34 Shore Road, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1JZ

34 Shore Road, Portaferry

A plain two storey terrace house, probably built before 1834, now in use as a doctor's surgery. The building forms part of the Shore Road terrace, located south of Portaferry town centre and overlooking Strangford Lough.

The property is set back unevenly from the road, projecting forward to the north relative to the rest of the terrace but set back to the east. The western front façade is asymmetrical, with a plain timber sheeted door positioned right of centre, two PVC windows to the left, and a single PVC window to the right. The first floor contains four evenly spaced windows. The roof is gabled with Bangor blue slates to the front, along with two fairly large Velux windows. An exposed section of the west gable is rendered, with a cement render parapet to the north. The original chimneys have been removed, and the property now has PVC gutters and downspouts.

A single storey extension has been added to the rear, with a partly pitched, partly flat roof, featuring a modern window and door. The rear façade of the main house projects to the left of this extension, with two windows—the lower appears modern while the upper retains a sash frame. To the right of this projection is another sash window. The rear roof is covered in artificial slate. A two storey rubble-built outbuilding stands to the rear.

The present owner holds deeds to the property dating to the 1770s. Patrick O'Hare's map of 1799 shows a building on this site in the possession of John Brown. The house is of particular historical significance as the birthplace of Reverend Vincent McNabb, a distinguished Dominican scholar and renowned Hyde Park speaker, born here in 1868. The building is situated within a conservation area but is not formally listed.