3 Ardmore Terrace, Holywood, Co. Down, BT18 9BH

3 Ardmore Terrace is a symmetrical two-storey three-bay Victorian terrace house, one of seven built in palace form in Holywood, Co. Down. Constructed around 1850, it represents the substantial domestic development that followed the arrival of the railway to the area and reflects the growing attraction of Holywood to the professional classes.

The house is rectangular on plan with two two-storey returns to the rear. It is constructed with a pitched natural slate roof with rectangular-on-plan chimneystacks featuring stone plinths and terracotta pots; further chimneystacks rise from the rear gable, and a square brick chimney rises from the ridgeline. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted to the painted masonry eaves of the principal elevation; PVC rainwater goods are present to the rear returns.

The walling is painted render to the principal elevation with simple rustication to the ground floor, quoins, a raised and chamfered plinth, and a smooth render string course between the upper floors. The principal elevation faces north and is three windows wide. Ground floor windows are 2/1 timber-framed sliding sash in canted bays, while first floor windows are 2/2 with continuous sill and moulded architrave with projecting moulded cornice. A round-headed multi-pane timber-framed sash opening is present to the first floor of the rear elevation. The principal entrance is a central single-panelled timber door with recessed moulded surround and round-headed plain transom light, accessed by three stone steps. The rear elevation comprises two-storey returns to left and right with window openings to exposed sections. The left return features a roller shutter garage door. Most historic fabric remains intact.

The east gable is abutted by the adjoining building (HB 23/20/065D), and the west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB 23/20/065B).

The setting comprises a lawned front garden with paved pathway accessed by stone steps, enclosed by a tall hedgerow with conifer trees to the west. To the rear is a communal pathway separating the house and garden. The garden contains a rendered garage and is bounded by a tall hedgerow. The setting has been compromised by the construction of modern housing at Ardmore Park on the approach to Ardmore Court and by further construction to the rear.

Ardmore Terrace was built in the late 1840s and the houses were let either as bathing villas or on more permanent terms to the professional classes attracted to Holywood following the opening of the railway. The terrace is shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 captioned "Ardmore Terrace", although Griffith's Valuation fieldbooks for the period 1856-64 initially listed the buildings as "Ormeau Terrace". An undated newspaper clipping advertises the renamed villas for rent: "Villas in Holywood at reduced rent. To let and immediate possession given, two houses in Ardmore Terrace. The houses have each a garden and the use of extensive grounds and contain Dining room, Drawing room and Seven Bedrooms with Hot and Cold Baths &c., and a never-failing supply of Water, without pumping. For a permanent tenant, very moderate terms would be made…An Omnibus plies from every Train, Fare 2d."

At the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856-64), number three was occupied by Henry Charley, leased from John Simms, with a valuation of £41. The valuer recorded that the house contained on the first storey: dining room, parlour, closet, pantry and kitchen; on the second storey: two large bedrooms, bathroom, closet and servants room; and in the return: scullery, store rooms and servants rooms. Between 1880 and 1887 the valuations dropped slightly, though no reason is given. By 1867 the occupier was Miss Milford, and by 1887 the occupier became William Donnan and his family, which included his son Frederick George Donnan, the internationally celebrated physical chemist best known for his theory of membrane equilibrium. This theory had important applications in the technologies of leather and gelatine, and particularly in understanding living cells and how ions and molecules are transported within them and between the cell and its environment. At the time he lived at Ardmore Terrace, Frederick was a student at Belfast Royal Academy. He went on to hold the Chair of Physical Chemistry at Liverpool University and was subsequently a professor at University College, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded the Longstaff Medal of the Chemical Society in 1924 and the Davy Medal in 1928. The Donnan family later moved to a house in Riverston Terrace in 1907.

By 1919 number three was occupied by Sydney Erskine and experienced some periods of vacancy. In 1902 the immediate lessor became William Gilliland, who also occupied one of the houses. Gilliland was an architect engaged mainly in commercial and industrial projects, including the Ormeau Bakery in Belfast, and was active in public life as a founder member of the Ulster Society of Architects and as a city councillor for Victoria Ward. Along with the rest of the terrace, this house is a fine example of the type, with substantial survival of historic fabric.