Davidson’s Railway Hotel, 5-7 The Square, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 6HY

Davidson's Railway Hotel, 5-7 The Square, Ballygowan, Co. Down

A two storey gabled public house with living quarters dating from around 1860, situated on the north-east side of The Square in Ballygowan, positioned between The Brae and the Comber Road.

The front south-west façade features a central double timber door with plain pilasters and a cornice supported on curved brackets. To the left and right of the doorway are windows with modern frames fitted with Georgian panes. The first floor has three similar windows. A long timber sign board is positioned above the doorway, with another above the ground floor window to the right. An internally illuminated projecting PVC sign sits on the far left of the first floor. To the far left side of the front façade is a doorstep leading to a blocked doorway. The window to the left of this former doorway is now much smaller than it was historically, although its present size may match the original arrangement.

The north-west gable rests on the slope of The Brae. It has two widely spaced windows to the first floor and two smaller similar windows to the ground floor. Attached to the left of this gable is the north-west façade of a two storey return section fronting directly onto the street, adjoining a taller two storey section. This façade has four windows to the first floor of similar size. Three of these openings have shallow segmental arch heads with sash frames and Georgian panes; the far right opening has a flat arch head with a modern frame. The ground floor contains a large modern window to the far left, then a modern partly glazed doorway, then two small modern windows, and a further modern doorway to the far right (serving a first floor apartment).

The south-east gable displays three unevenly spaced windows to the ground floor and three to the first floor, all with modern frames matching the front. To the right of this gable is a two storey return section with modern windows to the first floor.

The façade of the main public house and the north-west return are finished in lined render with chamfered quoins to the front façade. The main roof is covered in Bangor blue slates with two gable rendered chimney stacks topped with original-looking octagonal pots. Rainwater goods are PVC.

The building was constructed in the wake of the arrival of the Belfast & County Down railway line in 1858. Historical photographs from around 1930 show that the front façade once had another doorway and a larger shop front-like window to the left. The changes that have occurred, however, may well have restored the façade to its original arrangement. The building has functioned as a public house or hotel since at least the early twentieth century, and may have been built for this purpose. The returns to the rear have undergone less sympathetic alterations.

This property is one of very few remaining in Ballygowan that maintains nineteenth century proportions and retains a semblance of both the building's and the village's original character.