Hughes House, 6/7 Church Street, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AA

Hughes House, 6 and 7 Church Street, Banbridge

Hughes House is a late-Georgian terraced building of three storeys, formed from what were originally two separate dwelling houses dating from around 1820 to 1840, and now treated as a single building in office use. It stands on the north side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre, forming part of one of the earliest and most significant terraces in the town. The Georgian proportions and architectural detailing are largely intact, though there has been some loss of historic fabric as a result of conversion to offices.

Architecture and Appearance

The building is four bays wide and square on plan, with a full-height return to the rear and a single-storey flat-roof extension also to the rear. The return is abutted at a ninety-degree angle by a two-storey former stable block, now converted, enclosing a central yard. The roof is pitched, covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, and finished with rendered chimneystacks fitted with terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods run along the projecting eaves.

The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render on a contrasting plinth. Windows are replacement timber sliding sashes — three-over-six panes to the second floor and six-over-six to the first and ground floors — all with projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is five windows wide across the second and first floors. At ground floor level, the right-hand bay contains large double-leaf timber-sheeted doors set within a formerly square-headed carriage arch. To the left of centre is a replacement four-panelled timber door flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a plain entablature and a segmental-arched overlight. There are two windows to the left of the entrance and one to the right.

The north-west gable is abutted to second-floor level by the adjoining building to that side, and the upper section of the gable is blank. The north-east rear elevation projects to the right, with windows to the first and second floors, and is abutted at ground-floor level by the single-storey flat-roof extension. The full-height return to the far right has a variety of timber casement windows to its south-east elevation, while its north-east elevation is abutted at a right angle by the former stable block. The south-east elevation is abutted by the adjoining building to that side.

Setting and Group Value

The building is street-fronted and forms part of an early-19th-century terrace immediately adjacent to Seapatrick Parish Church. It forms a terrace together with No. 5 Church Street and is part of a wider group of buildings along Church Street that collectively illustrate the growth and improvement of Banbridge from its earliest days through to the height of its prosperity, driven by its role in the worldwide linen trade. By the early 19th century, this terrace had become a desirable professional address — Banbridge's equivalent of a Harley Street — hosting doctors, dentists, and other practitioners, a character it has retained to the present day.

History

Early maps of Banbridge are highly stylised and open to interpretation, but a map of the Bann Crossing dating from 1703 shows a single-storey three-bay dwelling in the vicinity of the current terrace, which may represent the earliest building on the site. A new bridge was erected across the River Bann in 1712, and in the years that followed Banbridge grew as a centre of the linen industry, holding the largest linen cloth fairs in County Down by 1744. By this time the town was the property of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, who laid out the streets and encouraged development by granting sections of land at nominal rents in perpetuity, supplemented by the grant of small farms — known as town parks — on the outskirts.

Maps of 1755 and 1771 show buildings on this site, as does the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, though gaps remained in the terrace at that stage. The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records two separate houses here, occupied by J. L. Griffin and Mr Blackwood, with a return, a two-storey outbuilding, and valuations of £12 and £10 respectively. By the time of Griffith's Valuation, the dimensions of the buildings had altered, indicating rebuilding or remodelling around 1840. The second-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 confirms the building was by then wider, closing the gaps in the terrace. The likely developer was George Tyrrell, the county coroner, who occupied the neighbouring house and who owned both properties.

At the time of Griffith's Valuation, No. 6 was occupied by Captain George Bowen of the Royal Navy, leasing from Tyrrell. The house, offices, yard and garden were valued at £19, with an additional £1 for the yard and garden. It was described as a three-storey dwelling with returns and two outbuildings, one of which was thatched. The neighbouring No. 7, also three storeys with two outbuildings, was valued at £16 but was vacant at the time of the survey.

No. 6 subsequently passed through several notable occupants. By 1871 the tenant was Richard James Tyrrell, son of the owner, George Tyrrell MD. In 1879 the house passed to William Dobbin MD, a General Practitioner and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, who remained in residence at the time of the 1901 census. He lived with his wife, two adult children — his son a student barrister — and a general domestic servant from County Tyrone. By 1911 the house was occupied by physician and surgeon Robert Martin, who had qualified in Edinburgh, and who lived with his wife, daughter, widowed sister, and a servant named Margaret Kearney from County Leitrim. Later occupants included Samuel S. Harvey in 1922 and dentist George Hamilton from 1926.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in the early 1930s, George Hamilton was leasing from the representatives of George Tyrrell. The house, offices and garden were revalued at £25. The accommodation at that time comprised four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a surgery, kitchen, scullery and bathroom. The valuer noted that the house was in moderate condition but described it as dark at the back. To the rear there was a return and scullery with a corrugated iron roof, an old building of glass, a coal store and an earth closet.

No. 7 had a succession of occupants recorded in the Annual Revision lists: James Morton, Richard James Tyrrell, Martha Woods (1871), Samuel Boyce, Charles Smith (1882), Marion Radcliffe (1883), George G. Tyrrell (solicitor and son of the building's owner, noted 1888), Robert Dodds (1893), and Miss Canavan. At the 1901 census the occupier was Margaret Canavan, an unmarried woman of 35 who worked as a civil servant and lived with and supported her two sisters, Lizzie and Edith. She was followed by Alexander Rooney (1904), Thomas A. Niblock (1906), and, at the 1911 census, Dr James McKee, an unmarried General Practitioner aged 26 and an Irish speaker, who employed a servant from County Tyrone also an Irish speaker. A series of medical doctors followed: George Gordon took over in the 1920s but died in 1924, and was succeeded by Dr J. Connolly.

At the time of the First General Revaluation of the 1930s, Herbert Anderson of the RUC leased No. 7 from Henry McAleavey. The house, offices and garden were revalued at £30. The accommodation comprised, on the ground floor, a very narrow dark lobby, a waiting room, surgery, tiled kitchen and small scullery. On the first floor were a bathroom with a good bath, a lavatory and WC, two sitting rooms and one back bedroom. The top floor contained two front bedrooms and one back bedroom. To the rear were a yard and offices in poor condition and a small garden plot at the rear of the neighbouring house. The valuer noted that the house had been considerably added to and renovated and was in very good condition, though not attractive as it was dark and cramped. The adjacent gateway had by this time been converted into a garage, forming part of No. 8. The annual rent in 1933 was £52 but was reduced to £40 in 1941, even though members of the RUC were noted as usually paying top rents, and the valuation was accordingly reduced to £25. By 1947 it was noted that the house no longer had use of the garden. Subsequent tenants of No. 7 were Henry Skehin (1942) and James J. McAleavey (1946).

A photograph of 1911 survives showing both No. 6 and No. 7. Each house had a separate entrance at that time, and early survey photographs confirm that the separate door to No. 7 remained until the 1980s, when it was replaced by a window. A chimneystack and the ornamental railings to the front of the houses have also been removed since 1911. The building has since been converted for use as offices.