31 Main Street, Ballymacruise, Millisle, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2BL

This is a former two-storey terrace house, likely dating from the early nineteenth century, which has been converted into a coffee shop and extensively modernised. The building now bears little resemblance to its original appearance. It occupies the east side of Main Street in Ballymacruise, Millisle.

The front facade, facing west, features a timber-sheeted door on the far left, alongside a large, slightly ‘bowed’ modern multi-pane shop window. A panelled and glazed shop door is positioned to the right, accompanied by a similar larger ‘bowed’ modern shop window, both set within a recess and resting on brick ‘stall risers’. Above the shop front is a long timber shop sign. The first floor has a single modern window on the left and a central flat-roofed half dormer with a modern window frame. The roof is pitched and covered in asbestos-free slates, with three Velux windows to the front and one to the rear, and incorporates PVC rainwater goods. A large, flat-roofed extension with modern doors and windows occupies the entire ground floor at the rear.

The site was marked on Ordnance Survey maps of 1833/4 and 1858-60. In 1973, the building was a house and doctor’s surgery with three first-floor window openings, sash windows with ‘Georgian’ panes, and moulded surrounds to the windows and front door, likely dating from the late nineteenth century. However, a conversion to a coffee shop in 1985 resulted in the loss of the original facades, roof, and interior, transforming the building into its current modern form. Historical records indicate that the Mulholland family likely acquired land in the Millisle area in the 1840s, and relevant leases might exist within the Dunleath Papers collection.