51 Bridge Street, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3JL

51 Bridge Street is a three-storey, two-bay mid-terrace commercial building located on the east side of Bridge Street in central Banbridge. Erected around 1860, it has a square floor plan with substantial rear extensions. The building is constructed with stucco-rendered masonry and originally featured a pitched slate roof with a rendered chimney incorporating a corbel course; current roofing is artificial slate with uPVC rainwater goods.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with three ground floor windows and two windows each on the first and second floors. The decorative scheme includes three full-height pilasters to the first and second floors with decorative capitals and foliated ornaments, a moulded string course separating the first and second floors, and a masonry balustrade parapet which was removed around 1990. The ground floor features round-arched windows with moulded archivolts, decorative key blocks and impost moulding, though the shopfront was replaced with polished granite around 2010 with replacement glazing. The first floor windows are segmental-arched with moulded key blocks, chamfered surrounds, painted masonry cills and replacement uPVC top-hung casement windows. The second floor has square-headed windows with stop-chamfered surrounds, painted masonry cills with moulded aprons and replacement uPVC top-hung casement windows. The north gable is abutted by number 49 Bridge Street, while the south gable adjoins number 53. A double-height flat-roofed extension covers the rear elevation, with a single door to the left at second floor level.

The building was first recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860. In 1863 it was occupied by Daniel Geoghegan, a spirit dealer and seed merchant, who leased it from Jacob Culbert; it was valued at £18. Following Geoghegan's death in 1864, his widow Anne continued to operate the premises as a public house until 1881. Daniel O'Callaghan then took possession and substantially renovated the building, adding the Victorian façade around 1875 and increasing its value to £19 10s. By 1901 O'Callaghan, recorded as a widower and Roman Catholic, occupied the seven-room premises with his son Patrick. Census records described it as a first-class private dwelling with outoffices including two stables, a cow house and a store. O'Callaghan remarried around 1903, and by 1911 lived at the public house with his wife Alice; the property's value had risen to £28, possibly reflecting further renovations around 1903. O'Callaghan vacated in 1920 when Patrick Bell acquired the property; Bell briefly occupied it until 1927 when his relative Harper Bell took possession. The Bell family continued to operate the public house until after Harper Bell's death in 1928, with his widow Rachel becoming the last recorded occupant in valuation records. The property was operated as a public house under the name Iveagh Inn until the 1970s. In 1969 architectural historian Charles E. B. Brett described it as "a very good public-house... With three tall pilasters and a high balustrade at the eaves; some pretty floral ornament, the ground floor triple-arched, rather ecclesiastical in feeling". The building has been occupied by J. A. Lyttle, a homeware and furniture store, since 1972. Since the First Survey and Brett's description, the building has been significantly altered through removal of the balustrade parapet around 1990 and renovation of the ground floor with the polished granite shopfront around 2010. Very little evidence of historic fabric remains internally. Although of local significance, the loss of key architectural features and minimal retention of historic interior fabric mean the building no longer meets the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest and is recorded as Record Only.