16 Raglan Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3TL

16 Raglan Road, Bangor

A two-storey Victorian semi-detached villa with attic, built c.1880. The house forms the right half of a symmetrical pair with its neighbour at number 14, and together they represent a good example of the substantial suburban dwellings developed as Bangor expanded in the late nineteenth century.

The building has a rectangular floor plan with a rear return. It is finished in ruled-and-lined stucco render with a projected plain plinth, string and cill courses, and plain panelling between ground and first floor. The pitched natural slate roof has clay ridge tiles and uPVC replacement rainwater goods. A smooth rendered chimney stack with moulded dentilled cornice and clay pots rises from the roofline. Dentilled cornice courses sit beneath overhanging eaves.

The principal east-facing elevation is arranged over three bays. The gabled right bay projects forward with a two-storey breakfront. Each floor of this bay contains paired segmental-arched windows with chamfered plain surrounds and key blocks to the ground floor. Above these, at attic level, sits a pair of diminished round-arched windows set beneath decorative timber gable barge boards. The central bay features a single-storey flat-roofed porch with moulded string and parapet coping. A tall round-arched window with chamfered reveals sits on the east face of the porch, while the south face contains the principal round-arched entrance with chamfered reveals, mouldings at impost, arch surround and key block, now fitted with a six-panelled replacement timber door and fanlight. Above this is a single round-arched window with a rooflight behind. The north face of the porch is blank. The left bay contains single windows to each floor. The main elevation has 2/2 segmental-arched timber sliding sash windows throughout, with a replacement timber front door and fanlight topped by moulded arch surrounds and key block.

The asymmetrical west-facing rear elevation comprises the left bay with single windows to each floor and two rooflights above; a blank right bay; and a central bay largely occupied by a two-storey subservient return with ridge level below the main eaves and a rooflight above. The north face of the return has square-headed openings: a timber door to the left and a single window to the right on the ground floor, with two windows on the first floor. The west gable is blank. The south face of the return has two square-headed windows to the ground floor with continuous cill, a square-headed window to the left on the first floor, and a large segmental-arched window to the right with margin panes and coloured glass.

The south elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a two-storey canted bay to the right, fenestrated on each face at each floor level. The left bay contains a large square-headed opening fitted with modern timber-framed doors with side and overlights, and a single window to the first floor. The south elevation has a hipped roof with a chimney positioned slightly left of centre halfway up the hip slope and a rooflight behind.

The property is bounded to the front by a rubble masonry wall with yellow brick chamfered piers surmounted by moulded copings, inscribed with "Cortmerron". The site includes a large rear garden with a detached garage, which is rendered with a slate roof, timber bi-folding door, and timber sliding sash windows.

The house, originally named Sunnyside Villa, was built by James Cochran, a gentleman who lived in the adjacent number 14, Marine Villa. Number 16 was initially let to the Reverend William Clarke, minister of Bangor Second Presbyterian Church. Both houses first appear on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901. They entered valuation records in 1880, with Sunnyside Villa valued at £69 (reduced to £39 by the 1890s). Following James Cochran's death in 1889 and Reverend Clarke's death in 1892, the house remained in the Cochran family. James' widow, Jane Cochran, was resident in 1901, living with her unmarried daughter Agnes; by 1911 she was living with a paid companion, Charlotte McLean. The house was occupied by James Hope Johnston, an insurance inspector, from 1917, and by Noel S Smith from 1924, who added a motor house, raising the valuation to £46 10s in 1924. William B Mullan occupied the property from 1928 until at least 1930. Sunnyside Villa has remained in use as a domestic dwelling and underwent restoration approximately twenty years ago. The house sits within the Bangor West Area of Townscape Character in the Corporation Townland.