50 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DY

50 Frances Street is the westernmost and largest house in a two-storey gabled terrace of three dwellings, probably built around 1835. The house appears to have been substantially renovated between approximately 1880 and 1900, when window surrounds and new window frames were added to the front façade, alongside internal alterations including changes to fireplace detailing. More recent internal changes have also occurred.

The front south-facing façade is finished in lined render and painted. Slightly right of centre is a 'Gibbsian'-style 'Ards' doorway with a semicircular fanlight containing tracery, though now fitted with a circa 1930s panelled and glazed door. To the right of the doorway is a carriage entrance with an arched head that appears elliptical but is actually flat with curved ends, fitted with sheeted double timber doors and a wicket gate. To the left of the doorway are two ground-floor windows with moulded architraves and sash frames featuring horizontal glazing bars. The first floor contains four similar windows. The rear façade is unrendered with a painted surface. Roughly at its centre is a low doorway with a modern door. To the left of this is the rear of the carriage arch, while to the right is a narrow window opening now fitted with a modern frame. A small single-storey extension with a mono-pitched roof and concrete tiles projects from the left side of the rear façade, with a roughly square window opening on its east face. The first floor of the main building's rear elevation has three windows: the centre window is the largest and retains what may be an original sash frame with Georgian panes; to its left is a smaller window with a similar frame; and to the far right is another small window now with a modern frame. The roof is clad predominantly in Bangor blue slates to the front, with asbestos slates to the rear. Two rendered chimney stacks and cast iron rainwater goods are present.

Frances Street was laid out around 1817 as part of a new broad thoroughfare linking the new coach road from Belfast to the Donaghadee Road, apparently replacing a much narrower Back Lane shown on Colville's 1720 plan of the town. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1834 indicates that the western side of the street had been developed by that date, while the eastern end, then known as 'Little Frances Street', remained largely bare. This particular site had not been built upon by 1834, but three dwellings had appeared by 1836 at the time of the first valuation survey, when No.50 was in the possession of William Crawford and rated at £5 8s 0d, with its two neighbours listed under rateable value. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of circa 1834 reference the erection of new houses by the Marquis of Londonderry at this time, who was granting leases for 60 years or 3 lives at a rate of 1 shilling per foot, upon which houses could be erected at the same rate. No.50 was renovated around 1880–1900, at which time the surrounds to the front windows were likely added, as well as internal changes such as alterations to the living room fireplace. Nos. 52 and 54 were completely renovated in the early 1990s, when the ground floor window of No.52 was enlarged.