26 Meeting Street, Dromore, Banbridge, County Down, BT25 1AQ

26 Meeting Street is a three-storey, two-bay terraced house built around 1830, forming one of a pair with No. 24 Meeting Street. Located on the south side of Meeting Street in Dromore town centre, it is a good example of the transitional period between Georgian and Victorian architectural styles, with much of its historic fabric surviving intact.

The building has a square plan with a single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof features angled ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers are fitted throughout. The walls are of smooth render with banded rustication to the ground floor and raised quoins to the upper floors.

The principal northeast-facing elevation is two openings wide at each floor. The second floor has 3/6 timber-framed sliding sash windows with projecting painted sills. The first floor has 6/6 sash windows in moulded architraves with horns and projecting painted sills; the ground floor matches with 6/6 sash windows similarly detailed. To the ground floor right is a recessed four-panelled timber door with brass door furniture and a transom light in a moulded architrave. Replacement timber-framed casement windows are fitted to the rear.

The southeast elevation is abutted by a two-storey building with a segmental-headed open carriage-arch entrance at ground floor level leading to the rear. The southwest (rear) elevation has two windows to the second and first floors on the left side, with the flat-roof extension abutting the ground floor. The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining No. 24 Meeting Street.

The setting is street-fronted with a small enclosed garden to the rear and a larger yard accessed via the carriage-arch entrance to the neighbouring building.

Historical records indicate that two buildings occupied the current site around 1830. The valuation evidence suggests that No. 26 was likely constructed or substantially modified between circa 1830 and 1861, when its assessed value increased significantly. The presence of Victorian features on the Georgian-style structure supports this interpretation as a transitional design. Early occupants included Hugh Frazer, a carpenter noted in the 1830s Townland Valuation and 1852 Ulster Town Directories. The property was vacant by 1861 but reoccupied in 1871 by Hugh Larkin. In 1887 ownership passed to William J. Doloughan, a farmer from Islandderry. By 1901 it was occupied by William Smyth, a veterinary surgeon, who lived alone with a domestic servant. The 1901 Census recorded it as a second-class dwelling comprising eight rooms with two stables, a boiling house, and a store in the yard. Ownership subsequently passed to William Shields in 1905; after his death his widow Agnes Shields, a retired farmer, occupied the house until her death around 1923. George McGarrity then occupied the property until around 1930.

In 1969 the architectural historian C. E. B. Brett noted Meeting Street as one of the best remaining examples in Ulster to capture the flavour of late 18th or early 19th century small textile town suburbs, specifically praising nos. 24–26 as a good pair of larger three-storey houses with complete glazing bars in well-painted stucco and rusticated ground floors. The buildings were listed in 1983.

The only structural alteration of note is the modern single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear, added after 1973. The building continues in use as a private dwelling and is located within a conservation area.