52 Frances Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 3DY

52 Frances Street is the centre house of a two-storey gabled terrace of three dwellings, probably built around 1835. It is situated on the north side of Frances Street, adjacent to the First Presbyterian Church in Newtownards, County Down.

The house is smaller than its neighbour at No. 50. The front elevation features a plain 'Ards' doorway with a plain semicircular fanlight and panelled door to the left. To the left of the door is a double sash window, recently enlarged from a single window, and to the first floor are two single sash windows. The front façade is finished in lined cement render and left unpainted. A large two-storey gabled return at the rear has been substantially extended in recent times with large modern windows to the gable and modern window frames throughout. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates, with asbestos-free slates on the return. PVC guttering and downpipes are present. There is a single red brick chimney stack.

Frances Street was laid out around 1817 as part of a new broad thoroughfare linking the new coach road from Belfast to the Donaghadee Road, replacing a much narrower Back Lane shown on Colville's 1720 plan of the town. The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows that the western side of the street had been developed by that date, but this particular site remained unbuilt. However, three dwellings had appeared by 1836, when the first valuation survey records No. 50 in possession of William Crawford, rated at £5 8s 0d, with its two neighbours rated below this value. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1834 record that the Marquis of Londonderry was erecting new houses at this time, granting leases for 60 years or three lives at a rate of 1 shilling per foot, upon which houses could be erected at the same rate per foot.

No. 50 was renovated around 1880–1900, when window surrounds may have been added and internal changes made, including the fireplace in the living room. Nos. 52 and 54 were substantially altered in the early 1990s, when the ground floor window of No. 52 was enlarged.