13 The Square, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AG

13 The Square, Hillsborough

A terraced three-bay three-storey townhouse with attic over basement, built between 1780 and 1799. The house is constructed of handmade redbrick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing to a painted render extending to basement level. It retains fine Georgian style and proportions characteristic of late eighteenth-century craftsmanship.

The south-facing front elevation displays square-headed window openings with rubbed brick flat-arches and painted masonry sills. The windows are early twentieth-century timber sash types: 3/3 to the second floor and 6/6 to the remainder. Evidence of a former central square-headed door opening, now replaced by a window, is visible. A round-headed door opening occupies the left bay. The doorcase comprises plain pilasters rising from plinth blocks to impost mouldings, with archivolt moulding and keystone. A replacement timber panelled door with timber transom and replacement fanlight is fitted. The door opens onto a granite step and granite paved platform extending to the central bay with eight granite steps. The steps and basement area are enclosed by plain wrought-iron railing. The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and shared brick chimneystacks to either end with clay pots; the west stack has been rebuilt and the larger rendered stack to the east retains its original clay pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets sits on a projecting brick eaves course with cast-iron downpipe.

The west side elevation is abutted by No. 12. The north rear elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed single-bay two-storey return with an irregular arrangement of camber-headed window openings and timber sash windows of various dates.

The house forms part of a terrace of four on the northern side of The Square, overlooking the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle. An enclosed garden to the rear has rubble stone and brick walling.

Known historically as 'Trumbull House' from the nineteenth century onwards, the terrace was constructed in 1779 following a letter from Lord Downshire's agent John Gardner dated February 1779 stating "we are now clearing the ground for the four houses to be built in the square". An estate map of 1788 shows the house as a plain rectangle. An estate map of circa 1800 identifies it as the residence of Rev. Mr Lassailles (Francis Edward Lascelles was curate at Hillsborough from 1795 to 1814 and married in the town in 1797). The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 lists it as the residence of Dr John Cowen Paxton, valued at £10 10 shillings as a house, offices and yard with dimensions recorded. In Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the house was the residence of Rebecca Halliday, leased from the Marquess of Downshire, initially valued at £11 10 shillings and later raised to £14, with dimensions given for the house, basement, scullery and two outoffices. The valuer noted it was 'twice as good a concern' as its neighbour. An 1866 street directory lists Rebecca Halliday as a 'china, glass and earthenware dealer'. By 1878 James Harrison was in residence. In 1884 the valuation was reduced to £10 with the valuer noting that outoffices no longer existed. Subsequent tenants included George Allen (1887), Jane Degg (1906) and William Jess (1923). The house was the long-time home of painter and poet Patric Stevenson (1909–83), a landscape painter who became president of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1970. Examples of his work are held by the Ulster Museum and the National Museum of Ireland. The house remained in use as a domestic dwelling and was listed in 1976. Renovations including roof work took place in the early 1990s.

The 'Downshire' names given to many houses in the Square during the last quarter of the nineteenth century were assigned by Lord Arthur Hill, younger brother of the fifth Marquess and agent at Hillsborough Castle. 'Trumbull' is a family name of the Downshires. The house retains a wealth of original fabric to both interior and exterior, conforms to the level of craftsmanship typical of its late eighteenth-century origins, and forms an important part of the setting to both the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle. The extent of listing includes the house, steps, railings and walling.