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

A two-storey-over-basement end terrace townhouse built around 1850, located south of Victoria Road in Holywood. The building is square-on-plan with a two-storey gabled return to the rear.

The principal elevation faces north and is three bays wide. Windows are timber framed 1/1 sliding sash, with segmental heads to the first floor and projecting continuous sills. First floor windows have moulded architrave surrounds with keyblock detail, apron panels and corbel brackets beneath the sills. The walling is painted smooth render; the ground floor features band rustication with elongated keyblock detail over the windows. The entrance door, positioned to the right, is accessed by two stone steps and comprises six raised-and-fielded panel timber with carved detail and brass door furniture. It is surmounted by a plain transom light and flanked by a reticulated block Gibbs surround with plain keyblock detail.

The pitched natural slate roof has rectangular rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with a hopper sit on bracketed eaves; plastic rainwater goods serve the rear return. The east elevation is abutted to ground floor by the adjoining property. The south elevation has asymmetrical openings to ground and first floor, with a blank gable above. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The basement level has a replacement timber window and timber door accessed by two stone steps.

The entrance is reached by two stone steps with decorative cast-iron railings. The terrace is set back slightly from the road with a small front garden bounded to the road by hedgerow and fencing. A masonry wall runs to the east, and a large mature garden lies to the rear.

Victoria Road began development around 1850 to provide homes for merchants and professional people attracted by the opening of the railway in 1848, which afforded easy access to Belfast. The terrace first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned as Martello Terrace. Griffith's Valuation records it as a terrace of three houses with identical dimensions for house and return. The terrace is shown on the valuation town plan with L-shaped returns. The name changed to Martello Crescent around 1880, to Lower Martello Crescent in 1899. The other two terraces in the group had their returns raised and bathrooms installed in the late nineteenth century, but this house was not altered at that time. A succession of tenants is recorded from 1910 onwards, with Margaret McHugh as lessor from 1924.

The building has group value as part of a terrace of three, all equally well-preserved and retaining much character, and is of interest as part of Holywood's post-railway development. Architectural detailing is of good quality for a townhouse of this type and is largely intact.