38-40 Main Street, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2SP

Two storey gabled terraced building on the north-east side of Main Street in Kircubbin, comprising a chemist shop (No. 38) and dwelling house (No. 40), with possible origins before 1834 but substantially altered with early 20th century decorative surrounds to the front façade openings.

The shop front at No. 38 features a central glazed door flanked by large single-pane shop windows, a low painted stall riser, and a painted timber sign board above. A narrow cornice sits above the sign board. The entrance to the living accommodation at No. 40 consists of a panelled timber door with a plain fanlight and a distinctive decorative moulded surround with segmental top. To the right is a sashed window with vertical astragal and a matching moulded surround. The first floor has five evenly spaced sashed windows set on a cill course. An internally illuminated projecting PVC sign is positioned between the second and third first-floor windows.

A portion of the neighbouring house (No. 42) was annexed to No. 40 at some point and retains sashed windows to ground and first floor without the decorative surrounds. Quoins between these windows and the rest of No. 40 clearly mark the original division. The quoins are arrow-head type to the ground floor and square vermiculated variety to the first floor; similar quoins appear to the left side of No. 38. The left gable, which rises above No. 36, is blank and finished in plain render. The front façade is rusticated render to the ground floor and plain render to the first floor.

The roof is pitched, covered with asbestos-free slates, with two rendered chimney stacks to No. 40. A doubled gabled return to the rear incorporates a mixture of sashed and more modern windows, finished in plain render. Cast iron and PVC rainwater goods are present, including a broken-down spout to the front of No. 40.

Ordnance Survey mapping from 1834 shows a terrace on this site which may correspond to the present group. Local tradition suggests these buildings, among the oldest in Kircubbin, may date to the mid-18th century. The decorative surrounds to doors and windows are probably largely Edwardian in date. The section of No. 40 taken from No. 42 may formerly have been used as an office. Photographs from around 1910 show the terrace substantially as it appears today, but without the surrounds to the door and the left ground-floor window of No. 40.