31 Banbridge Road, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1ND

31 Banbridge Road, Dromore

A three-storey, three-bay terraced commercial building constructed in 1897, prominently positioned at the corner of Church Street and Banbridge Road in Dromore town centre. The building has an irregular, angled plan with its principal elevation facing west and an angled bay to the left facing northwest.

The structure is finished with painted smooth render on a chamfered plinth with raised quoins. The parapet is surmounted by decorative iron railings interrupted by round-headed rendered piers. Two tall yellow-brick chimneysstacks feature chamfered shafts, corbelled caps and clay pots. The roof is flat with plastic rainwater goods.

The bracketed eaves cornice displays a dog-tooth frieze, with a matching dog-tooth string course at impost level to the first and ground floors. Windows throughout are timber-framed 1/1 sashes with horns, set in stop-end chamfered reveals with ovolo-moulded projecting sills. Upper-floor windows have moulded heads at impost level with keyblocks.

The ground floor contains a square-headed carriage-arch entry to the right with a moulded cornice, now bearing a modern fascia reading "DROMORE UPHOLSTERY". To the left is a raised-and-pointed six-panel timber door with transom light, flanked by windows on either side and accessed by a single stone step; the door sits in a chamfered reveal with a moulded head at impost level and keyblock. The northeast elevation, abutted by an adjoining building, is cement-rendered with four timber casement windows to the first and ground floors. The ground floor right section was not viewed; the south elevation is abutted by an adjoining building.

The carriage-arch provides access to a communal rear entry with a yard enclosed by a high rendered wall and a modern timber-sheeted door.

The building was originally constructed as a residence by local doctor Samuel Burns Carlisle, who leased the land from John Hamilton. It entered valuation records in 1897 at £26. Carlisle was an LRCPSI (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ireland) and general practitioner. The 1901 census recorded the twelve-room building as First Class, housing Carlisle, his wife, three young sons and a live-in domestic servant. By 1911, the family had grown to five sons, and the household also employed a groom. Seven outbuildings were recorded, including a stable, coach house, harness room, cow house and dairy.

A valuer's plan from the 1930s showed the building had an asphalt roof and a single-storey brick extension to the rear with a slate roof, along with detached double-height brick and slate outbuildings. The accommodation then comprised five bedrooms, two reception rooms, a bathroom and WC, kitchen and pantry, surgery and waiting room. The building had mains water, electric light and a bathroom, though the valuer noted it was "rather badly planned being 'wedge' shaped". The property was revalued at £32 in the First General Revaluation of the early 1930s.

Samuel Carlisle died on 17 December 1927, and his widow Ellen inherited the property. The eldest son Henry Carlisle took it over in 1949, though his second son, also named Samuel Burns Carlisle, is recorded as having practised as a GP at the premises. The building is no longer currently occupied and is now in commercial use as a shop.

The building is situated southeast of the junction of Church Street and Banbridge Road, directly opposite the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer and adjacent to the Rectory. It connects two mid to late-nineteenth-century terraces and forms one of the surviving examples of late-nineteenth-century building in Dromore town centre.