60 Queens Parade, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3BH

60 Queens Parade, Bangor

This is a three-storey, two-bay Victorian mid-terrace house built around 1880, situated on an elevated site on Bangor promenade adjacent to Marine Gardens, east of Bangor West and north of the town centre. It was built as one of a semi-detached pair with the adjoining no. 59, and together they form part of a larger terrace developed during the late 1870s and early 1880s. The house retains its original character and robust decorative detailing, though the installation of uPVC windows throughout and a modern front door have detracted from its historic interest.

The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles and leaded hips over a projecting bay, with cast-iron ogee gutters (uPVC to the rear) and a rendered chimney-stack topped with yellow clay pots. The walls are stucco-rendered with plinth mouldings, string course and corbel course. The principal elevation faces north-east and is asymmetrically arranged. The front door is positioned to the right, framed by smooth render surrounds rising to scroll console brackets supporting an entablature; the door itself is a modern replacement. To the left is a two-storey canted bay with square-headed moulded surrounds and a continuous cill course at first-floor level, and diminished round-headed arched openings at second-floor level. Above the entrance to the right is a first-floor window with moulded surrounds. All windows throughout the building have been replaced with uPVC units. The left elevation adjoins no. 59 Queens Parade, and the right elevation adjoins no. 61 Queens Parade. The rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey pitched-roof return projecting from the left-hand bay; views to the rear are largely obscured, though distant views suggest uPVC windows are used throughout at the rear as well.

The setting to the front includes a garden with a stepped concrete path running parallel to a lawn, enclosed by a rubble masonry boundary wall with rendered coping and piers fitted with a modern mild steel gate. Landscaped public gardens lie to the north of the site with views towards the marina. Somerset Avenue lies to the south, with alley access to the rear return. A small rear yard is enclosed.

The house was built in a similar style to the adjoining semi-detached pair to the west, though constructed by a different developer and slightly later, with minor differences in style and execution. It forms part of a terrace that replaced an earlier row of single-storey cottages visible in photographs dating from the 1870s. One of those cottages was reportedly occupied by Thomas Whannell, whose two daughters married builders who worked on Bangor Castle. The area was previously known as the Kinnegar, a name referring to the coney or rabbit warren that occupied the land before development. The street was renamed Queens Parade following a visit by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1903, with the change recorded in valuation records in 1907.

This part of Bangor was developed to accommodate the growing numbers of well-to-do middle-class residents and holidaymakers drawn to the town following the arrival of the railway in 1865. The terrace is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901, with the road captioned "Kinnegar". The majority of houses in the street were let to professional or petit-bourgeois families, while others operated as boarding houses, as recorded in the 1901 and 1911 census returns.

The houses first appear in valuation records in 1880, each described as "new", valued at £30, and initially listed as vacant, replacing a cottage formerly on the site that had been valued at £2 10s. The immediate lessor was Joseph Ferguson, the likely developer. Ferguson was a Scotsman from Arbroath, a master mariner who lived in Mountcollyer Avenue, Belfast. From 1854 to 1862, as a newly qualified master, he captained a vessel called the Edwin Fox, which served as a troop carrier during the Crimean War and subsequently, and notoriously, carried Chinese labourers to Cuba to work in the sugar plantations. While Ferguson was in command, the ship also transported convicts to Australia and pale ale to India. Around 1880 Ferguson appears to have settled, at least temporarily, in Bangor — the home town of his wife Agnes — and the couple had six children, at least four of whom were born there. Ferguson appears to have built the houses in Queens Parade around the time of the birth of his first child, Hester, possibly to provide an income for his family during his absences at sea. Letters of administration obtained by his widow record that Joseph Ferguson died "as is supposed on 25th December 1895 at Sea", and by 1901 valuation records show that Agnes Ferguson had become the immediate lessor of both properties.

The valuation of no. 60 was reduced to £25 in 1886, perhaps following an appeal, with a rent charged of £32 plus taxes. The first recorded tenant was a person named Dudley in 1890. By 1901 the tenant was Mary Marshall, though she was not in residence at the time of the census. Jane Harris was the occupant by 1908, and by the time of the 1911 census the tenant was Thomas Whiteman, a stone engraver from County Kilkenny, who lived with his wife, their young daughter, a sister, a domestic servant, and a boarder named Thomas S. Hurst, a fine art dealer. In 1914 the valuation was reduced again to £22, likely to bring it into line with the neighbouring house. In 1921, Hester Ferguson — daughter of the original developer — briefly became the occupier before moving in with her sister, who was tenant of the adjoining house. By 1924 the occupier was Charles J. Still, who remained in residence until at least 1930. The house continues in use as a domestic residence and was undergoing renovation work at the time of listing.

The building has group value with its semi-detached pair at no. 59 and is a good example of the larger terraced house type that characterised the development of Bangor during the later 19th century following the coming of the railway.