59-89 Brownlow Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5EP

This is a long, two-storey terrace of 16 houses built around 1910 for workers at the nearby Andrews’ flax spinning mill. The terrace is situated on the east side of Brownlow Street, to the west of Comber town centre, and sits on a slight rising slope running north to south. It forms part of a matching pair of terraces, one on each side of the street.

The front (east) facade of each house features a doorway on the first floor positioned to the left, incorporating plain pilasters with decorative capitals, a moulded semicircular arch (archivolt) topped with a keystone. Many houses retain their original panelled front doors, though some have more modern, partly glazed examples, all topped with a semicircular fanlight. To the right of the doorway on each house is a projecting bay, either single-story with a flat roof or canted. These bays alternate between the houses - every second property features a square bay with two segmental arched window openings to the front and one, slightly narrower, window to each side, while the remaining houses have a canted bay with similar windows to each side. Both bay types have a cill course and a cornice with a parapet above. Above each bay are two windows grouped closely together, originally sash windows with a six-over-one pane arrangement, typical of the Edwardian period, but now largely replaced with modern top-opening PVC or timber frames. The front facade is finished with lined render and painted, with a visible eaves course and a base detail to the bays.

The rear facades are generally plain cement render, some of which is painted. Most houses have two windows to the first floor, though some retain the original single window arrangement, likely before rear upstairs rooms were partitioned and bathrooms added. Ground floor doorways are accompanied by either one or two windows, with the houses featuring two windows having a central doorway. The windows throughout are a mix of original sash and modern replacements. Most of the doors are now modern, glazed examples. Enclosed yards are located at the rear of the properties, and some houses have single-storey bathroom extensions.

The north and south gables of the terrace are blank. The roofs are covered with natural slate and include a single rendered chimney stack on each house. Rainwater goods are mostly original cast iron, though some sections, particularly at the rear, have been replaced with PVC. This terrace, along with its counterpart on the opposite side of the street, was built by John Andrews & Co. for their mill workers.