Old Cross Bar, 4 Castle Place, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT23 3JF

Old Cross Bar, 4 Castle Place, Newtownards

This two-storey gabled public house, originally built as a dwelling in 1735, stands on the east side of Castle Place at the corner of Greenwell Street. It is among the oldest buildings in Newtownards, aside from the priory and market cross, and represents an important survival from the town's early 18th-century development.

The front (west) facade, finished in lined painted render, retains something of its early 18th-century character despite alterations. A moulded plaque on the first floor, naively decorated, is inscribed "This house was built by John Bell in ye year 1735". The ground floor contains a slightly left-of-centre doorway with a timber-sheeted door and plain stone surround with simple cornice. To the left is a sash window with horizontal glazing bars. To the right of the doorway is a large three-pane window adjacent to a second doorway (with timber-sheeted door) with simple surround and cornice applied to the whole grouping. This arrangement reflects a period when the building may have served mixed uses. The first floor has two windows with modern frames. A traditional-style projecting sign and period-style lamp hang to the right of the second window. The irregular fenestration throughout is characteristic of its age. The front facade has been significantly altered by the insertion of the large pub window, though its basic form survives.

The south gable has a squat ground-floor window and a first-floor window opening, both with modern frames. An internally illuminated projecting PVC sign is mounted to the left of this gable.

A large two-storey gabled return adjoins the main building, facing into Greenwell Street. This return has two ground-floor windows with modern frames and a large elliptical-arch carriage entrance to the far right with relatively simple pilaster surround and archivolt. Modern double doors have been fitted to the carriage entrance. This facade is also finished in lined painted render. The rear facade appears to be completely dominated by this return, though it was not accessible for inspection.

The roof is covered in asbestos-free slates, with some asbestos slates present on the eastern section of the return roof. A Velux window is positioned to the south side of the return roof. The main building has a rendered parapet to the south and two rendered chimney stacks. Rainwater goods comprise a mixture of PVC and cast iron.

The interior has undergone greater changes than the exterior, with little original layout or detail remaining.

Historical Context

Before the construction of the new market house and the laying out of Conway Square around 1765-70, Castle Place functioned as the de facto centre of Newtownards, organised around the original market house and market cross. Walter Harris, writing in the early 1740s, recorded that Newtownards contained many "neat houses" with builders' name plaques on their fronts. The Old Cross Bar was undoubtedly one of these dwellings, its inscribed plaque proclaiming its construction by John Bell in 1735. The building appears much the same on Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1858-60. The date at which the property became a public house is unclear; 19th-century valuation records provide no indication, though it evidently functioned as a public house during the 20th century and continues to do so.

The building does not meet the criteria for formal listing but is of significant local interest as one of Newtownards' earliest surviving structures and as evidence of the town's pre-Georgian development.