45 Bridge Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5AT

This is a two-storey terrace shop with a first-floor apartment, likely dating from between 1780 and 1799. It probably originated as a house before 1834 and stands on the southern side of Bridge Street in Comber.

The front facade has been significantly altered with a modern shop front installation. A large, glazed and panelled doorway occupies the centre left of the ground floor, accompanied by sidelights. To its left is a flat-arched vehicle entrance, now used as a store and featuring a large garage door. To the right of the original house doorway is another modern shop window with an adjacent doorway. Above the shop window is an internally illuminated PVC signboard with a projecting PVC sign. The first floor has four windows with modern frames. A large, modern, single-storey extension to the rear is described as a ‘refrigerator’ extension. The rear facade, to the right of the extension, shows a reduced pedestrian entrance where a vehicle entrance once stood, now with a plain timber door. The first floor of the rear has two windows of differing sizes, also with modern frames. A large [?extractor fan] ‘chimney’ is positioned at the far left of the facade. The front facade is rendered and painted with lines, while the rear is rendered and unpainted. The gabled roof is covered with asbestos-free slate, and a yellow brick chimney stack is located on the eastern side. The building has PVC rainwater goods.

Historical records show the area through this end of Bridge Street was vacant on a 1722 map, but occupied on subsequent maps. It is likely that the building, as it stands now, dates to the late 18th or early 19th century and matches the property shown on a 1834 Ordnance Survey map, which was then the residence of a Hugh Hutchinson. By December 1975, the ground floor had already been converted to a shop.