Public House (‘Burgundy Ben’s’), 15-17 Belfast Road, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 6HX

Public House ('Burgundy Ben's'), 15-17 Belfast Road, Ballygowan

A large two storey terraced public house with off licence, possibly dating from the 1850s. The building is set within a terrace on the east side of Belfast Road in the centre of Ballygowan.

The front (west) facade maintains much of its Victorian appearance, though the window and door arrangement has been altered in recent times and PVC windows have been installed. The facade features a slightly right of centre main entrance doorway with a panelled door and plain fanlight, encased with fluted and panelled pilasters set on a tall base. Immediately to the right and left of this doorway are large three-light timber windows with semicircular arched heads to each light. Low wrought iron cheval-de-fris protecting the windows extends across all windows. These large windows have outer pilasters and the entire window and door ensemble is topped with a lintel frieze or signboard with decorative outer brackets and a dentilled cornice above the frieze.

To the far left on the front facade is a broad doorway with panelled double doors encased with pilasters and a panelled lintel frieze above, topped with a plain tympanum. This doorway has been greatly widened recently. To the immediate right of this doorway is a window with PVC frame, moulded surround, lintel frieze, cornice and blocking course, resting on a cill course. To the right of this window is another door with matching surround, stretching to the cill course; this doorway was a window until fairly recently. To the immediate right of the main entrance ensemble is a doorway leading to the off licence, with panelled door and pilasters topped with decorative capitals, followed by a lintel frieze, cornice and tympanum. To the right of this doorway are two further windows matching those to the far left, both resting on a cill course.

The first floor contains eight windows with moulded surrounds and PVC frames, all resting on cill courses. The front facade is finished in lined render with a dentilled eaves course and end brackets. The exposed sections of both gables are blank and rendered.

The ground floor at the rear is completely covered by a large modern flat-roofed extension. At first floor level are two plain sheeted doorways allowing access to a walkway on the roof of the extension. The roof is gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates with rendered parapets. Two tall rendered chimney stacks with corbelling remain; another chimney stack originally sited to the north of centre has been removed.

The interior layout has been completely reworked, and the building has been radically changed elsewhere.

Historical Context

A terrace is shown on this site on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834, somewhat narrower than the present terrace, which the 1835 valuation returns record as being in the possession of a James Stewart with a rateable value of £6-12-0. On the revised map of 1858-60, the plan appears much as today, with this section of the terrace considerably broader. It is possible that this building is of pre-1858 origin and, like many others within Ballygowan, may have been constructed to coincide with the arrival of the railway in the village during the 1850s. The valuation records of 1863 state that the building was then in the hands of a James McWhirk and had a rateable value of £14-5-0.

The property has contained a licensed premises since the early years of the twentieth century, owned by the Murray family. However, Basset's Directory of 1886 notes a spirit grocer named Murray, perhaps suggesting that the building housed such an establishment at that date. The section which is now the off licence is said to have housed a branch of the Northern Bank during the mid-1900s.