1 Church Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4AN

A large formal two-storey gabled Georgian house of circa 1820, situated on the north side of Church Street, Newtownards, to the west of St Mark's parish church. Now used as a health centre.

The building is finished in plain rendered walls with chamfered quoins to the front. The main roof is gabled with Bangor blue slates, and the structure features box eaves on corbels with frieze moulding.

The south-facing front facade is the principal elevation. At ground level, a central timber-panelled door with semicircular fanlight displaying spider's web tracery is flanked by sidelights also with decorative tracery, all under a simple architrave. To either side of the doorway stands a three-sided flat-roofed bay with sash windows arranged with Georgian panes, also with simple architraves. The first floor contains three smaller similar windows set on a cill course, with a matching course below broken by the parapets of the ground floor bays.

Attached to each gable are matching single-storey sections with flat roofs and pierced balustrades with cornices on corbels. The front facade of each is flush with the main house and contains a group of three sash windows with the outer windows much narrower and separated from the centre window by fluted piers. The west gable of the main house has a blank upper portion, while the east gable features a small attic window with semicircular arch head and sash frame.

The rear facade originally featured a central two-level hipped roof return. The original rear first floor still displays a central sash window within the hipped roof return, with similar windows to either side. However, the entire ground floor has been greatly extended in recent times with a large sprawling flat-roofed section. Three evenly spaced flat-roofed dormers with small sash windows project from the rear of the main roof. Tall sandstone chimney stacks flank each gable. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

Historical development suggests the house was built shortly after Regent Street was laid out around 1811, probably circa 1820. A valuation map of 1833 shows the property in the possession of Robert Thompson, with the hipped roof return present but without the front bays. The three-sided bays appear to have been added around 1850-60. An extension to the east gable visible on the 1858-60 Ordnance Survey map likely corresponds to the present single-storey section, though the matching western extension is not indicated at this stage. The rear extension was constructed around 1990. Church Street, this section of the original Regent Street, acquired its current name sometime between circa 1835 and 1855, coinciding with the development of Frederick Street and William Street.

The interior layout has been extensively altered and modernised for its current use as a health centre. Whilst the recent rear extension is modern, some concession has been made to the original building in terms of symmetry, window frame style, and render finish.