7 High Street, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1QT

7 High Street, Portaferry

A large Georgian terraced house dating to circa 1780, set on the south-east side of High Street to the east of Portaferry town centre. The building is of three storeys with a carriage gateway and a substantial two-storey gabled return to the rear. Externally the property remains largely original.

The front façade faces north-west and is asymmetrical in arrangement. To the left of centre on the ground floor is the main entrance, featuring a timber panel door with two upper glazed panels, set between recessed pilasters with a semi-circular false fanlight above. To the left of the doorway is a large tripartite sash window with Georgian panes. A tripartite window of similar design stands to the right of the door, and at the far right is a carriage entrance with plain timber sheeted double doors. The first floor contains four windows: the first and third are tripartite sashes with Georgian panes, while the second and fourth are single sashes with Georgian panes. This arrangement is repeated on the second floor, with all windows slightly shorter than those below. The exposed upper sections of the gables are blank. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted.

The rear façade, visible only from a distance, features a large two-storey gabled return to the right, with predominantly small sash windows to the south-west facing elevation. To the main rear façade is a small lean-to shelter on the ground floor to the centre, with a modern partly glazed door. Directly above this lean-to on each floor is a tripartite window without Georgian panes. To the left are much smaller sash windows on each floor, and to the second floor right is a similar small sash window. The far left of the ground floor rear shows the rear of the carriage entrance. The rear is finished mainly in roughcast and painted.

The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and has three relatively recent brown brick ridge chimney stacks with matching pots, plus a further chimney stack to the rear close to the eaves to the right. The gabled roof of the return is similarly covered in Bangor blue slates and has a very short brick chimney stack to its gable. The property has rendered parapets and eaves course, with cast iron gutters and downspouts throughout.

Historically, a building is recorded on this site on Patrick O'Hare's map of 1799, when it was in the possession of James McCleery. This is likely the same house visible today, as the compilers of the 1835 valuation records graded the house as 'B', indicating a relatively old building probably constructed in the latter half of the 18th century. At the time of this valuation, the Reverend John Orr, Minister of the nearby Portaferry Presbyterian Church and responsible for the building of the present church, was resident. Orr remained at the property until the 1870s. The valuation plan of circa 1835 to 1838 shows the property much as it appears today, though with a second smaller return to the left at the rear adjacent to the carriage gateway. By circa 1861, a large walled garden is recorded to the rear of the house on the valuation plan.