14 Arthur Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AP

14 Arthur Street, Hillsborough

Number 14 Arthur Street is a single-storey stone terraced house with an attic dormer, built around 1850 as part of a development of 23 similar workers' cottages erected on the Downshire Estate during the mid-nineteenth century. The building is located on Arthur Street, which runs north from Ballynahinch Street, near St Malachi's Parish Church.

The house is rectangular in plan with a single-storey modern extension to the rear. The pitched roof is covered with natural slate and clay ridge tiles, with uPVC rainwater goods. Two dormer windows are set into the roof. The shared chimney stack with the adjoining building is a modern brick replacement with two clay pots.

The walling is coursed rubble masonry with painted red brick and sandstone surrounds to the openings. A distinctive painted sandstone elliptical arched alleyway with long-and-short surrounds is located to the left of the front door, providing former access to the rear yard and now serving as secondary access to the modern extension. A robust half-circle sandstone label moulding runs above this archway and matches similar mouldings above the windows.

The west-facing front elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with the ground-floor window positioned to the right of the front door. The windows are modern top-hung timber casements with single glazing and applied lattice leadwork to the face, painted white, set beneath sandstone cills and single-brick flat arches. The replacement front door is timber-sheeted and painted red. The left elevation forms part of the shared passageway between numbers 12 and 14, whilst the right elevation adjoins number 16.

Despite the loss of its original doors and windows and replacement of many internal materials during recent renovations, including replacement dormers in 1990 and installation of skylights in 1999, the building retains its original façade with dressed stone archway and stone hood mouldings. It retains its modest Victorian workers' house character and proportions, and constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street.

Arthur Street was constructed in phases throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. The earliest houses, appearing on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map and dating from the 1820s, were built to accommodate workers and tenants of the Downshire Estate. By 1858, the street had developed substantially. Field evidence confirms that the earliest section used random rubble masonry with granite mouldings and arched alleyways; a second phase introduced sandstone instead of granite with squared galleted rubble walling; the later construction around 1850, including number 14, featured more regularly coursed cut stone. According to Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the house was owned by John Smith and valued at £2 15s, with the valuer noting that rents were "moderate". The property included a passageway and an additional bedroom above, which resulted in a slightly higher valuation than neighbouring properties.

All houses on the street were originally provided with rear yards containing a pit for household waste and a dry toilet. Coal was stored in a hole beneath the stairs, and water was supplied from a tap at the top of Arthur Street or a pump at the end of Wapping Street.

The building was listed in 1974. It is situated within a conservation area, forming part of matching terraces that line Arthur Street, which is accessed from Ballynahinch Street. The opposite end of the street is closed by a large rubble masonry wall, an opening in which has since been infilled. The street contributes significantly to the architectural and historical character of Hillsborough.