30 High Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5HL

30 High Street, Comber

A two-storey urban vernacular terrace house of pre-1834 origin, situated near the north-east end of a terrace on the south-east side of High Street. The building is set on a slope rising north-east to south-west. Originally this dwelling formed part of a larger single house which encompassed the present No. 28 to the north-east. The entire terrace, along with this property, was sympathetically renovated in 1986.

The north-west facing front façade features a doorway to the left on the ground floor with a timber panelled and glazed door topped by a four-pane fanlight. The door is encased with a painted moulded surround of rendered brick with a keystone. To the right of the doorway is a sash window with glazing bars to the top sash (6 over 1). The first floor has a centrally placed window of the same type. The doorway was inserted when the original house was divided into two properties, at which point the ground floor window to the right was shifted further right. Before this division, the original larger house probably presented a largely symmetrical front façade.

To the right at the rear is a small, single-storey gabled return, shared with No. 28. The south-west face of this return could not be seen but likely contains a partly glazed rear door, consistent with the rest of the terrace properties. The south-east gabled face of the return is blank. The rear façade of the main building has a window matching the front to the first floor and a much smaller similar window at a higher attic landing level to the right of this. The ground floor level of the rear façade could not be observed. The exposed section of the south-west gable has an attic window to the right.

The front façade is finished in slightly rough plain render and painted. The exposed section of the south-west gable is in plain render and painted. The rear and return are rendered in rough cast and painted. The gabled roof and return roof are covered in natural slate. A Velux window is present to the rear. The rendered chimney stacks are positioned at the centre and south-west end of the roof ridge. Aluminium rainwater goods have been installed.

The site is shown as occupied on the 1722 map of Comber. The present house originally formed part of a larger single dwelling with No. 28, probably the property of the same dimensions noted in the 1834 valuation as the home of Hugh Harper. The valuers recorded that the property and the rest of this terrace were of reasonable age at that stage and may have dated from the 1790s or perhaps slightly later. The timing of the division of the original house into two separate dwellings cannot be determined with certainty. The entire terrace on this side is believed to have once housed workers of the nearby brewery, later the Upper Distillery, and may even have been purpose-built for that use. In 1920 the terrace was acquired by Andrews flax spinning mill for use as employee housing. In 1980 it was vested in the Housing Executive. In 1984 the properties were acquired by Hearth Housing Association and renovated and restored two years later.