3-5 Lorelei, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3TF

Three three-storey, two-bay Victorian stucco terraced houses — incorporating what was formerly known as the Tedford Hotel — built around 1898 to designs by Young and Mackenzie of Belfast, on the outskirts of Bangor town centre in County Down. The terrace stands in an elevated position on the east side of Princetown Road, overlooking Bangor Bay, and is accessed from a lane between numbers 82 and 88 Princetown Road.

The terrace is rectangular on plan, with a full-height modern extension added to the rear during the 1990s. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate, with a conical roof and finial over the bay window. A rectangular painted masonry chimneystack with a moulded plinth rises above the roofline. The walls are finished in painted smooth render or stucco, with moulded string-courses between floors, continuous sills, and dentilled eaves at second-floor level. All windows are uPVC replacements. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run along the projecting eaves; plastic rainwater goods serve the rear.

The principal elevation faces north-east. For descriptive purposes, the leftmost of the three houses is described here. A three-storey bow window occupies the right side of the bay; at first-floor level, a decorative cast-iron balcony projects, with uPVC double-leaf doors at the centre. To the left is the entrance bay, with a single opening to the upper floors. The door is timber-panelled with a plain fanlight set in a moulded recess; Doric pilasters support a bead-moulded arch with a keyblock, and moulded swirl motifs decorate the spandrels. The south-east elevation abuts the neighbouring building. The south-west rear elevation is entirely obscured by the 1990s extension, which is modern and of no architectural interest. The north-west elevation abuts the further adjoining building. The setting is completed by a tarmacadam car park to the front and rear, garages at a lower level to the front, and modern steel railings running along the frontage.

The terrace has its origins in the rapid expansion of Bangor that followed the arrival of the railway from Holywood in 1865. Land along the coast to the west of the town gradually filled with terraces and villas catering for the well-to-do middle classes, both permanent residents and visitors attracted to Bangor during the summer season. In the latter decades of the 19th century, Bangor transformed from a declining manufacturing town into a thriving and fashionable seaside resort, known as the 'Northern Brighton'.

The terrace began as a pair of semi-detached houses built around 1880 — what later became numbers 3 and 4 Lorelei Terrace — leased from Alan Carswell, who is likely to have been the developer. They first appear in Annual Revision records in 1881, initially listed as vacant, each valued at £35. By 1882, number four's valuation rose to £37, apparently due to the addition of stables, which were later separated out of the valuation. In 1882, someone named Cannon was living at number three, and Alan Carswell himself was listed as occupier of number four. Carswell may have been associated with the Belfast printing firm R. Carswell and Son Ltd of Queen Street. By 1890 the pair of houses appeared in records as 'Lorely', and occupiers of number three included H. Boas, then Hugh Ferguson in 1896, and Geraldine Jones in 1899. Number four was occupied by John Wyley and later Anne McFerran in 1896.

The houses were sold to Samuel Crosbie in 1897, and it was he who developed the site further by adding four more houses to the terrace. In August 1898, the Irish Builder announced that "Two blocks of houses will shortly be commenced at Lourlie [sic]...for Mr Samuel Crosbie, from plans by Messrs Young and Mackenzie, architects, Belfast." In 1899 the valuation of both original houses was reduced to £30. The houses added by Young and Mackenzie followed the design of the original pair very closely, with the original semi-detached pair distinguished only by wrought-iron balconies to the front façade; it is possible that Young and Mackenzie were also the architects of the first two houses.

The occupant recorded at number three around 1890, Herman Boas (1827–1917), was a notable figure: a founding member of the Jewish congregation in Belfast in 1861 and its president in 1877, and Treasurer of the Belfast Hebrew Board of Guardians for many years. Boas had emigrated to Nottingham from Lübeck in 1854 and settled in Belfast in 1861, trading as Sol Boas and Company, fancy box and linen ornament manufacturers. His wife, Caroline Spiers, was a niece of the lexicographer Alexander Spiers and an aunt of Herman Heyermans, the Dutch playwright and novelist. Their eldest son, Frederick Samuel Boas (1862–1955), became a distinguished Shakespearean scholar, publishing numerous works on Tudor and Stuart drama and poetry, and serving as Professor of English Literature at Queen's College, Belfast from 1901 to 1905. Ernst Boas, Herman's son and heir to the family firm, rented number two shortly after the houses were first built.

By 1901, the occupier of number three was Emma Dale. The 1901 census records Francis Dale, a retired book-keeper, living there with his wife Emma, their two children, Emma's sister Sarah Stronge, and a cook. By 1911, the character of the terrace had begun to shift from large family residences to boarding houses catering for commuters and tourists. The 1911 census shows Sarah Stronge occupying both number three and its neighbour number two, operating both as boarding houses, with two servants — a cook and a housemaid from County Monaghan — and a visitor or boarder in residence. In 1942 number three became the offices of the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company. By the time of listing in 1975, numbers three, four, and five were in use together as a hotel.

The 1901 census lists the occupiers of number four as Mary McFerran and Margaret McFerran, sisters born in England and living on investment income. By 1911 they remained in residence with a general domestic servant from County Tipperary. Subsequent occupiers included Gorman in 1914, Annie Tracey in 1919, Ethel M. Cance in 1924, and Rosamund C. McKeown and Elizabeth Walker in 1926.

Number five first appeared in valuation records around 1900 as a newly built vacant dwelling, valued at £36, and by 1901 was occupied by James Jackson, who had a private income from investments and lived with his sister, her son, and two domestic servants. Kathleen Kyle followed in 1908, but the house was vacant at the time of the 1911 census. Sarah Mulholland was tenant in 1914 and Elizabeth Colville in 1918.

The entire terrace — numbers 3, 4, and 5 — was converted into apartments around 2000. A large modern extension was added to the rear and the older part of the building was completely refurbished; each of the former houses now contains six dual-aspect flats.

The original character of the terrace has been significantly compromised. The conversion to modern apartments has resulted in the loss of the original plan form, leaving the terrace effectively as a façade retention. The original windows have been replaced throughout, and the setting has been diminished by the addition of garages and the tarmacadam car park to the front. The rear elevation is dominated by the full-height modern extension. While some good architectural detailing survives on the main elevation, the terrace is of relatively late date and common type, and was removed from the statutory list on 3 February 2012 on the grounds that it no longer meets the tests for a building of special architectural or historic interest.