22-24 Ferry Street, Portaferry, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 1PB

A two-storey house of early 19th-century date, built around 1800, which retains distinctive architectural character despite later alterations. The building stands on the east side of Ferry Street in Portaferry, facing west. It formerly part of a short terrace but now stands alone following the demolition of the adjacent property to the south in the mid-1900s.

The asymmetrical front façade is dominated by a large, off-centre shop front with a central recessed doorway, flanked by boarded shop windows and encased with plain pilasters and a simple cornice. This shop front is probably an early 20th-century insertion. To the right of the shop front is the original house doorway, with a timber panel door encased by fluted pilasters on high bases. The doorway is topped with a semi-circular fanlight enclosed within a broken pediment on console brackets, creating a notable pedimented doorcase. The first floor contains four sash windows with Georgian panes and moulded surrounds with keystones, set above a cill course. The ground-floor façade is finished in line render and painted, with vermiculated quoins to the north side. The upper-floor façade is finished in roughcast render, with an eaves course running across.

The exposed gables are finished in roughcast render. The north gable has a small attic window and a rendered chimney stack with matching pots; a decorative finial sits on the parapet to the west on this gable. The rear façade shows evidence of a former two-storey return to the left (south) side which has been demolished. The centre of the rear elevation has a metal-sheeted doorway with a small frameless square window opening directly above. A small square window opening is set close to the eaves on the left side. The rear façade is partly roughcast, partly ivy-covered, and partly exposes former interior wall where the return has been demolished. The gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and has stone parapets. Two cast-iron skylights are positioned to the rear.

Historical records show a building on this site appearing on Patrick O'Hare's map of 1799, when it was in the possession of Samuel Johnston. The valuation map of circa 1835–38 and accompanying returns indicate that the house at this stage was two-storey and of relatively recent construction, in the hands of John Austin. This is substantially the same building visible today. By 1861 the building was occupied by Eliza Savage. The building remained in use in 1994 but was vacant by mid-1997.