14 The Square, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5DT

14 The Square, Comber is a large and impressive two-storey double-pile house set at the eastern end of a terrace on the north side of The Square. The front half of the building probably dates from the mid-18th century, around 1760 to 1780, while the rear half was added around 1840. The decorative mouldings applied to the front façade most likely also date from around 1840.

The south-facing front façade is symmetrical and finished in lined render with full-height fluted pilasters at the wall edges, each topped with Corinthian-like capitals, and a chamfered base. At ground floor level, the central entrance features a timber panelled door with a two-pane fanlight. The door is flanked by two Doric columns, beyond which are narrow three-pane sidelights with panelled aprons, themselves flanked by square outer pilasters. The columns and pilasters together support an entablature that has a central projection with a cornice and moulded laurel wreath motifs at the edges of the projection and outer edges. Above the entablature is a shaped blocking course that follows the line of the projection, with anthemion blocks positioned at the edges of the projection and outer edges — that is, directly above the wreaths — and a shallow blocking course sits above the entablature as a whole. To either side of the doorway are two six-over-six sash windows without horns but with Georgian panes. Each of these windows has a moulded surround topped with decorative moulded brackets and panelled blocks supporting a cornice-like entablature, with a moulded laurel wreath — matching that of the doorway — as the frieze beneath. Cheval de frise features are present to the cills. At first floor level there are five slightly smaller windows with much simpler surrounds and brackets to the cills. An eaves course runs across the full width of the façade.

The east façade is double-gabled. At ground floor level on the left side is a large modern window. At first floor level, centre-left, is a small window with a modern frame, while centre-right is a sash window matching those on the front elevation, now partly obscured by ivy, which covers much of this façade. At attic level to the right is a similar but smaller sash window, also partly covered in ivy. The underlying finish is lined render. To the east side of the house there is a carriage gateway leading to the rear yard. The gateway is fronted by wrought-iron gates that may date from the late 19th or early 20th century. The yard entrance is formed by a high sandstone wall with a tall carriage arch with an elliptical head and red brick dressings. The carriageway is bounded on the east side by a tall fieldstone rubble wall in greywacke.

The west façade is exposed on its left-hand side and finished in painted lined cement render. At lower landing level on the right is a semicircular-headed sash window with Georgian panes (six over six). Above this is a smaller sash window with Georgian panes (three over six), and at a slightly higher level to the left is a similar attic window.

The rear façade is finished in unpainted lined cement render. At ground floor level, from left to right, there is a double sash window with Georgian-like panes (six over six in both lights), then a timber-sheeted stable door, a squarish window with a modern single-pane frame, a large modern window, and a small sash window at the far right. At first floor level, on the far left, is a large tripartite sash window with Georgian panes. To its left is a sash window matching those on the front elevation, with a similar window at the far right. Between these is a very small sash window.

The roof is gabled and covered in pan tiles to the front and natural slate to the rear. There is a small cast-iron skylight to the rear and two further skylights positioned next to the well of the roof, one of which lights an attic-level lobby. Two rendered chimney stacks rise from the roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The yard to the rear contains a two-storey gabled outbuilding with a mainly roughcast finish, now largely covered in ivy.

The history of the building is unusually well documented through primary sources. The site is shown as occupied on the Colville's Comber estate map of 1722, recorded in the Londonderry Papers at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. A lease map of The Square dating from 1786, drawn by David Geddas, includes a small but detailed pictorial drawing of the front elevation that largely matches the present building — including the gateway to the east side — except that to the right of the central doorway it shows two windows with another doorway between them, suggesting that space may once have served as a shop or office. This property is identified on that map as belonging to one Alan Ralph, who is also mentioned in title deeds dating from 1789 and a further lease map of 1801.

The first Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows a building corresponding to the front gabled portion of the present house, with what appears to be a rear return. Contemporary valuation records confirm its dimensions and describe it as a two-storey building with a basement and attic, judged by the valuers to be of reasonable age — probably 18th century. Pencil annotations in the same records, apparently written in the later 1830s or early 1840s, give dimensions that match the present building exactly, a reading apparently confirmed by the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858. This evidence suggests the building was either extended around 1840 to form the present double-pile structure, or rebuilt as a whole at that point.

There is, however, an important architectural clue pointing to the earlier origin of the front portion. In the small attic room to the west, the gable wall shows evidence of once having had two windows, indicating that the front gabled section predates the portion adjoining it within the terrace — a neighbouring building that is itself certainly pre-1834 and appears on the 1786 lease map shown as two-storey with its pedimented doorway much as it stands today. Furthermore, Dr Philip Robinson of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, who visited the property and examined its structure, reported that the roof truss construction in the front portion is of a type common in the mid-18th century, and differs from that in the rear, which is of a later form. The weight of evidence therefore points to the front portion of the house being of mid-18th-century origin, extended around 1840, with the decorative mouldings on the front façade and the probable reorganisation of the front elevation both dating from that same period.

The changes around 1840 were most probably the work of Dr Jonathan Allen, recorded as the owner of the house in 1834, who remained there until his death in 1857. Although the property appears to have stayed in Allen family ownership until at least the early 20th century, it was leased out during part of that period: a Robert McCartney is recorded as the occupant in 1861. At some point, possibly from 1886 onwards, the house also appears to have served as a branch of the Northern Bank. The present owner acquired the house in 1950.

To the rear and east of the house, the Allen family also owned a small tannery noted in the 1833 valuation, which remained in business until around 1900, when James Allen converted the site for the production of traction engines. That business has long since ceased trading and the site is now partly occupied by a modern chemist's shop.