Site of former nos. 31-33 Bowling Green, Strabane, Co Tyrone

This site on the northeastern side of the Bowling Green in Strabane formerly contained a three-storey terraced house of possible pre-1833 construction, demolished around 1988 to make way for the present police station complex.

The building formed part of a terrace of four similar three-storey houses, documented in a First Survey of 10 February 1970. The terrace featured rendered walls with slated roofs behind parapets with moulded cornices, with half the roof hipped. The windows were drop-hung, with full glazing bars on the first floor, all but one on the ground floor, and only one on the second floor; the remaining windows were plain with single vertical glazing bars. Two of the houses had their windows enclosed in eared architraves. Plain wooden pilasters flanked three entrances, with an entablature above one. The other door was recessed in a square-headed opening and surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with semicircular glazing bars and radials. The terrace was nine windows wide.

The site appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833-34 with a block in place. The second valuation of 1857 indicates the building was a single property by that date, though it may correspond to the large dwelling recorded in the 1832 valuation as measuring 16 feet by 31 by 32 feet with an addition of 11 by 17½ by 32 feet, occupied by Colonel Barnard and rated at £9-18-7. Its plain late Georgian appearance suggests late 18th or early 19th-century construction.

By 1857 the building was in the hands of William Elliott, an attorney listed in Slater's Directory of 1846 and 1856, with the representatives of General Henry Barnard as immediate lessor. Elliott was succeeded by Oliver White in 1863 and A.A.J. Mason in 1887. By 1890 the rateable value had been lowered by £7-10 to £25, with valuers noting the house was very old and in bad repair; £200 was spent on repairs by the landlord the following year. Andrew Sproule was recorded as tenant in 1894, followed by William Keatly in 1902.

In 1930, after remaining vacant for two years, the property was divided into two, with Mrs Charles renting number 31 and Mary Dillon number 33. Number 31 passed to Herbert Roberts around 1935, then to Alexander M. Raffan (1942-66). Number 33 was occupied by Henry Dillon from around 1933-40, followed by W.A. Charters (1940-47) and S.W.W. Rogers (1947-66). In 1967 the freeholds were sold separately: Theresa McCosker acquired number 31 and James Patton acquired number 33. Patton is listed as tenant of number 31 from 1968 until at least 1972, with Christina Patton occupying number 33 during the same period. The property, along with numbers 27 and 29 to the southeast, was demolished around 1988 to make way for the police station.