42 Meeting Street, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1AJ

Group of three small non-identical brick-built terrace houses erected in 1887 at 42, 44 and 46 Meeting Street, Dromore. They are arranged on the sloping west side of Meeting Street to the south-east of Dromore town centre, with their front elevations facing roughly east and no. 46 positioned at the higher level to the south end. They represent an increasingly rare example of urban vernacular architecture.

Number 42 has its main entrance on the ground floor of the front elevation, fitted with a PVC door. To the right is a window with PVC frame, with two similar windows on the first floor. The front façade is finished in painted brick. The most distinctive feature of the group is the large vehicle archway incorporated into the middle house, no. 44. All three houses now have PVC windows and doors throughout.

Each house is of two storeys with a gabled roof slated and fitted with a brick chimney stack to the north. To the rear of no. 42 there is a large two storey flat-roofed extension, of which the south face is blank and finished in plain render. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted to the front elevation.

The site has a documented history prior to the present buildings. Second valuation returns of circa 1863 indicate that the land was then occupied by two earlier dwellings: a single storey house occupied by William Meaney on the site of present nos. 44 and 46, and a two storey dwelling occupied by Ann English on the site of present no. 42. To the rear, occupying what is now largely taken up with the large two storey outbuilding, stood McComb's Court, a court containing four small dwellings on the west side. By 1878, two of these court dwellings were in ruins, and the remaining dwellings appear to have been abandoned by the 1880s. In 1887 all remaining structures—the court and the two dwellings fronting Meeting Street—were demolished to make way for the present three brick-built houses and the large two storey outbuilding. John Murphy is recorded as the original occupant of no. 42, with George Bennett and William McCann occupying nos. 44 and 46 in 1891.

Recent alterations have included the repositioning of the ground floor door and window of no. 46, and the replacement of all windows and doors with PVC units.