Innisfail, 5 Church Road, Helens Bay, Bangor, County Down, BT19 1TP

Innisfail is an asymmetrical two-storey dwelling with attic, built around 1890, located on Church Road in Helens Bay, directly north of Helens Bay Square and adjacent to the Presbyterian Church. It is a late Victorian detached house of rectangular plan-form with single-storey abutments to the rear.

The building features a pitched and hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge and hip tiles and clay finials. Cast-iron ogee-moulded gutters and circular downpipes run from the eaves. Rendered chimneys with cornices and terracotta pots rise from the roof. Timber barge and fascia boards with timber soffits trim the eaves. The walling is ruled-and-lined rendered stucco with stucco quoins, string courses and cill courses throughout.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. The left and central bays are topped by hipped roofs. The left bay comprises a two-storey canted bay with windows to each face on each floor. The main entrance is located at the ground floor of the central bay, with a single window to its left. Both are surmounted by a glazed canopy on timber brackets, with a single first-floor window positioned above. The right-hand bay is a slightly recessed two-storey canted bay matching the left.

Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with horns to the ground floor, featuring label moulds and drip courses above. Upper sashes are diminished with multiple panes, while lower sashes contain a single pane. First-floor windows are segmental arched with hood moulding and stops. The principal entrance is a four-panelled bolection-moulded timber door with glazed upper panels and a fixed light over.

The north elevation comprises three asymmetrically arranged irregular window openings to ground and first floors, with label moulds over the ground-floor and stair half-landing windows.

The east (rear) elevation is asymmetrically arranged, rising two storeys to the left and stepping up to a slightly projecting 2½-storey gable to the right. The left bay is blank with a projecting chimney stack (removed above eaves level) that abuts a lean-to greenhouse. The right gable bay comprises a single-storey lean-to to its left with a projecting chimney stack above, a single-storey lean-to to its right with a window above, and a window at ground floor between the lean-tos with a narrow window above. A window is centred on the gable at attic level. Two single-storey lean-to abutments at ground floor comprise various outbuildings and greenhouses, with an adjoining timber garage.

The south gable elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a projecting chimney stack located left of centre breaking through the eaves. Single ground and first-floor windows are positioned to the far left, while a single-storey canted bay with a multi-paned glazed timber door stands to the right, with a single window above.

The house is surrounded by well-maintained gardens accessed via a decorative wrought-iron gate fixed to concrete piers. It is secluded, with views largely obscured by hedges lining the perimeter. A small yard to the rear is enclosed by outbuildings and a tall wall, with a greenhouse beyond to the east and a timber garage to the north. The setting is predominantly suburban, characterised by similarly sized two-storey detached houses.