67 Court Street, Newtownards, Co Down

67 Court Street, Newtownards

This is a terraced house originally built in the 1840s as part of a substantial development on the south side of Court Street. The entire terrace was established by 1858 according to the revised Ordnance Survey map of that date. Court Street itself was laid out in the 1840s, taking its name from the nearby medieval priory which served as a courthouse between 1817 and 1850.

The building was substantially modernised in the mid-twentieth century by the current owner's father, with major alterations to its appearance and interior. Today little remains of its original character, which would have included narrower small-paned sliding sash windows and a panelled front door.

The front elevation is rendered with pebble dash and presents three bays across two storeys. There is a hardwood partially glazed door with sidelights to the right, and to the left is a square-headed vehicular entrance with painted timber doors. The centre has a top-hung picture window, with three further uPVC windows to the first floor. The roof is covered with fibre cement slates and has a plain smooth rendered chimney stack set off-centre.

The rear elevation is smooth rendered with irregularly sized and positioned steel top-hung windows to the first floor and a uPVC window to the ground floor. To the left is a single-storey lean-to return containing a uPVC door and window. Beyond this return and attached to it is a lean-to open-sided store. Further beyond is a small stone-walled store with a pitched roof, now heavily overgrown, which may date from the original construction of Court Street in the 1840s.

The rear garden is rectangular and very long. It contains a large mid-twentieth century lightweight builder's workshop constructed of smooth rendered concrete block walls with a corrugated sheet roof, and at the bottom a further lean-to shed of little architectural interest.

The building stands towards the eastern end of a terrace of two-storey rendered houses now within the Court Street/Court Square Area of Townscape Character. Other buildings in the terrace have been demolished and some of the remainder are in poor condition. The former Newtownards Dominican Priory, a Monument in State Care, lies 40 metres to the east. The property has remained in domestic use since it was first surveyed in October 1972.