104 Seacliff Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5EZ

104 Seacliff Road is an asymmetrical two-storey, three-bay Victorian mid-terrace dwelling, one of a terrace of six, built around 1855. The terrace was originally known as Clifton Terrace and represents some of the earliest housing to be built along this stretch of the County Down coast. It occupies an elevated site overlooking Belfast Lough, to the east of Eisenhower Pier, and is encompassed by Victorian and Edwardian terraces to the sides and rear, with a garden and car park to the front.

The house has a rectangular plan form with two two-storey rear returns and an enclosed yard. The principal elevation faces north-west and is asymmetrically arranged. The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, overhanging timber eaves, and bargeboards. The walls are sandstone rubble with a smooth rendered band course between floors. The right bay rises to a shallow pitched gable enclosing a two-storey rendered canted bay with a leaded hipped roof. Chimneys are rendered and yellow brick with clay pots, shared with the adjoining buildings. Cast-iron rainwater goods are in place throughout.

The windows are primarily square-headed timber 2/2 sliding sash with horizontal divisions and margin panes, set within replacement red brick surrounds. The front door is a timber four-panel design with brass ironmongery, with a fixed light with margin panes above it. A small lean-to canopy supported on masonry wall brackets sits over the entrance, with a balcony above added around 1940. On the first floor, centrally placed, is an enlarged square-headed opening comprising steel-framed double doors and sidelights leading onto a projecting concrete balcony without railings, also added around 1940. Ground and first floor windows occupy the left-hand bay.

To the rear, the right side is abutted by a mono-pitched two-storey return with an additional flat-roofed single-storey extension projecting from its south face into the enclosed yard. The left side is abutted by a two-storey L-shaped mono-pitched return containing a stairwell, upper floor accommodation, and external storage. Two modern rooflights have been installed into the roof pitch of the main building, and replacement uPVC double-glazed window units have been fitted to both floors of the rear elevation. The left gable adjoins a separately listed building, as does the right gable.

The large flagstone path leading to the front entrance retains shoe scrapers on either side.

The terrace is first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, at which point it was surrounded by open countryside. A photograph of uncertain date, possibly from the 1870s, confirms it was one of very few developments along the coastline at that time. By 1901 the surrounding area had been filled with substantial properties occupied by professional and mercantile residents. The development of the area accelerated significantly with the arrival of the railway in 1865.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the terrace as the property of William Cowan, with Robert E. Ward — the local landowner — as the immediate lessor. Each property in the terrace is described as a house, offices, yard, and pleasure ground, valued at £20. William Cowan was a grocer and wine and spirit retailer with premises in Church Lane and Joy Street, Belfast. He died in 1862 a wealthy man, and his company William Cowan Ltd became celebrated for producing Cowan's No. 4 Old Irish Whisky. One of the houses was let to Andrew Cowan, described in William's will as a gentleman and possibly his son.

The Belfast Newsletter of 12 May 1857 reported that the terrace had been built "in the very best manner, embracing all modern improvements in ventilation, and every convenience that can be desired," with each house containing a large dining room, five bedrooms, servants' apartments, two water closets, a kitchen, scullery, and two pantries, all enclosed within a good yard. The twin rear returns served specific purposes: one originally housed the kitchen and scullery, and the other contained stores and a water closet with a maid's room above. The 1901 census records each house as having eleven rooms and classifies them as first class dwellings on account of their size and construction.

In 1877 the terrace passed to Hugh Furey, a draper, family grocer, and tea, wine and spirit merchant of Main Street, Bangor, who let the houses to lodgers while retaining one for his family's use, as Cowan had done before him. Number 104 was vacant at the time of the 1901 census, though valuation records identify James Mairs as resident that year. The 1911 census shows Alicia Raynes, a widow from Dublin, as head of the household, living with her 25-year-old daughter and a domestic servant from County Monaghan. Subsequent tenants included Geo B. Birch and Eleanor Ferguson, both recorded in 1917.

The front window enlargement and the addition of the balcony in the 1940s were carried out to assist the recuperation of a tuberculosis patient; it was believed at the time that fresh air and sunlight aided recovery from the disease. The balcony railings have since been removed.

Despite the rear extension, first floor alterations of around 1940, and the introduction of uPVC windows to the rear, the special character of the house survives. Its style, proportion, and external detail have remained unaltered, and it contributes positively to the coastal setting and to the group value of the terrace as a whole. The house remains in use as a dwelling.