Charles Horton was himself the owner of the house.

The building has been fully refurbished in recent years and now functions as a modern office, resulting in significant loss of historic fabric and some alteration to the original floor plan.