158 High Street, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9HT

158 High Street, Holywood

A semi-detached three-bay two-storey with dormered attic, built c.1890 and constructed of red brick. The house is located east of Old Belfast Road on the outskirts of Holywood town centre.

The building is square on plan with a two-storey extension to the rear under a cat-slide roof. A canted bay projects to the front and a canted bay to the south side. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with decorative terracotta ridge tiles and red brick chimneystacks. Timber eaves boards sit on bracketed eaves with decorative bargeboards to the gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with hoppers drain the roof. The walling is Flemish-bonded red brick with a continuous moulded sill to the first floor.

Windows are timber-framed sliding sash with 1/1 panes. Those to the first floor are segmental-headed with voussoir heads. Bay windows have continuous painted stone lintels and continuous sills topped with moulded architraves and cornices. Two Dutch-style gabled dormers feature ball finials and slate-hung cheeks.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged. Paired windows flank the first floor to left and right, positioned over a box bay to the left and a canted bay to the right. A single window sits over the entrance. The entrance comprises a six-panelled timber door with brass door furniture and a plain fanlight above. The door surround is recessed with brick voussoirs, featuring two polished granite colonnettes with moulded stone bands and supported on a stepped stone plinth. A round-headed arch with stone detailing and moulded plinths crowns the entrance, with carved head stops at springing level. The entrance is accessed by four masonry steps enclosed by a dwarf wall.

The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The east (rear) elevation contains a two-storey extension under a cat-slide roof to the right, with three timber-framed window openings to the first floor. To the left is a single-storey lean-to with a chimney rising from the wall above. The south elevation features a window to the left and a canted bay to the right at ground floor, a window to the first floor left and paired windows to the right, and two round-headed diminutive windows to the attic. A raised chimney flue terminates in a decorative corbel bracket at the left attic window.

The house sits on a slightly elevated site with a lawned garden to front and rear enclosed by mature hedgerow. The entrance is flanked by two brick gate piers with pointed masonry caps supporting early decorative cast-iron gates. A detached one-and-a-half storey outbuilding stands in the rear yard, with a slated hipped roof finished with terracotta ridge tiles and decorative bargeboards. The west elevation of this outbuilding has a wall-head dormer. The south elevation has a vented window over a roller garage door, and the east elevation has two diminutive windows. The rear yard is enclosed by a partially stepped red brick wall with two tall brick gate piers featuring sandstone bands and pointed caps, supporting modern timber-sheeted gates.

The area south of Holywood began to be developed towards the end of the nineteenth century. Large houses in spacious grounds are first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02, including this semi-detached pair. The house cannot be located in valuation records before 1900 but appears on visual inspection to date from c.1890. The first occupier noted was James Butler Futtit in 1900, a commission agent from Tipperary who lived with his wife, two step-children, a niece and nephew, and a general domestic servant. His stepson worked as a linen factory manager and his niece as a National School teacher; his nephew was a mercantile clerk. In the 1911 census, Futtit listed his occupation as yarn commission agent. His stepson worked as a commercial clerk in yarns and his niece remained a school teacher. The stepdaughter and nephew were no longer present, though a music teacher from Belfast was visiting. The family retained a single domestic servant. Philippa Futtit, James's widow, became the occupier by 1919 and the immediate lessor by 1924. The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.