104 Main St., Moira, Co. Down

104 Main Street, Moira, Co. Down

A group of three attached two-storey Georgian town houses with attics, forming part of the early development of Moira, most likely built in the early 18th century. Brett dates the building to around 1760, though many comparable two-storey Georgian buildings in Moira are widely accepted to date from the town's early 18th-century development. A datestone inscribed 1735 on a neighbouring building of similar age is reputed to mark the completion of the village, which may place these houses earlier than Brett suggests. No architect is recorded. The buildings now operate as a single large commercial premises and are listed together with 102 and 106 Main Street. The extent of the listing covers the houses, their front steps, and railings.

The building sits at the northern end of Main Street, at the foot of the hill on the north side, adjoining number 100 on the left. It is rectangular in plan with small rear returns. The three properties are distinguished externally by their elevated architectural status within the terrace: random rubble basalt walling is dressed with sandstone quoins and string courses, and a continuous reeded sandstone frieze with a moulded cornice runs the full length of the principal elevation at eaves level. While the piecemeal nature of the random rubble finish may suggest the facades were originally intended to be rendered with sandstone detailing left exposed, the mixture of materials contributes positively to the visual character of the buildings.

The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, and coping stones cover the right gable end. Rendered chimney stacks serve the principal bays, with no pots. The windows are replacement single-glazed timber sliding sash, painted white, with large sandstone cills, one-and-a-half brick red brick surrounds, and flat arches over.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged across three adjoining facades. The centre and right facades comprise a three-bay and a four-bay terrace townhouse respectively. In both cases the front door is positioned to the left of each facade, with windows to the right and first-floor windows directly above. The right-hand building also has small timber-framed basement windows with sandstone lintels and relieving elliptical brick arches over. The left-hand building comprises three ground- and first-floor windows with an infilled door opening at ground-floor centre right; this portion of the elevation does not share the decorative sandstone dressings of the other two facades. The left gable abuts number 100 Main Street, which incorporates an elliptical arched coach entrance.

There are two front entrance doors of considerable architectural elaboration. The left-hand door is a six-panelled timber door flanked by pilasters with moulded capitals, with a half-circle fanlight set into an arched opening with moulded stucco surrounds and a central keyblock. The right-hand door is a six-panelled timber door flanked by moulded Doric columns supporting a broken pediment, with an enclosed half-circle fanlight. These entrances are among the most ornate on the terrace and are unseen elsewhere along it.

The right gable is rendered in cement and has a door opening on the right-hand side to the basement, a small window to the left, two high-level squared 2-over-2 sliding sash windows at attic level, and one 1-over-1 sliding sash to the right-hand side at first-floor level.

The rear elevation is a mixture of random basalt stone and natural-finished cement render. Various historically accumulated additions exist to the rear, including hipped and lean-to roofed single-storey extensions serving as cellular ancillary accommodation. A two-storey return to the left-hand side serves as the stairwell to number 106. Further alterations to the rear include the blocking up of original windows, large cement-finished surrounds to new openings, the introduction of timber casement windows, altered window openings, and a modern galvanised steel fire escape stair to the rear of 102.

Internally, considerable alteration has taken place, with floor spaces opened up to suit the building's present commercial use. All modern internal works have been carried out sympathetically and do not detract from the internal character of the buildings.

The building appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1833 as the end terrace of a pair of terraces lining Main Street. Early maps indicate wooded areas to the rear, though by the 1858 edition these had been cultivated into gardens. Early outbuildings and extensions to the rear shown on historic maps no longer exist.

Griffith's Valuation of 1864 records the Reverend Jonathan Harding as occupier of number 106, and James Livingston Douie — land steward for the Moira Estate — as occupier of number 104. Douie remained in occupancy for the following 71 years until a change of tenant is recorded in the Annual Revisions of 1925. Number 106 passed through many occupiers after the Reverend Harding left in 1866 and spent many years vacant. In 1900 John Douie, son of James Livingston Douie, took up the tenancy, but died in 1907, eleven days after his ordination in England. Brett refers to the house as "Dewey (Douie) House" but gives no date.

By the mid-1930s Lord Deramore, landowner of both dwellings, lodged notices of appeal against the 1933–57 rateable valuation assessments. His appeal for number 104 cited the poor economic situation in Moira as a whole: "Business has left the village, only low rents can be obtained, the buildings are old — they have been maintained in exceptionally good repair." His appeal for number 106 went further: "It is difficult to let a large or comparatively large house in Moira — business has departed from the village — it is a backwash with nothing to attract strangers. The house is very old and very expensive to keep up. An immediate expenditure of £50 is required before it can be let." Both statements are recorded in the R.V. Binders, dated 8 April 1935.

Both dwellings continued to serve as residences through the 20th century, though they continued to deteriorate. Dr Anthony Damoglou restored number 104 as a family residence around 1987, shortly before Hearth Housing Association restored number 106 in 1989. The present owners subsequently acquired number 104 in 1995 as part of an extension for commercial use.

The building forms part of the two-storey Georgian terraces that largely make up the lower part of the town. To the front, a long raised terrace with railings is accessed by steps at either end. To the rear, a yard behind number 102 is accessed from the coach entrance, and car parking is provided to the rear of number 106. The building sits opposite the listed terrace at numbers 77–101 Main Street, at the former entrance to the historic part of Moira, and its elegant facades and historical connections to the Moira Estate give it significant architectural and historic value within the village. Rainwater goods are cast iron.