10-12 Church Street, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1LS

10-12 Church Street, Portaferry

Two storey public house of possible pre-1834 origin, now extensively altered and renovated. The building stands within a terrace on the west side of Church Street, just north of Portaferry town centre.

The front façade is asymmetrical, rendered and painted with mock timber framing to the upper half. Roughly to the centre is a panelled door with a small decorative canopy over it. To either side of the door is a window with modern frame. The first floor has five evenly spaced windows with modern timber frames. To the far right is another panelled door. The ground floor windows have middle-European style timber shutters. Modern PVC illuminated pub signs are positioned to the top left and right of the façade, with a further traditional projecting pub sign and log timber signboard over the door.

The gabled roof is covered with fibre cement slates and has two brick chimney stacks. A large modern flat-roofed dormer has been added to the front. Modern rear extensions obscure the rear elevation, some attached to the main building and some appearing to be free-standing. No access to the rear is available.

Historical evidence suggests a building has occupied this site since at least 1799, when Patrick O'Hare's map shows a building in the possession of 'Widow Cowan'. The 1838 valuation returns describe an old grade C dwelling house which had been split into two properties, occupied by John Smith and Michael Byrne, with the house on the south side much larger than that to the north. The 1863 valuation map indicates a single property, then occupied by Elizabeth Byrne. The arrangement of the present front doors and windows, along with evidence of a window to the immediate left of the central door, suggests the building may originally have been a symmetrical dwelling house to which an extra door was later added. The dimensions recorded in 1838 match the two-dwelling arrangement suggested by the current front door and window layout. The property has functioned as a public house since the late 1960s at least.

The building has been subject to modern alterations including contemporary window frames, dormer construction, pseudo half-timbered features, shutters, and illuminated projecting pub signs.