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

22 Arthur Street is a single-storey stone terraced house with attic dormer, built around 1850 as part of a group of 23 similar dwellings erected for workers of the Downshire Estate during the mid-19th century. It is located on Arthur Street, off Ballynahinch Street, north of St Malachi's Parish Church.

The building is rectangular in plan form with a pitched natural slate roof and clay ridge tiles. Two dormer windows are set into the roof, with cast-iron rainwater goods throughout. A brick chimneystack is shared with the adjoining property, topped with two clay pots.

The external walls are constructed of coursed rubble masonry with replacement brick surrounds to the doors and windows. A distinctive sandstone elliptical arched alleyway with long-and-short surrounds provides access along the left side of the front elevation. This alleyway, which features a half-circle cement rendered label moulding, originally provided access to the rear yard and is now a secondary entrance to a modern two-storey extension added to the rear.

The west-facing front elevation displays an asymmetrical arrangement with a ground-floor window positioned to the right of a replacement timber front door, painted white. Modern top and side-hung, single-glazed timber casement windows with lattice lead applied to the face are set beneath robust half-circle cement rendered label mouldings matching that over the alleyway. Window cills have been replaced with concrete. The building retains the original modest style and proportions of its construction period, though it has lost its original doors and windows and had many original materials replaced during recent renovations.

The left elevation forms part of the passageway between this building and the adjoining number 20, whilst the right elevation is abutted by the adjoining dwelling, number 24.

Arthur Street was developed in phases throughout the first half of the 19th century. The earliest dwellings, visible on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map and dating from the 1820s, were erected primarily to house workers and tenants of the Downshire Estate. By 1858, the street had expanded to its present length. The earliest construction phase employed random rubble masonry with granite moulding and featured arched alleyways. A second phase of construction, to which number 22 belongs, used sandstone instead of granite with squared galleted rubble masonry, typical of work dating around 1850, laid to regular courses.

According to Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the property was then valued at £2 15 shillings, with the owner noted as John Smith. The valuer commented that rents were 'moderate'. The building's location and masonry type confirm its place within this later phase of the street's development. All houses on the street were originally provided with rear yards, incorporating a waste pit and dry toilet. Coal was typically stored in a space beneath the stairs adjacent to the living room, whilst water came from either a tap at the top of Arthur Street or a pump at the end of Wapping Street.

The building was listed in 1974 and has undergone various 20th-century alterations and additions, including replacement of dormers in 1990 and the installation of skylights in 1999, which have contributed to the loss of its original features.

The building forms part of a pair of matching terraces lining the street. Arthur Street is accessed by a single entrance from Ballynahinch Street, with the other end closed by a large rubble masonry wall that formerly contained an arched opening, now infilled. The building constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street and is located within a conservation area.