2 & 4 Glen Road, Ballycultra, Holywood, County Down, BT18 0HB

A symmetrical two-storey plus attic, two-bay semi-detached Victorian dwelling built around 1885. Located on the north side of the main Bangor to Belfast Road, adjacent to the entrance of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

The building displays pitched natural slate roofing with crested terracotta ridge tiles and finials, timber moulded barge boards, and a large moulded cavetto cornice to the eaves. Tall chimney-stacks feature recessed panels and corbelled upper courses. Ogee moulded cast-iron gutters with circular downpipes (with some uPVC replacement) serve the roof drainage. The walls are constructed in English Garden-wall bond red brick with pin tuck pointing (now eroded), and a moulded corbel course runs to the eaves at the rear.

The principal elevation faces north and forms the left half of a symmetrically arranged façade shared with the adjoining dwelling. It features a two-storey canted bay breaking through eaves level to the right. A door positioned to the left is surmounted by a bipartite window and embraced by a broken cornice with a gable head above. Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with 1/1 and 2/2 pane configurations; those on the front elevation have vertical glazing bars while those at the rear have horizontal bars. The principal entrance door is timber with etched glazed panels and a segmental arched over-light, set within a double chamfered segmental arched opening.

The left elevation is asymmetrically arranged, featuring a projected two-storey gabled bay extending to attic level. The ground floor of this bay is abutted by a projected box-bay containing a tripartite round-headed window with camber-head and decorated spandrels, topped by a cast-iron parapet. A triple first floor window and bipartite attic window occupy the upper levels. A single-storey flat-roofed abutment to the right serves as a modern entrance (to apartment no. 4) on the left, with a casement window with opaque glazing to the right. A semi-canted bay is located at the re-entrant of the gable at first floor level above the entrance. The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged, with a two-storey cat-slide return to the right containing various window openings and a rear door (entrance to apartment no. 2) accessed by modern timber steps. A single-storey pitched-roof extension extends to the left. The right gable is abutted by the adjoining dwelling.

The setting includes a timber fence with a gated entrance flanked by modern brick piers with ball finials, leading to a driveway with adjacent garden and timber shed. A paved terrace with balustrade parapet wall extends to the north and east. Timber steps lead to largely unfinished grounds at the rear, bounded by a coursed rubble wall with brick upper course, with a busy road beyond.

Both houses were built by William Adolphus Ross, a well-known Belfast mineral water producer, and first appear in valuation records in 1886 as vacant properties valued at £30 each. The valuation was raised to £45 in 1887 as construction was completed. William Ross occupied one of the houses from 1887 until his death in September 1900, leaving a modest fortune of over £4,000. His firm, founded in 1876, became one of Ireland's foremost producers of aerated water. The company was noted for its high-class raspberry vinegar, produced from special berries grown in gardens at Craigavad. Ross had formerly lived further north at 'The Ivies'. After his death, the first house passed to John W Lemon and then to Elizabeth Nelson, a Welsh widow resident at the time of the 1911 census. By 1918 it was owned by William J Orr.

The second house in the pair remained vacant for some years before being occupied by Margaret Ferrie in 1890, followed by George M Shaw in 1897 (a linen merchant living with his Scottish wife and a domestic servant). By 1909 it was occupied by Annabella Eddowes, an English widow aged 69 living on investment returns and maintaining a staff of three. The house passed to George Ward in 1913 and Edith M Ward in 1919.

Both houses were converted into apartments in the mid-twentieth century and remain in domestic use. The pair represents a common type of late Victorian semi-detached dwelling, displaying typical proportions and style of the period, though extensive modifications to number 4 have compromised the overall character and integrity of the group. The houses are of local interest because of their association with William Adolphus Ross, but are not among the finest examples of the architectural style.