22 High Street, Donaghadee, County Down, BT21 0AH

This is a narrow mid-18th century block located on the north-eastern side of High Street in Donaghadee town centre, originally forming part of the neighbouring large Georgian house to the south-east. The building has been substantially altered both externally and internally, diminishing its architectural interest.

The property is a small, plain two-storey terraced structure with a shop on the ground floor and apartment above. It sits between the forecourt of the First Presbyterian Church to the north-west and the larger three-storey block to the south-east, with a large open shared yard to the rear accessed via Townhall Lane.

The front façade, facing south-west, is single-fronted with a c.1980s style shopfront occupying the ground floor, featuring a solid steel roller shutter with projecting box and an off-centre plastic signboard above. The first floor contains a flat-headed window opening with a 1/1 timber sash frame positioned off-centre. The ground floor projects slightly forward. The north gable is finished with plain render and is blank. The front wall is roughcast rendered.

To the rear, the original east façade is almost entirely obscured by a later two-storey return which has been recently partly demolished, with all openings to the return boarded over. An exposed area of the rear wall reveals random rubble construction beneath. The walls to the return are finished with plain un-painted render. The main pitched roof is covered with fibre cement slates, with a rendered chimneystack rising from the apex, featuring a corbelled cap and clay pot. The roof to the return is pitched and covered with natural slate. Rainwater goods are partly missing; those remaining are uPVC. The exposed verges are clipped without overhangs.

Historical records suggest the site was developed around 1700, with maps of c.1771-90 indicating a large building deeper than the surrounding terrace at the location of what is now nos.22-24. The rubble walling and internal detailing suggest this block dates from the mid-18th century, likely the 1730s-40s, contemporary with its larger neighbour. Both buildings appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and were shown as one property on the c.1838 valuation town plan. At this time the whole building functioned as a private dwelling belonging to Samuel Cochrane, with the ground floor of no.22 comprising a carriage arch providing access to the rear yard. This archway was enclosed sometime between c.1838 and c.1860, and a two-storey return was subsequently built to the rear.

By the c.1863 valuation, no.22 was recorded as measuring 8 yards by 8 yards by 2 storeys and described as a "front office". The building was occupied by Catherine McMinn until 1879, when John McGowan purchased the lease for £540. McGowan sub-let the property, which was subsequently occupied by Mary White (1879-95), Richard A. Rogers (1895-1900), James McHarry (to 1903), Agnes McNarry (to 1915), Lizzie McNarry (to 1916), William Kearney (1916-28), and James Kearney (until c.1933). In 1935, Donaghadee Urban District Council acquired the lease of both sections of the building, converting the main three-storey block (no.24) into a town hall while retaining no.22 as a separate unit let to Agnes Kearney. The building remained a separate property, latterly functioning as a bakery, until approximately 2005.