Clifden House, 15 Bangor Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0NU

Clifden House is a Grade B1 listed building comprising one half of a pair of large early nineteenth-century semi-detached houses located on the east side of Bangor Road, Holywood. Built circa 1835, it stands on an elevated site set back from the road with mature gardens to the front, accessed by a sweeping tarmacadam drive marked by two polygonal rendered piers with moulded caps and cast-iron gates.

The building is a two-storey structure with attic storey, three bays wide, constructed with an L-shaped plan form incorporating a catslide return to the re-entrant angle. The roof is of natural slate, hipped to the front and gabled to the rear, with angled clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks topped with moulded caps and multiple octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are half-round aluminium set over an eaves course.

The external walls are rendered with ruled-and-lined cement render to the north and rear elevations and painted roughcast to the west garden front, all built over a bevelled plinth. Windows are generally 6/6 timber sashes with projecting sandstone cills and plain reveals, except those to the west elevation which have slightly projecting smooth rendered reveals with angled heads. The garden elevation faces northwest and contains three equally spaced windows to each floor. The entrance elevation faces northeast and has four openings to each floor, with those to the right being blind. The main entrance is elliptical-arched, offset to the right of centre, comprising a timber door with six raised-and-fielded panels and bronze door furniture, flanked by a segmented fanlight and multi-paned sidelights. The entrance is framed by clustered timber pilasters and accessed by four stone platform steps flanked by stone urns on pedestals. The rear elevation of the main block is gabled and features French doors to a rear yard with windows above on each floor. The return section set back into the angle has a modern door and window to ground floor and opens onto a yard accessed via concrete flag steps. The southwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining semi-detached house.

The current owners have restored most of the original plan form and fenestration. The house displays a more complex plan form than its neighbour, reflecting early changes in layout including the addition of a secondary service stair, which would have maintained the privacy of the main quarters. The house is distinguished by generous proportions and plain detailing appropriate to its period, with substantial original fabric and detailing surviving.

Historical records indicate that Hugh Stewart came into ownership of the land, known as Windmill Field, in 1836. While the houses are shown on the Townland Valuation town plan of circa 1834, they do not appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, suggesting construction between these dates. A copy lease of 1850 records that Hugh Stewart erected two dwelling houses with office houses in the rear, covered by the same roof and separated by a partition wall. Hugh Stewart was a significant figure in Holywood's early development, having built a bathhouse to attract seasonal visitors, the first Post Office, and numerous houses including the older part of the Crescent. The building is shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned "Clifden". According to information supplied by the owner, Robert Francis Gordon, who later built Craigdarragh House, lived in Clifden before 1848.

The house appears in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 as the property of Mr Leckee, assessed as a house, office and yard valued at £30, though he may have been a tenant. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64, Clifden is listed as a house, offices, yard and land (lawn) occupied by Isabella Purvis and leased from William Linden, with buildings valued at £53.10s, later raised to £58.10s, indicating it was somewhat larger than its neighbour Martello House. The second edition Ordnance Survey map shows Clifden had a more complex rear layout than its neighbour by 1858, suggesting it had already been extended and altered by that date. Annual Revisions record John Finlay in residence from at least 1863, leasing from Isabella Purvis, remaining until 1880 when the house is listed as vacant. By 1898 William Parr occupied the house; valuers' notes from an appeal that year describe it as "very old" and the valuation was reduced to £43.10s. The house remained in the Parr family until 1923 when it was occupied by Francis W Weldon.

This pair of houses represents one of the earliest phases of development in this part of Holywood and are among the first semi-detached dwellings constructed in the area.