2 Godfrey Avenue, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5LS

2 Godfrey Avenue is a 1½-storey detached Edwardian dwelling built around 1905, located in the Ballyholme Ward east of Bangor town centre, set back from the esplanade. It is distinguished by an attractive leaded veranda to the front, which gives it a unique character within its suburban context. The house is a good example of the small seaside/suburban villa, becoming increasingly rare.

The building has a square plan with return and abutment to the rear. It features a pitched slate roof with terracotta roll top ridge tiles. Overhanging timber barge boards with exposed decorative collar ties and protruding purlins are present to the gabled ends (the collar tie to the south gable has been removed). Exposed overhanging rafters with timber fascia and uPVC rainwater goods are visible. A smooth rendered chimney stack has a stucco moulded cornice with various terracotta and yellow clay pots.

The walling is ruled-and-lined rendered with a stucco moulded string course featuring moulded stops, a projected plinth course, and a continuous cill course at ground floor level. The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. uPVC replacement windows are present primarily to the ground floor; the first floor has a 1/1 round-arched timber sliding sash. A bolection moulded six-panelled timber front door with brass ironmongery is flanked by a rectangular fixed light above and plain surrounds.

The front door is sheltered by a distinctive single-storey leaded lean-to veranda, extended over the flanking bays. The central section of the veranda is supported on stucco moulded columns and wall brackets. The veranda flooring is raised by a single step with modern finish and is partially enclosed by a wall rising to cill level with stucco moulded panels and deep coping.

A matching pair of ground floor projecting canted bays clasp the north-west and south-west corners, each with a single window to each face and a continuous cill course. Symmetrically arranged wall-head dormers are positioned at first floor level. The left gable has a single modern window to the ground floor on the left-hand side, with a projecting bay to the right of symmetrically arranged first floor windows featuring hood-mouldings tied into the moulded string course. A central stepped projecting chimney stack rises to the underside of the soffit and breaks through at ridge level.

The rear elevation has no openings except for two modern roof lights added to the rear pitch. A central two-storey lean-to return includes a single square-headed opening at first floor level on the south face. A single-storey lean-to modern extension to the right has a tiled roof with a large roof light and large modern openings. A small single-storey lean-to projection is located at the re-entrant of the central return and modern extension. A cast-iron soil and vent pipe breaks through at eaves level and follows the pitch of the roof, terminating at ridge level. The right gable matches the north, except for a timber sliding sash window located on the right at ground floor level.

The setting comprises a narrow garden to the front and side, extending to a large rear garden that is well vegetated and screened. The site is bounded at the front by a hedge with a central wrought-iron gate fixed to thin stucco moulded piers. The north side is bounded by a modern masonry and timber wall with a modern gate. A weather-boarded garage to the rear has a slated roof with clay ridge tiles and wrought-iron strap hinges to the door. Two rubble masonry stable blocks at the rear, now modernized internally, previously served houses on an adjacent road. The surrounding setting is primarily detached and semi-detached two-storey residential properties, varying in age and style.

The area of Ballyholme began to be developed around the turn of the twentieth century, with several terraces appearing along the seafront at this time. The current house is not shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901 but first appears on the fourth edition of 1919-26, indicating a construction date within the first two decades of the twentieth century. The house was first documented in the 1911 census when Godfrey Avenue was listed as a street of two dwellings. The current house was occupied by Hugh and William McCullough and their wives and sons, both men being employed in the linen business, one as a commercial clerk and the other as a traveller, suggesting a modest petty bourgeois household with no live-in servants.

Although replacement windows detract somewhat from the building's appearance, much of its character has generally survived. The house remains a distinctive example of the small seaside/suburban villa.