Rosemount, 22 Victoria Avenue, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3EB

Rosemount is a large, two-storey late Victorian house dating from around 1887, situated on the west side of Victoria Avenue in Newtownards. Built by a Mr. McClements, who may also have constructed much of the adjacent terrace to the north, it represents an excellent example of a substantial middle-class residence of the period. Though neither exceptionally old nor rare in its type, the house remains largely original both externally and internally, and is well maintained.

The front elevation facing east is symmetrically composed. At its centre stands a panelled door with a semicircular fanlight, framed by pilasters with panelled surbases and decorative brackets that support a segmental arch pediment hood. To the left are twinned sash windows with panelled pilasters and moulded brackets supporting a cornice over a lintel frieze (part of which is damaged), resting on a bracketed cill course. To the right of the door are similar windows. The first floor contains five sash windows set on a bracket cill course: the outer windows are twinned whilst the central window is single. All have segmental arch heads and shouldered and heeled moulded surrounds. The facade is finished with an eaves course and chamfered plinth. A small timber house name plaque appears below the eaves course at the far left.

The south gable features a central sash window to the first floor, with two further sash windows to the centre and left, all set on cill courses and with segmental arch heads. The eaves course extends to form a pediment on the gable, its outermost sections supported by twin corbels. The north gable contains two sash windows to the centre and right on the first floor, set on a cill course, and a segmental arch-headed sash window to the right, also on a cill course. The extended eaves course here likewise forms a pediment and incorporates shaped guttering.

A large two-storey gabled return extends from the left-hand side at the rear. Its north facade has a ground-floor window to the left with a modern sash-like frame, and three small first-floor windows set on a single cill (the outer pair with sash frames, the middle opening blocked to the lower half with a top-hung sash above). The gable is blank. The return's south facade contains a half-glazed door to the centre-left on the ground floor, a sash window to the right, and two small sash windows to the first floor set on a single cill.

Attached to the return and main house on the immediate south is a full-height lean-to stairwell projection. Its upper level features a semicircular-headed sash window with margin panes and coloured glass; the ground floor has a smaller plain four-pane window. To the immediate right, the main rear facade shows a sash window on a cill course to the ground floor and a similar window with segmental arch head to the first floor.

The exterior is finished in lined cement render, unpainted. Both the main house and return are roofed in Bangor blue slates, the main roof having a slight overhang. Two yellow brick chimney stacks rise from the gables of the main roof, with a further stack to the north at the rear and another at the return's gable. The stairwell projection roof is covered in corrugated asbestos.

The front of the property features a large garden with a rear outbuilding. A rendered wall bounds the front, with sturdy square gate pillars capped with pyramidal finials flanking decorative wrought iron gates.

Victoria Avenue was laid out in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, though it was originally intended to be called Railway Avenue. The houses within it date from that year or shortly afterwards; by 1891 it was noted that dwellings were being erected "faster even than was anticipated". According to the present owner, this house was originally named Victoria House and was built in 1887, consistent with the avenue's establishment. The property was purchased by the current owner's father in 1928.