93 Victoria Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9BG

93 Victoria Road is one half of a semi-detached pair of Picturesque-style mid-Victorian houses at the east end of Victoria Road, Holywood, County Down. Originally constructed around 1849–1850 as a Model Agricultural School, the building was designed by architect Frederick Darley, who produced a number of model schools and model agricultural schools across Ireland during the late 1840s and 1850s.

The school was part of a broader movement that had begun in Ireland in the 1830s. By the late 1840s, the Irish Commissioners for National Education had divided the island into twenty-five districts, each receiving a government grant to establish an agricultural school with a model farm. The Holywood school was operational by April 1849, but the years of the Great Famine meant it failed to attract sufficient pupils and it closed in 1852. Following closure, the building was converted into two substantial semi-detached dwellings, with bay-fronted wings added to each end and entrance porches to the front. The former entrance hall area of the original school remains within one house, while the first storey above it falls within the other. The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, with each house separately captioned — 'Burnleigh' to the north and 'Crofton' to the south.

The pair attracted a succession of prosperous mercantile and professional tenants. Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) records 'Crofton' as the residence of James Combe, proprietor of the Falls Foundry, leasing from John Simms, with the house, yard and land valued at £50, accompanied by a small sketch plan in the margin. Combe had founded the Falls Foundry in 1845 to serve local railway companies, and from 1851 began manufacturing textile machinery, eventually employing three hundred and eighty men. The firm developed a worldwide reputation for improvements in flax, hemp and jute preparation and spinning machinery. 'Crofton' passed to Sarah Moore in 1863 and around 1880 to the Munster family, with the valuation declining over the years to approximately £35 by around 1890. Alfred Munster combined diplomatic and business interests, being listed in street directories variously as Danish Consul and Vice-Consul representing Sweden, Norway and Liberia, and as head of Alfred Munster & Co, grain, wood, insurance brokers and commission merchants. His wife, Mary C.F. Monck, was a well-known poet and regular contributor to the Dublin University Magazine, Bentley's Miscellany, Household Words and Chambers' Journal. She contributed two poems to a collection commemorating Robert Burns' Centenary in 1859 and published her own collection of poetry, Waifs and Strays: verse (Marcus Ward & Co, 1879), shortly before moving to 'Crofton'. The couple married in 1858 and lived in Holywood for the rest of their lives. The 1901 census records Alfred Munster as a widower aged 75, employed as a commission merchant, with his sister-in-law Elizabeth Monck, his daughter Ethel, a cook and a housemaid in residence. By 1911 Alfred Munster had died and his daughter and her aunt were living on income from stocks and shares, employing a widow from Dublin as a general servant. By 1902 the landlord of the property was recorded as W.J. Gilliland, a noted architect whose works included the Ormeau Bakery, and who was active in public life as a founder member of the Ulster Society of Architects, chairman of the Ulster Arts Club, a lecturer on architectural and building subjects, and a city councillor for Victoria Ward in Belfast by 1912. By 1926 the occupier was Alfred E. Isherwood, and by 1929 the house was vacant. It has since remained in use as a domestic dwelling.

Architecturally, No. 93 is rectangular in plan with a slightly later perpendicular projecting west bay featuring a double-height canted bay to the north gable. There are returns and a large flat-roofed extension to the rear, along with a lean-to conservatory to the west. The roof is pitched natural slate with rendered chimneystacks carrying multiple terracotta pots. The defining Picturesque character of the building is expressed through fretted timber bargeboards, fascia boards and a pointed finial to the gable. The walls are rendered with stucco quoins and a contrasting base. Windows are generally square-headed and all appear to be sashes; those to the canted bay are segmental-headed, set within square-headed frames.

The principal elevation faces north and features a projecting gabled bay to the right with a full-height canted bay window. The main portion of this elevation is three windows wide at each floor, arranged around an entrance set within a gabled porch with fretted bargeboards. The east elevation abuts the adjoining house. The west elevation has two windows to the first floor and is abutted by the conservatory at ground floor level. The rear elevation was not inspected at the time of survey. Rainwater goods were also not inspected.

The house is set back from the road within a mature garden, with lawns to front and rear and a tarmacadam driveway. The boundary is defined by mature trees and fencing, and the site is accessed via a large pair of modern security gates. The integrity of the semi-detached pair as a whole has survived, and together the two houses form a good example of their type.

Note: this record was previously numbered HB23/20/066 and the property was formerly known as 105 Victoria Road.