4 Inns Court, Park Lane, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AQ

4 Inns Court is an end-of-terrace, two-storey rubblestone house built around 1800, situated in the historic centre of Hillsborough village, County Down, close to the main Square. It is one of a terrace of four similar houses and has group value with nos. 1–3 Inns Court. The building sits within an original cobbled cul-de-sac to the west of Park Lane, bounded by tall rubblestone walls with stone coping, and is a good example of a Georgian utilitarian terrace building.

Architectural Description

The house is rectangular on plan, facing west onto the cobbled cul-de-sac. The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and a red brick chimneystack to the south. Replacement metal guttering on iron brackets runs along a brick eaves course. The walls are random rubblestone with squared granite quoins, and all openings have red brick surrounds. Window openings are square-headed, formed in red brick with stone sills, and fitted with replacement timber sash windows.

The front (west) elevation is two windows wide with a recessed bay to the south. First-floor windows are 2/2 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes; ground-floor windows are 3/3. The original square-headed door opening, also formed in red brick, now contains a replacement glazed door.

The north elevation abuts the adjoining No. 3, and the rear section of the north elevation, overlooking the additions to No. 3, has a single window opening. The rear gabled elevation fronts directly onto Park Lane and contains a single recessed door opening formed in red brick, opening straight onto the street.

The south elevation faces onto the cobbled lane leading to Park Lane. At first-floor level there is a large opening with a fixed-pane landscape window. At ground-floor level there is a further landscape window opening with timber casement windows, a square-headed door opening with a modern tripartite timber doorcase, and two concrete steps. This south elevation also accommodates a modern sunroom added around 1986.

Setting

The original front door opens onto the cobbled cul-de-sac, which is enclosed towards the Dromore Road by a tall rubblestone wall with stone coping. The current front door opens directly onto the cobbled lane connecting to Park Lane.

Historical Background

No. 4 Inns Court first appears on an illustrated plan of Hillsborough dated around 1800, when it was occupied by a Mr. Hanna. Both the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the contemporary Townland Valuation map (around 1830) depict the building as an oblong structure on West Lane — part of a court off Inns Lane, as Park Lane was then known. The Townland Valuation recorded it as worth less than £3 and therefore exempt from valuation.

Originally, No. 4 formed a single property with the adjoining No. 3, and both were used together as an office and storehouse. In Griffith's Valuation of 1861, nos. 3 and 4 — at that time known as nos. 3–4 Barrack Court (the name by which West Lane was known from around 1860) — were recorded simply as offices, with the description later altered in the same year to "Store." The building, measured at 10½ by 4½ yards and valued at £3, was let from the Marquis of Downshire by a Ms. Sarah Lutton, who resided at No. 8 The Square. Sarah Lutton held the store until her death in 1869, when her son Samuel Lutton inherited all her property. Samuel Lutton retained possession of the store until his own death in 1882. In 1883 a Mr. Robert Johnston took possession, and it was during his occupancy that the building was divided into two separate houses — nos. 3 and 4 Barrack Court — in 1895.

No. 4 continued to be occupied by Robert Johnston and later by his son Edward Johnston. The 1901 Census described Edward Johnston as a 37-year-old Anglican joiner living at the address with his wife Rebecca, aged 38, and their five young children. The 1901 Census Building Return described the newly converted house as a second-class dwelling consisting of three rooms, still let from the Marquis of Downshire. By 1911 the house had passed to John Bradley, a 76-year-old labourer, who lived there with his wife Elizabeth, aged 73, until his death in 1917. The building changed hands a number of times thereafter before being occupied in 1928 by Thomas Thompson, the last occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions, which ended in 1930.

The origin of the name Barrack Court has been debated. The architectural historian C. E. B. Brett noted the name but was unaware of any barracks in the immediate area to account for it, suggesting instead that the officers of the South Down Militia — who had their headquarters at No. 7 The Square — may have quartered their grooms, batmen, and other auxiliary staff in these houses. This theory is supported by a map of Hillsborough dating from around 1800, which records a Commissary yard to the south side of Barrack Court, used to store army provisions and possibly horses, on the site now occupied by the Shambles. This may also explain why nos. 3 and 4 were formerly used as a store and office, though army use cannot be confirmed. An alternative explanation, proposed by Simon Walker, is that the name derived from a former barracks situated on Moira Street to the west, which closed around 1820 when the area was enclosed within Hillsborough Castle Grounds.

In 1974, Brett described nos. 1–4 Inns Court as "two-storey houses of stone with brick trim, most windows unhappily altered, the upper pair (nos. 1 and 2) very aggressively re-pointed."

Alterations

No. 4 is unique within the terrace in that its main entrance has been relocated to the south elevation, with the original door converted to a window. The house was extensively renovated around 1986, at which time the interior was remodelled, a modern sunroom was added to the south elevation, and most original interior features were lost.