69-71 Main Street, Ballywalter, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2PJ

A substantial two storey double-fronted terrace house in Georgian style, erected around 1840, situated on the east side of Main Street in Ballywalter. The building now incorporates a modern shop front on its ground floor and has a single storey rear return.

The main roof and that of the return are gabled and pitched, covered with asbestos cement slates and topped with stone parapets. Two rendered chimney stacks rise from the main roof, with a single tall rendered stack serving the return's gable. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted to the front façade, with PVC to the rear.

The front south-west elevation is asymmetrical in composition. At its centre stands a panelled timber door beneath an elliptical arch decorated with a fanlight, flanked by two pane sidelights and framed by four thin reeded columns serving as mullions and outer frame, with a plain surround. To the left of the doorway is an almost square sashed window with Georgian panes (8 over 8) and a plain narrow surround. To the right is a modern office front featuring a large corner window at its left and an adjacent glazed door within a recessed porch to the right. A large timber sign with slightly projecting PVC letters is mounted above the office front, illuminated by two small spotlights positioned above.

The first floor has three evenly spaced sashed windows with Georgian panes, smaller than the ground floor window to the left. The ground floor façade is finished in lined render topped with a plain course, while the first floor is rendered in rough cast. The exposed gables are also rendered.

The rear of the main house contains a window to both ground and first floor levels on its left side, similar in character to the first floor front windows. A large single storey gabled return stands to the rear, with a modern flat-roofed extension incorporating a small porch attached to its gable and right side. The return, extension and porch feature modern windows and doors. The rear of the main house and return are finished in rough cast render. A brick-lined well was discovered in the rear yard in August 2001, approximately 4 metres deep with a modern manhole cover.

Historical records show a building standing on this site from the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 noted that whilst most dwellings in Ballywalter were single storey, there existed around 60 two storey houses; this structure may have been erected by that date, though a date of circa 1840s is also plausible. A photograph of Main Street from around 1910 shows a portion of this house, at which time it displayed quoins, lined render to the first floor, and windows without surrounds. A signboard visible above the front door in the photograph suggests the property was already in commercial use. The shop front was inserted sometime before 1971.