18 The Parade and 24 New Street, Donaghadee, Co Down

18 The Parade and 24 New Street, Donaghadee

A much-altered two-storey corner building combining shop and house, dating from approximately 1810–20. The building occupies the corner of New Street and The Parade in Donaghadee.

The structure presents two frontages. No. 18 The Parade faces north. At ground floor level, the centre-left contains a large modern shop front with a glazed door flanked by two substantial fixed-light windows, with a modern multi-paned window to the left. A long laminated signboard runs directly above these windows. The first floor has three modern six-pane windows (these actually belong to No. 24 New Street).

No. 24 New Street faces east. Slightly left of centre at ground floor is the house entrance, a panelled door with semicircular radial fanlight, encased with blocked and fluted pilasters and an architrave with keystone. To the left of the doorway is a small window with modern frame; to the right is a large modern shop window. The first floor mirrors the windows of the north facade.

Both the north and east facades are rendered in roughcast with chamfered quoins and base. The roof is hipped, covered in concrete tiles, and features two large flat-roofed dormers with timber sides and modern windows. A render chimney stack projects to the west, with cast-iron rainwater goods.

No clear view of the rear facade was possible due to the proximity of surrounding buildings.

Historical Development

Though a building is recorded on the Parade section of this site in Daniel De la Cherois's map of Donaghadee dating to around 1780, New Street did not begin to be laid out until the 1810s. The building thus probably dates from circa 1810–20. In valuation records of approximately 1836, the block (then referred to simply as a house) was owned by William Waugh and had a rateable value of £10. According to the present owner, the shop was once two separate establishments; however, early 20th-century photographs of The Parade do not confirm this. Physical evidence within the shop attests to the former presence of two separate rooms, though these may date from when the building was purely a dwelling house.