5 Demesne Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9DQ

5 Demesne Road, Holywood, is a mid-19th century semi-detached house, one of a pair of Italianate villas built around 1840-1859. It is a good and well-preserved example of the genre, though some minor loss of detail and small unsympathetic additions to the rear have occurred.

The house is two storeys with gabled and hipped roofs, and canted single-storey projecting bays to the front and side. The main elevation of the pair faces west. The main entrance is located in the south elevation.

The west elevation is two bays, comprising a gabled breakfront to the left with the main wall set back slightly to the right, two windows wide. The roofs are laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark ridge tiles. Oversailing eaves are carried on paired shaped brackets. The moulded gutter has PVC downpipes. The walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with a projecting moulded plinth, moulded cill courses to each floor, and moulded frieze. Stop chamfering with torus moulding marks the corners. Two chimneys are present—one at the left-hand extremity of the main ridge and one at the right-hand extremity, common with the adjoining house—both smooth rendered and moulded with plain modern pots.

Windows throughout are timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 2 over 2 with horns and horizontal pane divisions. Most are rectangular headed, except for round heads to two first-floor windows of the gabled breakfront. The gabled breakfront features a single-storey projecting canted bay to the ground floor with one window in each face set in moulded reveals, a moulded gutter on moulded cornice, and scrolling ornamented pedimental cresting to the blocking course on each face. Two first-floor windows are semi-circular arched with raised moulded surrounds surmounted by small crestings. A blind oculus to the centre of the gable above is inset with shield and label moulding.

The main wall of the west elevation has two windows to each floor. First-floor windows are set in raised moulded and heeled surrounds; ground-floor windows are coupled with chamfered reveals framed by panelled pilasters with ornamented brackets and moulded cornice, surmounted by a pair of triangular pedimental features topped with ornamented plasterwork cresting.

The north elevation is three bays, comprising a central hipped-roofed breakfront three windows wide on the first floor, flanked on each side by recessed walls each one window wide. Roofing, walling, rainwater goods, and windows are similar to the west elevation; one chimney is in line with the east end of windows. All windows are rectangular; first-floor windows have raised moulded and heeled surrounds; ground-floor windows are set in pilastered and pedimented aedicules as on the west elevation, except the one to the recessed main wall to the left, which is similar to those on the first floor and is now contained within a modern lean-to glazed conservatory or porch with smooth cement-rendered and lined plinth walls, concrete cills surmounted by painted timber-framed glazing, a central modern rectangular timber-panelled and glazed door, a lean-to glazed roof with timber frames, and PVC gutter and downpipe.

The ground floor of the central breakfront has a projecting canted bay to the left of a window, as on the west front, with three windows to the first floor. The west face of the central breakfront contains the main entrance with one window above. The main entrance is approached by sandstone steps with a modern paved terrace and comprises a semi-circular arched doorway set in a pilastered and pedimented aedicule as to the windows. The east face of the central breakfront contains a first-floor window, as previous, and a rectangular doorway to the ground floor opening into the porch conservatory with a glazed and panelled door.

The east elevation comprises a main rear wall to the left, one window wide, with a deep projecting gabled return to the right. Roofs are slated as previous with two modern flush rooflights to the main block. Oversailing eaves are as previous but with plain brackets. Moulded gutters have PVC downpipes. Walls are smooth rendered, lined and blocked. The main rear wall has one first-floor window, sashed as previous, set in plain reveals; the ground floor has two similar windows but is now enclosed by a later modern glazed lean-to porch with painted brick plinth wall.

The gabled return on the east elevation has a ground-floor projecting lean-to with slated roof, PVC gutter and downpipe, and three rectangular timber sliding sash windows (1 over 1 with horns). The first floor has two sashed windows set in plain reveals. The attic storey has one replacement PVC two-pane window in plain reveals. The south elevation of the return has sashed windows as previous, including a semi-circular arched stair window with margin lights. Two doorways are present: one enclosed within the modern porch, old, glazed and panelled; one in the lean-to projection, modern glazed.

The building stands within its own grounds, with its rear elevation facing the main road and the front elevation approached from a private road. A grass lawn lies to the front, with a gravel driveway up the north side flanked by flowerbeds. The front boundary comprises hedges with an open driveway and no gateway. A party hedge separates the property from the adjoining number 7. A former coach house with its small yard stands beyond the end of the driveway, marked by an arched gatescreen of smooth rendered material containing a large blocked-up central archway flanked by two former arched doorways with boarded doors, both now closed off.

The rear yard is surfaced in large quarry tiles. Single-storey outhouses project from the rear wall, partly of painted brick and partly rendered, with PVC rainwater goods and slated roofs. A modern open lean-to shelter stands against the boundary wall to the east. A plain rendered boundary wall to the north includes part of the former coach house in the corner with a lean-to roof of concrete tiles. The main coach house has a slated roof, smooth rendered walls, and modern timber top-hung and fixed-light windows.

The rear boundary wall is of rubble stone to the exterior with lime mortar at the south end, surmounted by raised rendered coping and containing a doorway with raised rendered surround and a rectangular timber-sheeted door. The wall ramps up to the north, smooth rendered and lined, and includes a modern rectangular preformed metal garage door and a segmental arched doorway with plain reveals containing a modern panelled door set in a glazed doorscreen. To the north in the same plane is the rubble-stone wall of the former coach house, two-storey, with slated roof in regular courses, one chimney to the left-hand end rendered and moulded with two stub pots, moulded gutter, and modern rectangular timber fixed-light windows. A rectangular timber-sheeted door with glazed panel is set in a raised rendered surround. The north gable of the coach house is smooth rendered, lined and blocked.

The private road to the front is approached by a recessed entrance comprising plain rendered curved screen walls and chamfered piers without gates. The private road is lined with mature trees along its west verge.