57 Queen's Parade, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3BH

57 Queen's Parade is a three-storey, two-bay Victorian mid-terrace dwelling built in 1883. It was erected as part of a symmetrical pair with its adjoining building, and now forms part of the larger terrace that developed on Queen's Parade during the late 1870s and early 1880s. The building retains its original character and detailing, and holds group value with its pair.

The house is located on an elevated site on the Bangor promenade, adjacent to Marine Gardens, east of Bangor West and north of the town centre. The principal elevation faces north-east and is asymmetrically arranged. The left bay rises to a three-storey, slightly projecting gable embracing a two-storey canted bay with cornice. The front door is located to the right within a deep inset featuring a moulded stilted round arch with a segmental-arched string course over. The date is inscribed on the building as "18" and "83" respectively, set into recessed segmental arched panels over the first floor windows.

The exterior is finished with painted dashed and stucco rendered walling with a projected plinth course, moulded string course, and plain corbel course. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with crested clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods comprise an ogee-moulded gutter with circular downpipe. A brick chimney-stack with clay pots is partially rendered at the lower stage.

Windows to the ground and first floors are 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns and rounded corners. The bay openings are flanked by smooth render pilasters rising to impost level with deep moulded stilted rounded-cornered heads. Ground floor windows have chamfered cills with a continuous moulded cill course to first floor. Second floor openings have plain smooth rendered surrounds. Paired diminutive narrow sash windows occupy the right-hand side (unusually deep set), while larger paired segmental arched openings to the left feature small paired triangular-headed recesses with a painted terracotta brick course in the gable apex. The principal entrance is a timber door with four bolection moulded panels and brass ironmongery, with a round-arched fixed light over.

The left elevation is abutted by 56 Queen's Parade. The right elevation is abutted by 58 Queen's Parade. The rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey pitched roof return shared with the adjoining owner. A two-storey addition dating from around 1940 extends the full width of the site towards the rear, fully enclosing a small yard. Rear windows are a mixture of 2/2 sliding sash, steel and timber casement types. A wall head dormer with segmental arched window is positioned to the right-hand side of the second floor. A shared red brick chimney sits over the apex of the return.

The front garden features a stepped concrete path running parallel to a lawn, bounded by a rubble masonry wall with rendered coping and piers with a modern mild steel gate. Landscaped public gardens to the north provide views towards the marina. To the south, the site is bounded by Somerset Avenue with alley access to the rear return. A small rear yard is enclosed.

The development of this part of Queen's Parade followed the opening of the railway in 1865, which attracted increasing numbers of professional classes and holidaymakers to Bangor. The terrace replaced an earlier row of single-storey cottages from the 1870s. The area was formerly known as the 'Kinnegar', named after a rabbit warren that occupied the site before development. The street was renamed following a visit by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1903 and altered in valuation records in 1907.

The house was initially leased from William James Campbell, likely the developer of the site, and valued at £32 in valuation records from 1884, reduced to £30 in 1886. The first recorded occupier was John Wright in 1890. Agnes Morrison is recorded as a 48-year-old widow running the premises as a boarding house in 1901, employing a servant and accommodating boarders. Mary Lewers, a 60-year-old saleswoman, occupied the house from 1908 and remained a long-term resident until at least 1930. The house continues in use as a private dwelling.