32-32A Castle Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5DZ

32-32A Castle Street is a small two-storey terrace building in Comber town centre, on the south side of Castle Street. It combines a ground-floor shop (No. 32) with an upstairs flat (No. 32A), and originated as a house, probably dating from before 1834, though it has been radically altered and modernised in recent years.

The front north-facing façade features a doorway to the upstairs flat on the ground floor at the left, now fitted with a modern panelled and glazed door; this doorway originally had a stone surround. To its left is a large modern shop front with an internally illuminated PVC sign. The first floor has two original window openings, now with PVC frames. The front façade is finished in Tyrolean render and painted, with an eaves course. PVC rainwater goods run the length of the building.

The rear facade is substantially obscured by extensions. At ground floor level, a single storey flat-roofed extension covers the entire rear façade, and this in turn is almost entirely covered by a longer single storey shed-like extension with a mono-pitched corrugated iron roof; all these extensions appear relatively modern. At first-floor level, a modern partly glazed door has been inserted to the left, opening on to the flat roof of the extension, with a PVC-framed window to the right. The upper half of the rear façade is finished in plain render and painted. The gabled roof is covered in natural slate.

Historical records show the site was occupied in 1722 according to the Comber town map of that year, and appears on all subsequently available maps. The 1834 valuation records describe this section of the street (then known as Mill Street) as containing six houses below rateable value, suggesting the building could date from the late 18th or early 19th centuries. When surveyed in December 1975, the property was still a dwelling house, with Georgian paned sash windows and a stone surround to the doorway. The ground floor has since been converted to a shop, with a flat on the first floor.