Reading Room, 2A Clandeboye Cottages, Belfast Road, Clandeboye, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 1RJ

A two-storey two-bay corner-terrace former Victorian reading room built around the mid-1850s, originally serving the adjoining workers' cottages on the Clandeboye Estate. Located on the north side of the Belfast to Bangor Road opposite the estate entrance, the building is situated on a steeply sloping site with a garden to the front and a shared yard to the rear.

The building has a pitched artificial slate roof with clay ridge tiles and a replacement red brick chimney. Cast iron rainwater goods comprise half-circle gutters and circular downpipes, with uPVC stack pipe vent to the rear. The walls are smooth rendered with a projecting plinth and corbel course. Windows are replacement timber side-hung single-glazed casements with moulded sandstone surrounds and flush chamfered cills.

The principal south-facing elevation is asymmetrically arranged. A diagonal timber sheeted front door is set within a Tudor-arched opening with chamfered surrounds, accessed through an integral open Tudor-arched porch with moulded sandstone surrounds. Two single windows are located to the right of the porch, with bipartite windows above on the first floor. A faux datestone and signature stone are positioned over the porch. A lateral single-storey buttress is located to the left of the porch.

The west-facing gabled elevation is also asymmetrically arranged, with an open porch on the left and a mullioned quadripartite window to the right at ground floor level. The first floor contains a tripartite window and a single window, the latter rising above eaves level. The rear elevation is constructed in red brick English wall garden bond. New openings with concrete lintels have been inserted at ground and first floor levels on the left-hand side. The right elevation is abutted by 2 Clandeboye Cottages.

Although modernised, the detailing survives and contributes significantly to the group value and interest of the terrace. The building represents a good example of estate workers' housing and is one of only a few such terraces in the Province. Its significance extends to its role as part of the Clandeboye Estate and its associations with the Dufferin family.

The dating of the building has presented historical complexity. The terrace appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, but the visible datestone recording 1867 is not in its original position. First survey information indicates that in 1973 the datestone was detached and lying in a back yard. A photograph from the first survey clearly shows a window where the datestone now stands, suggesting the stone may have originated elsewhere on the estate. The terrace is not listed in Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), though this is not conclusive as estate buildings were often included in the estate valuation without separate identification. When the buildings first appear in Annual Revisions in 1866, they are listed as vacant, possibly indicating recent completion of internal works. A date of mid-1850s appears to best reconcile the conflicting evidence and is consistent with field inspection of the terrace.

The terrace consisted of thirteen dwellings with outbuildings to the rear and this reading room, situated on the northern edge of what was then the Clandeboye Estate. To the north is a shelter belt of trees known as the Walmer Screen, and to the east a wooded area called Walmer Grove, Walmer being the name of a Cinque port of which Lord Dufferin was warden.

The architect responsible is unknown, though Benjamin Ferrey and William Henry Lynn were both working with Lord Dufferin during the 1850s and 1860s and are possible candidates. The reading and news room is listed in Annual Revisions from 1866 as leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye, valued at £5 10 shillings. By 1874, the valuation had risen to £6, with all dwellings in the terrace similarly revalued, indicating structural improvements. The reading and news room continues to be listed in Annual Revisions through 1930.

According to the Clandeboye estate office, Lord Dufferin furnished the reading room with books and poetry readings were occasionally held there. Contemporary residents recall attending parties in the room and remember it being lined with books, with each resident bringing their own cup for refreshments. The reading room remained in use as a communal area until 1986, when it was converted into a domestic dwelling. It was perhaps at this time that the monogram DC (signifying Dufferin and Clandeboye) and the date 1867 were added to the south facade.

The setting comprises a garden on the steep sloping site to the front and a shared yard to the rear with the adjoining building 3 Clandeboye Cottage. No rear access existed prior to the 1986 conversion to dwelling. The surrounding area includes rural landscape to the west, a busy dual carriageway to the south, and modern housing development to the north and east.