63 Victoria Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9BD

63 Victoria Road, Holywood, is a Grade B2 listed two-storey-with-attic, two-bay semi-detached Victorian house built around 1860. It was formerly known as 2 Glenside Place and forms part of a small crescent with two neighbouring properties (numbers 66 and 69 to the northwest, previously called Glenside). The building remains largely unchanged with much of its historic fabric intact, including the original floor plan and largely complete architectural detailing to the principal elevation. The pair represent a good example of Victorian residential building in this area and are part of Holywood's development following the arrival of the railway.

The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear. It features a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black angled ridge tiles and a chimneystack with clay pots. The eaves carry cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on ovolo moulded details. The walling is painted smooth render with plinth and quoins.

Windows throughout are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with moulded surrounds and keyblock detail. The first-floor windows include a moulded fanlight motif and have continuous sills. The principal northeast-facing elevation is two windows wide at first-floor level, with two windows to the left and an entrance door to the right at ground floor. The entrance door features two elongated bolection moulded panels, a beaded muntin, and a kickboard with a transom light and moulded surround having a segmental arched head with keyblock. A small window to the attic floor is located on the southeast elevation. The southwest rear elevation contains windows to both ground and first floors, with a two-storey return to the left having an attic window. This return features a uPVC window to the gable. The east elevation has two small uPVC windows and a uPVC door to the right. The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The house is prominently sited on a bend in Victoria Road, set back from the road with its entrance at the northwest. A gravelled parking area fronts the property with a car-port at the gable. A large lawn with shrubs occupies the rear garden, enclosed by mature hedgerow and trees.

The development of High Holywood began around 1850 as the area became an increasingly desirable location for Belfast merchants and professionals seeking to escape the city's congestion. The opening of the railway in 1848 transformed Holywood into a commuter town accessible to a wide range of working people and made it attractive for landlord investment. The semi-detached pair first appears, uncaptioned, on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. Griffith's Valuation (1856-64) shows that two pairs of houses were built on the same plot—the current pair, numbers 61 and 63, and numbers 65 and 67, which still stand. All four dwellings are listed as Glenside Place in the printed valuation book. According to Merrick, the houses date from around 1850, confirmed by a Belfast Newsletter advertisement offering them for sale which states that the lease of the land dates from 1st November 1848. The houses were likely built shortly after the lease was purchased. In Griffith's Valuation, this house is recorded as the home of George Nelson, who leased the property from Anne Suffern. The house and outbuildings were valued at £14 10s, with the yard and garden valued at 10s.

Glenside Place appears in the Belfast Newsletter several times during the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1864, a house in Glenside Place was offered to let, and in April 1866 one was offered as a summer let for June, July, and August. Between 1866 and 1894, houses in Glenside Place were repeatedly offered for sale, highlighting their appeal as investment properties with good rental returns. A typical advertisement from 24th April 1873 offered "One of the dwelling-houses known as Glenside Place" together with an adjacent plot to the west usually let for grazing at around £1 per season. The advertisement noted the house to be "pleasantly situated a little off the road, on high ground, with a small pleasure-ground in front, the Garden in the rere sloping gently back to the river," containing a parlour, two bedrooms, one sitting room, three attics, kitchen, scullery, pantry and other spaces, with room for three similar houses on the adjoining plot. An 1894 advertisement described the Glenside Place houses as being "situate in the best letting and healthiest locality in Holywood, are always occupied, and within ten minutes' walk from railway station."

By the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900-02, the houses had been extended to the rear. At the time of the 1901 census, the house was occupied by William Torney, a commercial traveller in tobacco, living with his sister and five-year-old nephew. By 1911, William Torney had become a commercial traveller in soap. The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.