25-27 Main Street, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2SS

Large two-storey house and shop of probable mid-nineteenth century origin, dating to around the 1850s, situated on Main Street in Kircubbin with streets intersecting to either side.

The front north-east elevation is largely intact and features decorative surrounds to doors and windows. An almost central recessed timber-panelled door with wide jambs and an elliptical arch radial fanlight belongs to No.27. The moulded surround to this recess has panelled pilasters, an elliptical arch, and a decorative keystone. To the left of the doorway are two sliding sash and case windows with horizontal and vertical astragals and moulded surrounds featuring panelled pilasters and cornice hoods on decorative brackets, also belonging to No.27. The front façade of the main building is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins. To the right of the doorway is a large timber shop front for No.25, comprising two large fixed light windows on either side of a glazed door with a plain fanlight and two-pane sidelight. The door and windows are each encased with plain pilasters and brackets supporting a signboard with cornice hood.

The first floor, which belongs entirely to No.27, has five evenly spaced windows similar to those at ground floor level but with simpler moulded surrounds and a cill course on brackets. The centre window is tripartite.

To the rear are large extensions which are undoubtedly later. The south-east gable of the main building is blank but merges with a full-height flat-roofed extension, which in turn merges with a high rendered wall continuing along the street until it joins with a large modern warehouse, all belonging to No.27. The north-west gable is also blank and merges with a large flush two-storey gabled return, which is attached to a large modern warehouse further along the street. The return has four sliding sash and case windows to the first floor and two to the left on the ground floor, with a large modern window and modern door featuring a plain fanlight and sidelights to the right.

The gables of the main building are finished in lined render with chamfered quoins, with lined render also applied to the return. The roof of the main house and return is pitched with Bangor blue slates. Four recently reconstructed red brick chimney stacks with original pots are present on the main building, and one on the return with modern pots. An eaves course runs along the front. Cast iron gutters and downspouts complete the exterior.

The interior of the shop is largely plain with a modern acoustic tiled ceiling. The house contains some simple nineteenth-century detailing, mainly to the first floor.

Historical records indicate that a building stood on this site as early as the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. Whilst the building could conceivably be early nineteenth century, the decorative treatment of the doors and windows suggests a date of approximately 1850-1860, though the asymmetry of the arrangement may imply a remodelling of the façade of an earlier building at this time. Until the mid-twentieth century, a terrace of two smaller two-storey houses with a coach arch beyond was attached to the south-east gable of this house. These former properties are indicated on the 1834 and 1860 Ordnance Survey maps but have since been demolished to allow entrance to a modern estate behind Main Street. The large return at the north-west side of Nos.25-27 was present in the early 1900s but appears to have been extended subsequently.