9 Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AE

9 Main Street, Hillsborough — Mid-Terrace Georgian Townhouse, built c.1780–1800

This is a mid-terrace two-storey over basement rendered townhouse, built around the late 18th century and located on the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough. It forms part of a terrace of varying house types lining a gently sloping street, and contributes significantly to the intact Georgian character of the town centre. Architectural historians Brett and Walker record that No. 9 and the adjoining No. 11 were designed and built as a single seven-bay unit with a shared coach arch at the centre, towards the end of the 18th century when Hillsborough was being greatly expanded.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular on plan, facing east, and sits above a railed basement area with a stepped front entrance. A carriage arch to the south leads to a two-storey former coach house to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a replacement tiled chimney stack fitted with octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods consist of replacement metal guttering on iron brackets to a rendered eaves course, with a metal downpipe. The external walls are finished in painted ruled and lined render.

The front elevation is four bays wide at first floor level, with ground floor openings directly beneath. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills and retain their original six-over-six timber sash windows with cylinder glass and no horns. The central ground floor opening contains an original tripartite timber doorcase with an elliptical-headed door opening. The door itself is original, with six raised and fielded panels, flanked by sidelights with interlacing tracery. Above the door is a plain timber lintel and an original webbed timber fanlight. The door opens onto a concrete platform with five concrete steps bridging the basement, enclosed by a decorative spear-headed cast-iron railing embedded in a concrete plinth. The square-headed coach arch is situated to the left side of the ground floor.

The south elevation abuts the adjoining No. 11. The carriage arch slopes down to present a three-storey rear elevation, which has a random arrangement of window openings, a ten-over-ten timber sash window to the basement level, and a replacement sheeted timber door. The rear yard is concrete paved and shared with the converted former coach house. The north elevation abuts No. 7 Main Street.

Interior

The building retains some of its original interior, including the staircase and some good joinery.

Setting and Outbuildings

No. 9 sits within a terrace on the sloping west side of Main Street. To the rear is a two-storey rubblestone former coach house, built as one of a pair with the equivalent structure serving No. 11, which has since been converted for use as a separate dwelling. The property originally had a long landscaped garden extending to the west.

Historical Background

No. 9 Main Street first appears on a map of Hillsborough dating from around 1800, shown as a single oblong building alongside the adjoining No. 11, with a shared out office to the rear also visible at that date. By the time of the first Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the contemporary Valuation map of the 1830s, the building is recorded as a square plan. At that time it was owned by a Mr. William Wright and valued at £4 4s., a figure that included the full length of the rear out office, which was later divided between Nos. 9 and 11. Later maps show that the two houses were separated by a coach lane leading to a shared yard.

By 1861, the house was owned by a Ms. Mary Kinkaid, who also owned No. 11. It was valued at £14 10s. and recorded by the valuer as a 1B+ dwelling measuring 11 yards by 8 yards, two storeys tall with a basement. The house stood vacant until 1874, when it was occupied by Mr. Robert Hanna, a teacher at the Maze National School, as recorded in the Ulster Towns Directory of 1880. Hanna's occupation was brief, and both Nos. 9 and 11 were subsequently purchased by the Trustees of Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, who converted No. 11 into a Manse. No. 9 was occupied by the Reverend Terence Boyd, followed by the Reverend Galbraith Johnston from 1878 until 1891. The Reverend Johnston, who served as incumbent from 1857 to 1888, had previously served as a chaplain to the forces during the Crimean War of 1853–56.

From 1891, the church let No. 9 to John Cleland, a National Schools teacher, and No. 11 became the sole residence of the incumbent minister until the Manse was sold between 1901 and 1911. The 1901 Census records Cleland, then aged 54, living at No. 9 with his wife Sarah — also a teacher — and their young daughter. The census out office return confirms that the rear out office was in use as a stable and coach house at that time. Sarah Cleland remained in the house after her husband's death in 1908 until the property fell vacant in 1914.

In 1916 the house was occupied by a Mrs. Steele, whose husband the Reverend W. Steele had occupied the adjoining Manse until 1904. The Reverend W. C. Steele had been installed as minister in 1891 and during his incumbency erected a new Manse on the Hillsborough–Lisburn Road at a cost of £1,200. Mrs. Steele occupied No. 9 until 1919, when a Mr. James Brown came into possession. In 1925 it was occupied by a Captain W. H. Simpson, who worked at the Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks in the adjoining No. 7 Main Street. The last recorded occupant, noted in 1928, was a second constabulary officer, Robert B. Lemmon.

Group Value

No. 9 has notable group value with its neighbour No. 11 Main Street, both buildings having possibly been originally designed and constructed as a single seven-bay unit with a shared coach arch. Together they make an important contribution to the Georgian streetscape of Main Street, Hillsborough.