1-3 West Street & 2 Mary Street, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT23 4EN 4DQ

This building has been demolished and a new structure constructed on the site in 2018. The following description records the buildings as they stood at the time of survey in 1998.

The complex comprised a large two-storey gabled block occupying the corner of West Street and Mary Street, positioned slightly north-west of Newtownards town centre. Built in 1861 (at least in part by John Copeland), the structure featured a basalt rubble façade with brick dressings.

No. 1 West Street – 2 Mary Street (Public House)

The public house faced south into West Street, with a long return extending into Mary Street. The latter section had at some point been a separate property, though it may originally have related to the main building. The front elevation featured a left-of-centre doorway in the 'Ards' style, with chamfered pilasters decorated with hound's tooth work to the underside of a semicircular archivolt. The fanlight above was blocked with a modern circular sign. To the left was a window latterly filled with a small modern multi-pane unit with opaque glass and louvered section, its former larger opening reduced by smooth rendered and painted infill with splayed cill. To the right of the doorway were two similar windows. The first floor contained four evenly spaced windows with brick dressings and modern frames with frosted patterning to lower panes; three had thin modern lintels inserted below the brick dressings. Two internally illuminated projecting PVC signs and a satellite dish occupied the first floor.

The east gable of the pub contained a very large window on the ground floor to the right, with the outline of a segmental arch above suggesting a possible former carriage entrance. A laminated sign board was positioned to the left at intermediate level. Two first-floor windows matched those to the front elevation. The attic level featured two small semicircular-headed windows with brick dressings and modern frames.

The east façade of the return had two ground-floor windows on the left (the furthest being a former door), three window-like recesses with brick dressings to the right, and a large flat-arched carriage entrance with sandstone dressings. An internally illuminated projecting PVC sign was set above the arch. The first floor held two windows to the far left, two window-like recesses, one window retaining remains of a frame with horizontal glazing bars, and another recess. The rear of the pub and west façade of the return were entirely covered by a modern extension.

The main pub section had asbestos-free slates; Bangor blue slates covered at least the east side of the return roof. Two matching basalt chimney stacks served the main building, with two further stacks at the north end of the return. The rainwater goods comprised a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

No. 3 West Street (House)

This property had been recently gutted and refurbished but remained largely a shell at the time of survey. The south façade featured a right-of-centre doorway with panelled PVC door and plain semicircular fanlight. Two windows with brick dressings and PVC frames stood to the left; three further similar windows occupied the ground floor to the right. Brick quoins appeared to the left. The first floor held four windows with PVC frames.

A large two-storey flat-roofed extension occupied the centre of the rear façade. Its north-facing side contained a modern glazed door at ground level and a PVC window at first-floor level. The main rear façade to the left of the extension held windows at ground and first-floor levels; to the right was a first-floor window and a large door-like opening without door at ground level. The rear façade was rendered and painted. Artificial slates covered the roof. Two basalt chimney stacks were present, one shared with the public house. Sections of cast iron rainwater goods remained.

Historical Context

The site is shown occupied on Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1858–60, though the present block appears to have been constructed in 1861. The long return to the rear of the public house (No. 2 Mary Street) was clearly a separate property at some stage, though it may originally have been associated with No. 1 West Street. Local tradition referred to No. 1 as once being 'Jameson's farm', though by 1861 the area was already heavily developed and could not have functioned as a farm in the conventional sense.