5 Waverley Drive, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5LD

A 1½-storey two-bay semi-detached Victorian dwelling built around 1890. This house forms one of a pair, amongst the earliest buildings erected in this locality. Built as stewards' houses for the Dufferin Estate, the pair represents a good example of typical Victorian suburban housing of the period and is of considerable local and historic interest. An adjoining three-storey farmhouse and former stables form part of the original estate complex, though these have been substantially modified and are of less architectural significance. Much of the original historic character and value of this house survives.

The building displays a square plan with a long return to the rear. It stands in the Ballyholme Ward, in suburban surroundings east of Bangor town centre and south of the Esplanade. The construction comprises ruled-and-lined rendered walling with channelled rusticated quoins, a projected plinth and corbel course. The natural slate pitched roof features clay ridge tiles with skew tables, and decorative barge boards to the dormers with finials. Cast-iron ogee-moulded guttering with replacement uPVC circular downpipes drains to a smooth render chimney stack with tall hexagonal clay pots.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrical. Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with deep stone cills; the first-floor level features round-arched 2/2 sliding sash windows. The front door is a four-panel bolection-moulded timber door with brass ironmongery and a round-arched fixed light above, set within plain surrounds with stucco-moulded plinth blocks and cornice course and a central chamfered key-block. The front door is positioned on the right-hand side of the principal elevation, with a plain single-storey canted bay on the right, with a single continuous cill course running around it.

Paired wall-headed dormers occupy the first-floor level; the left dormer is surmounted by a finial. The left gable contains a single ground-floor window opening and a single replacement window opening at first-floor level. A broad chimney-stack rises from the gable apex.

The rear elevation has a single ground-floor window and a wall-head dormer window to the right bay (without barge-boards). The left bay is abutted by a two-storey gabled return containing various-sized window openings, several of which have been replaced with single-glazed timber casement windows. The gable end of this return has a further two-storey addition of unknown date, with a single-storey flat-roofed timber enclosure beyond. The right gable is abutted by the adjoining building at 7 Waverley Drive.

The site is bounded to the front by a rendered wall with concrete coping and timber gated access between robust squared piers with pyramidal caps. The north side is enclosed by rubble masonry walling, partly low-level with smooth render coping and partly higher to enclose the rear yard. The grounds to the front and side are principally gravelled and landscaped. The rear yard is accessed via a timber ledge-and-brace gate and is overlooked by a two-storey dwelling built around 1930, now occupying what was formerly the rear garden. The former associated stables, now converted to domestic use, lie beyond.

The pair first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Bangor expanded eastwards into Ballyholme with the appearance of numerous villas and small terraces. Local historical records support the dating of circa 1890. The original owners confirm that both houses were built as stewards' houses for the Dufferin Estate, with an adjoining three-storey farmhouse constructed at the same time, as shown on the 1901 map. The stables at the rear, originally associated with the pair, are now in separate ownership and have been converted for domestic use.

Roofing: Natural slate. Walling: Render. Windows: Timber. Rainwater goods: Cast-iron and uPVC.