6 Marino Villas, Old Quay Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0AL

6 Marino Villas is a picturesque Tudor-Revival terraced house built around 1830 to designs by the architect John Millar. It is one of a trio of interlocking villas originally commissioned by Thomas Ward as bathing retreats for wealthy visitors from Belfast, and represents an early example of speculative coastal development on the North Down shore. Together, the three houses were designed to give the impression of a single Tudor mansion. The northern house of the trio was demolished in the post-war period — a portion of its gable wall survives — and has been replaced by a pair of oversized modern dwellings that have borrowed the raised gables and chamfered window surrounds from the surviving end of the terrace. The remaining two original houses are Grade B1 listed and contribute significantly to the unusual and notable neo-Tudor character of this enclave.

Architecturally, the house is an attached, symmetrical three-bay, two-storey villa, rectangular on plan with a central octagonal entrance tower. It faces south and currently sits as the central block between its surviving original neighbour to the right and the modern terrace to the left. The roof is finished in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and lead hips to the pavilion roof over the tower. Cast-iron rainwater goods are carried on iron drive-through brackets. The chimneystacks are rendered and topped with octagonal white pots.

The tower parapet has masonry coping and rises to a series of plain gablets. The gabled wall-head dormers also have masonry coping. The external walls are rendered and painted white below a projecting plinth course. Decorative flying buttresses rise to just above ground floor level at each angle of the tower, and the ground floor projects slightly over an offset string course. The east elevation features decorative blind panels and hood moulding. Windows throughout are set in chamfered surrounds with label moulds at ground floor level; the ground floor windows are fitted with uPVC casements, and the dormers have triangular-headed replacement timber lattice casements. The tower itself has slender triangular-headed loops to each face. The rear elevation has uPVC and timber casements.

The principal south-facing elevation has a window to each floor, symmetrically arranged on either side of the central tower. At ground floor level, the tower openings are each set within arch-headed recesses. The central entrance is a Tudor-arch timber door with vertical panels, reached by five stone steps enclosed on either side by segmental-headed dwarf walls. A loop opening flanks the door to each side. The side elevations are abutted by the adjoining buildings. The rear elevation is screened by a tall yard wall with saddleback coping, which contains two Tudor-arch-headed timber sheeted street doors opening directly onto Old Quay Road. Two windows are visible at first floor to the rear; the right-hand side is gabled with a fractable.

The house is fronted by a small paved and terraced garden, accessed by a gravel drive from Marino Park to the southeast.

The villas are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs record them as already complete in that year, noting they "have been built for the bathing season, when they are generally filled from Belfast." The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records the property as "three houses and offices," belonging to Thomas Ward and valued at £19 8 shillings. Writing in 1837, Samuel Lewis described the development enthusiastically: "several houses in detached situations and chiefly in the Elizabethan style of architecture are now in progress on the Cultra estate, by Thomas Ward Esq, after designs by Millar. These houses are sheltered with thriving plantations and beautifully situated on a gentle eminence commanding a richly diversified and extensive prospect of Carrickfergus bay, the Black mountain, Cave hill, the Carnmoney mountains and the town and castle of Carrickfergus, the view terminating with the basaltic columns of Black Head."

Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the occupier as Henry George Burnell and values the dwelling at £19, with a valuer's marginal sketch plan and the comment that the whole property was a "very neat cottage, always likely to let well." By the later 19th and early 20th centuries, the house became harder to let — possibly reflecting the rising popularity of Bangor as a seaside destination after the railway reached it in 1865. Known occupiers include Thomas Walkington in 1863 and Catherine Wilson in 1880. When G.M. Payne took over in 1897, he successfully applied for a reduction in rateable valuation from £19 to £12 10 shillings, the valuer noting the house was "very old without modern conveniences." By 1933 the house had passed to John William Myles, who leased it from Henry J. Harris, and the valuation was increased to £14. At that time the accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a turret bedroom, a bathroom, and a water closet. The house was supplied with gas and had a well with a pump, though drinking water had to be fetched from the neighbouring 5 Marino Villas.