'First and Last', 39 Main Street, Ballymacruise, Millisle, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2BL

First and Last, Millisle

A two-storey gabled public house situated at the corner of Main Street and Strand Avenue in Millisle, at the end of a terrace to the north but constructed at a slightly different angle to its immediate neighbours. The building is of mid-19th century date, likely constructed between the 1830s and 1860s, though a public house may have occupied this site since 1790 according to a decorative mirror behind the bar. The present structure's orientation matches that shown on Ordnance Survey maps from 1858-60, suggesting construction sometime between 1833-4 and around 1858.

The west-facing front facade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins. The central entrance comprises a panelled door framed by pilasters with a slightly raised lintel frieze and cornice hood. To the left is a modern timber window with metal bars, and to the right a slightly broader modern window also with bars. The first floor contains three evenly spaced sash windows. An internally illuminated projecting PVC pub sign is positioned to the far right on the first floor, with a more traditional-looking laminated sign to the far left.

The south-facing gable is rendered in plain finish and is largely blank except for a very small opening at attic level, possibly for ventilation. The roof of the main building is pitched and covered in Bangor blue slates with stone parapets. A rendered chimney stack rises from the south gable; the stack on the north gable has been partly dismantled and blocked.

Attached to the rear is a long, rambling single-storey extension with mainly flat roofing, which appears to have been added to on multiple occasions and follows the line of Strand Avenue. The extension is finished in plain and roughcast render. The building immediately to the north (No. 37), which this pub has since extended into, was constructed sometime between 1906 and around 1930.

The interior has been completely altered and modernised in recent times. This is a simple, traditionally-looking vernacular public house of considerable local longevity.