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

16 Arthur Street is a single-storey stone terraced house with an attic dormer, built around 1850 as part of a substantial workers' housing scheme on the Downshire Estate. The building forms part of a continuous terrace of 23 similar dwellings constructed during the mid-nineteenth century, and is located on Arthur Street, accessed from Ballynahinch Street north of 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 in natural slate with clay ridge tiles and a centrally positioned dormer window; uPVC rainwater goods have been installed. A replacement brick chimney stack, shared with the adjoining building, carries two clay pots.

The exterior walls are built of coursed rubble masonry with brick and sandstone surrounds to the doors and windows. A distinctive sandstone elliptical archway with long-and-short surrounds gives access to a shared alleyway with the neighbouring property, which formerly provided access to the rear yard and now serves as secondary access to the modern extension. The archway features a robust half-circle sandstone label moulding, matching the label-mould above it.

The front elevation, facing west, is asymmetrically arranged with a ground floor window positioned to the left of the front door, and the arched alleyway to the right. The door is a replacement timber-sheeted design. The windows are modern top and side-hung timber casements with single glazing, painted white with lattice leading applied to the face; they are fitted with sandstone cills and cement repairs, and topped with half-circle sandstone label moulding.

The left elevation is abutted by the adjoining dwelling at number 14, while the right elevation forms part of the passageway between number 18. The rear elevation is abutted by the single-storey modern extension.

Historical records indicate that Arthur Street was constructed in phases throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. The earliest dwellings, appearing on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map and likely dating from the 1820s, were erected to house workers and tenants of the Downshire Estate. Six dwellings are identifiable on the town plan of circa 1834, although they were not individually valuable enough to warrant entries in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, the remainder of the street as it appears today had been completed. The earliest phase of construction employed random rubble masonry with granite moulding and arched alleyways. A second phase of four additional dwellings used sandstone rather than granite, with squared galletted rubble walling. The later portion, constructed around 1850, features more regularly cut stone laid to courses. Number 16 appears to form part of this later phase of development, built circa 1850.

According to Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the house was owned by John Smith and valued at £2 15 shillings. The valuer noted that rents were "moderate". The property included a passageway and an additional bedroom located above it, which resulted in a slightly higher valuation than neighbouring houses. All houses on the street were originally provided with yards to the rear, containing a pit for household waste and a dry toilet. Coal was typically stored in a hole under the stairs adjacent to the living room, and water was supplied 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 twentieth-century alterations and additions, including replacement of dormers in 1990 and the installation of skylights in 1999. Despite these changes and the loss of many original materials, the house retains its original façade with dressed stone archway and stone hood mouldings, preserving its original modest style and proportions. Recent internal renovations have replaced many original materials, and the original doors and windows have been lost. Nevertheless, the building constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street and the conservation area, forming part of a distinctive pair of matching terraces that line the street.