5 The Crescent, Holywood, County Down, BT18 9AY

5 The Crescent is an end-terrace Georgian townhouse built around 1830, located south of High Street in Holywood. It is a three-storey structure on a rectangular plan with two bays to the principal elevation and a two-storey gabled return with extension to the rear.

The external walls are painted smooth render with quoins and plinth, with a plat band between ground and first floors. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with rectangular brick chimneysstacks featuring stone plinths and terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with drive-in brackets are fitted to the main structure, with uPVC rainwater goods to the rear extension.

The principal north-facing elevation is two windows wide. Windows throughout are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with projecting stone sills, except for smaller 3/3 windows to the second floor. The ground floor features a canted bay window with 2/2 sliding sash glazing, horizontal glazing bars, and dividing Doric pilasters. The entrance door, positioned to the right, is double-panelled with brass furniture and framed by moulded Doric pilasters. Above the door is a slender transom light surmounted by moulded frieze and cornice with scrolled console brackets.

The east elevation contains window openings to ground and first floors, with a modern timber latch door abutting the south side. The rear elevation has window openings to each floor and is abutted to the left by the two-storey gabled return, which has single openings to each floor in its exposed section. A small single-storey extension with a diminutive 4/2 sash window and pent roof featuring modern skylights further abuts the return. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The house retains its original floor plan, as confirmed by external inspection. The architectural detailing of the terrace is of quality and remains largely intact. Two outbuildings of no real interest stand to the rear.

The property is situated within a secluded square with mature trees, enclosed by a brick wall with modern electric gates to the north and mature hedges to the east and west. The setting of the informal square survives in relatively original form.

The house has group value within its own terrace and combines with a Victorian terrace located at right angles to form the square. The property is within a conservation area.

According to historical records, the site originally comprised a single farmhouse in the late eighteenth century, situated at the edge of the village. In the 1820s, Hugh Stewart, who was appointed Post Master of Holywood in 1822, took over the plot and redeveloped it to create a terrace of four houses. Stewart was responsible for several housing developments in Holywood, including the town's first public baths.

In the Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840, all dwellings are listed as the property of Hugh Stewart; this house was valued at £12.12s. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the house as occupied by Mary Ledlie with a valuation of £19. Stables and carriage houses are noted to the rear of the terrace. A valuation town plan dating from around 1860 to 1866 records that the plot in front of the houses was in potatoes.

In his will of 1858, Hugh Stewart bequeathed the houses in the Crescent to his daughter Harriet Kennedy "for her own sole use and benefit independently of her present or any future husband", directing that they be subject to her own control but that she was not at liberty to sell, alienate, mortgage, or anticipate them during her life, though she could will them to whom she pleased. He also directed that a £12 annuity be paid to his daughter Susan Greenfield by his grandson Hugh Stewart out of the rents derived from the Crescent. Hugh Stewart's grandson appears to have been the immediate lessor following his grandfather's death.

By 1887, Michael Todd was the occupier, with John Anderson and others as immediate lessors. Property valuations declined in stages, falling from £12.12s to £16 in 1874 and then to £15 in 1884. By 1900, Mrs Butler was resident, with the Municipal Yearbook of 1931 recording J.D. Butler, Town Surveyor of Ballyclare in County Antrim, as resident at the Crescent. The valuation was reduced slightly in 1903 to correspond with the rest of the terrace.