60 Princetown Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3DT

60 Princetown Road is a substantial three-storey, two-bay semi-detached Victorian stucco villa, built around 1875 by Robert Russell on the east side of Princetown Road, overlooking Bangor Marina. It forms one half of a semi-detached pair known as 'Augustaville', and together with its neighbour at number 62 represents what has been described as arguably the finest pair of stucco semi-villas on the Marine Esplanade. The architectural detailing is of good quality and entirely typical of the period.

Architectural Description

The house is rectangular on plan, with a large three-storey return to the rear, and a two-storey bow window to the front and south. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with stucco chimneystacks carrying tulip pots on moulded plinths. The gables are embellished with decorative bargeboards and finials. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round fittings on boxed eaves.

The external walls are finished in painted smooth render, with rustication and vermiculated quoins to the ground floor, corner pilasters with a moulded panel to the second floor, and smooth render quoins to the attic storey. Windows throughout are one-over-one timber sliding sashes, with segmental arches at attic level.

The bow window on the main elevation features panelled pilasters dividing the window openings; at ground floor level there is a dentilled moulded entablature and moulded cornice, and at first floor a moulded cornice. The principal elevation faces north-east. To the left is a two-storey bay window with paired segmental-arch windows to a gablet; to the right is a single window to a gablet. At first floor level the window is framed by panelled pilasters with decorative console brackets and a moulded cornice that merges with the cornice of the bow window. The entrance is marked by a Doric portico with a plain entablature and ovolo moulded cornice. The door is a double-leaf, two-panelled timber door with cast-iron furniture, flanked by sidelights and topped by a transom light.

The south-east elevation has windows to all floors on the right, and to the left a two-storey bow window with four openings, surmounted by paired segmental-arched windows to the second floor. The south-west elevation has, to the left, paired windows at first and second floor level, the first-floor window being stained glass; to the right is the three-storey rear return, which features two diminutive round-arched windows at second floor level, two windows at first floor, and two replacement windows at ground floor level. The exposed section to the left is blank. The exposed section to the right has a tripartite mullioned window at second floor, and paired windows at ground and first floor, with the second floor windows being segmental-arched. The north-west elevation abuts the adjoining property at number 62.

Setting

The house is positioned on a raised site overlooking Bangor Marina, accessed by a sloped tarmacadam driveway to the west, flanked by painted masonry square gate piers with moulded cornices and square caps, which form part of a shared gate screen also listed separately. A lawned area to the front is enclosed by a stone boundary wall with a bold balustrade and ball finials to the pillars, with shared stepped access to the front of the house. To the rear is a garden enclosed by a boundary wall and hedgerow.

Historical Background

The area around Princetown Road began to be developed towards the end of the 19th century as Bangor expanded into a fashionable seaside resort and commuter town following the opening of the railway in 1865. The site is shown as empty fields on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, but by the third edition of 1901, Princetown Road had been laid out with terraces and villas as far as Wilson's Point, the promontory at the end of the road.

Augustaville first appears in valuation records in 1875, recorded as two unfinished houses developed by Robert Russell Junior, each valued at £26 10s. The valuation was raised to £37 by 1882. The houses may nonetheless have remained unfinished for some years: a photograph held by Bangor Heritage Centre and dated 1887 shows Augustaville still under construction. Russell is initially recorded as occupier of both houses, and then specifically as occupier of number 60, with lodgers noted at number 62. By 1895 the valuation had been reduced to £35, with a valuer's note indicating the properties were seasonal lets — described as 'expensive houses to keep in repair... let furnished for May and June for £26'. Street directories of the period nevertheless list Russell as resident at Augustaville, suggesting he may have let the property only during the summer season and retired elsewhere, a common practice in Bangor at the time.

Robert Russell appears in the 1901 census as resident at this address with his wife and seven-year-old son, his occupation recorded as 'linen and cotton manufacturer'. Other sources record that Russell was also secretary of the gas company and that his family ran a drapery business in Bangor.

In 1906 the houses changed hands, with Dr Lyons becoming the immediate lessor. By 1908 the recorded occupier was William K. Crosby, and by the time of the 1911 census both houses in the pair had been taken over by Hugh Frances McDermott, a retired master mariner. McDermott shared the property with his son, also a master mariner, his German daughter-in-law, and their three young children, as well as his three adult daughters and a male boarder employed as a GPO clerk.

Elizabeth Lyons, possibly a relative of the landlord Dr Lyons, was in residence by 1916. Subsequent tenants included William McIlroy in 1917 and, from 1921, William J. Mahaffy, a solicitor and partner in the Belfast firm H & W Mahaffy of Callendar Street. Two of Mahaffy's sons are commemorated in Bangor Cemetery: Henry Irwin Mahaffy, killed in 1917 while training with the Royal Flying Corps, and William Matchett Mahaffy, killed in Germany in 1942.

According to the reminiscences of William Seyers, a development company had previously begun to build a hotel at the entrance to Marine Gardens and kept a tool house on the site where Augustaville was later built. The company failed, and the tool house was subsequently run as a tea room by a Mrs McAlpin for some years before the site was redeveloped.

The house continues in use as a private residence.