14 Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AE

14 Main Street, Hillsborough is a mid-terrace, two-bay, two-storey house over a basement with an attic, built in the mid-18th century — most likely between 1760 and 1779 — during a period when much of Main Street was being rebuilt from earlier thatched structures into the Georgian townhouses seen today. The property faces west and is rectangular in plan, with railed front and rear basement areas. It was formerly one large single house together with the adjoining No. 12, and the two buildings together constitute the most substantial structure on Main Street. The listing extends to the house, its walling, railings, and rear steps.

The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. There is a redbrick chimneystack to the south and flat-roofed dormer windows to the rear pitch. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets runs along a moulded masonry eaves course. The external walls are finished in painted pebble-dash render, with rusticated rendered quoins to the south side only, smooth render at basement level, and smooth render to the rear elevation. Window openings are square-headed with smooth rendered surrounds, painted masonry sills, and 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes.

The front (west) elevation is four windows wide. The northern two bays, along with the entrance, sit within a shallow breakfront beneath a shared eaves level with the adjoining No. 12. The door opening is round-headed with a smooth rendered surround and contains a replacement timber panelled and glazed door with an original webbed timber fanlight above. The door opens onto a single concrete step, flanked by decorative cast-iron railings set on a low plinth wall enclosing the basement area. The basement area itself is finished with clay tiles and has slightly battered (outward-leaning) walls, with iron supporting brackets to the railings.

The north elevation abuts No. 12. The south elevation abuts No. 16. The rear elevation is three windows wide, with a mid-20th-century flat-roofed dormer window spanning its entire width. A railed rear basement area is accessed via a flight of granite steps to the north. The dormer has UPVC windows; the first floor retains original 6/6 timber sash windows; the ground floor and basement have replacement timber casement windows. A timber glazed door at basement level opens onto a stone-flagged basement area enclosed by a retaining wall with stone coping and simple iron railing.

The property was renovated around 2000, at which time the rear plot was developed for separate residential use. The outbuildings shown to the rear of the house on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps have since been demolished, and a modern house has been built behind No. 14.

Internally, the building has been extensively renovated with the loss and replacement of much original fabric. Nevertheless, it retains its original staircase, some original panelled window linings, and early roof timbers.

The history of the building is well documented. No. 14 first appears on a map of Hillsborough dating from around 1800, where it is shown as a rectangular building halfway up the east side of Main Street, at that time forming a single property with No. 12, both owned or occupied by a Mr. Bradshaw. The first Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the contemporary Townland Valuation map show a large L-shaped outbuilding to the rear. The Townland Valuation records a Mr. William Nash as occupant, with the house valued at £11. The house subsequently lay vacant for a period before Mr. James A. Vaughan, a local accountant, purchased a lease in 1861 from the Marquis of Downshire at £20 per annum. In that year, Griffith's Valuation recorded it as a first-class, two-storey dwelling with basement, measuring 11 yards by 5 yards, with the house and offices valued at £14 — a valuation that was upheld through the Annual Revisions until 1930. Vaughan occupied No. 14 until 1874, when a Mr. W. P. Williams took possession, after which a succession of occupants is recorded.

The most notable occupants were the Harty family. William Harty is recorded as occupant from 1880 until around 1889, when he moved his family to the Church Organist's house at 25 Ballynahinch Street. His son Hamilton Harty went on to become one of the most distinguished conductors and composers Ireland has produced, and the building has significant historical connections to his life and work. From 1890 to 1906 the house was occupied by Joseph Lockhart, a local solicitor. The 1901 census records Lockhart (aged 44) living there with his wife Annie (aged 29) and daughter Annie (aged 2), in a first-class dwelling with at least seven inhabited rooms and four outhouses to the rear yard. In 1913 a Land Agent Clerk named Charles W. McNulty briefly resided in the house, followed in 1920 by Joseph Thompson, a former soldier with the 14th Royal Lancers who had served in France during the First World War. In 1926, a Mr. Richard McIlwaine moved in, remaining through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1974, the architectural historian C. E. B. Brett described Nos. 12 and 14 together as "two houses under a single roof... two-storey with masked basement, coach arch, round-headed doorcases with simple fanlights; very well painted and restored," noting that the house had recently suffered damage from a runaway lorry on Main Street but had been well restored. From at least 1983 the building was used as a photographer's studio (David Graham Studio), and at the time of the listing record it was in use as offices. The building has group value with No. 12, and together these two properties, originally forming a single substantial Georgian townhouse, make the most significant architectural contribution to Main Street.