House at Mount Stewart (Laundry Cottage), Mount Stewart, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2RU(?)

This is a two storey former estate laundry house dating from around 1805, located roughly half a mile north east of Mount Stewart house and two miles north west of Greyabbey, within the Mount Stewart estate. The building has been recently converted into four self-contained flats, and its facade now presents the appearance of a modern building with a somewhat neo-Georgian character.

The building is a relatively large, formally planned structure with a gabled roof covered with asbestos-free slates. The roof features rendered parapets and three rendered chimneystacks. Two decorative curved roof dormers with small PVC casement windows with simulated astragals are positioned on the west elevation, along with three Velux windows to the west and three further Velux windows to the rear. The whole facade is finished in plain render and painted, with a chamfered plinth at the base and cast iron rainwater goods.

The front west elevation is symmetrical and features a large central timber panelled door with a plain fanlight, encased with plain stone pilasters and an entablature with cornice. The doorway is set within a full height, slightly projecting gabled bay. To the left and right of this bay on the ground floor are three semicircular arch-headed windows with PVC sash frames with simulated Georgian panes. Directly above these on the first floor, resting on a cill course, are six windows with shallow segmental arch heads and similar frames. The seventh first floor window, which is directly above the doorway and within the gabled bay, is slightly broader than the rest.

The rear elevation has a full height semicircular projection at its centre, with a high parapet obscuring its roof and a window between ground and first floor level. To the left and right of this projection on the ground floor are two small semicircular arched windows with PVC frames with simulated Georgian panes. Between each of these sets of windows is a semicircular arched doorway opening with a deeply recessed timber-sheeted arch-headed door and narrow two-pane sidelights. Directly above all of these openings are six first floor windows matching those on the front.

At the centre of each gable is a full height semicircular stairwell projection containing a spiral staircase within, with various semicircular arch-headed openings. At the top of the projection is the open-air head of the stair leading to a plain timber-sheeted attic door. At ground floor level of each gable are yards enclosed with high rendered walls, with semicircular arch-headed pedestrian openings to the east and west sides of both enclosures. Directly above each of these openings the wall is stepped and curved, with a slightly projecting cap.

Mount Stewart estate records spanning 1803 to 1809 document that this new laundry was constructed between 1805 and 1808 at a cost of £510, with payment recorded to a stonecutter named James Campbell. The building appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and is referred to in the Ordnance Survey Valuation records of around 1835 as a marling house and laundry. More recently the building served as a store until around 1995, when it was completely renovated and converted into four flats. During the renovation, in addition to interior modifications, the ground floor front facade windows were lengthened slightly to differ from their original configuration which matched those at the rear. Side stairwells and yard walls were added, and new window frames and dormers were installed.