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

9 Arthur Street, Hillsborough, County Down

Single-storey with attic stone terraced house built around 1830 as one of 23 similar houses constructed during the early to mid nineteenth century. The building forms part of a mid-terrace group arranged in a cul-de-sac on the east side of Ballynahinch Street.

The house is rectangular in plan, facing east, with a pitched natural slate roof topped with clay ridge tiles, two gabled dormers, and a single redbrick chimneystack with terracotta pots shared with the adjoining house No.7. Cast-iron guttering is mounted on iron brackets. The main structure is built of rubble basalt walling, though window and door openings have been given replacement redbrick surrounds. Sandstone hood mouldings and sills remain. The east front elevation features a single window opening and door opening. Both the window and dormer window contain replacement top-hung timber casement frames with applied lead glazing. The door is a timber sheeted half-door opening onto a concrete step. The south side elevation is adjoined by No.11, with a shared passageway providing rear access. This passageway opens onto the street through a voussoired sandstone arch, with part of an original granite hood moulding surviving, and is paved in concrete with a painted brick south wall. The rear west elevation is adjoined by an extension, and the north side is adjoined by No.7.

The house retains its original modest façade with dressed stone archway and stone hood mouldings, displaying the original style and proportions of the terrace, though many original materials have been replaced during recent renovations. It constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street and is of architectural and historic interest.

The terrace was built as low-cost housing for workers on the Downshire estate. The earliest houses in the terrace were built by 1833, with evidence suggesting dates from the late 1820s. The remainder of the terrace was certainly in place by 1858. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows the two sides of the terrace as uneven in length, suggesting further houses were added in phases. Field inspection indicates the terrace may have been built in at least three phases: the earlier houses, including numbers 1, 3, 5, 4, 6 and 8, dating from the late 1820s, with the remainder added thereafter but before 1858. The earliest houses employ random rubble masonry with granite used for mouldings and arched alleyways. Numbers 7, 9, 10 and 12 use sandstone rather than granite with squared galletted rubble walling. The remaining houses display more regular cut stone laid to courses. All houses on the street were originally built with a rear yard, 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 a tap at the top of Arthur Street or a pump at the end of Wapping Street.

This house is one of the earlier houses. It first appears in Griffith's Valuation (1856-64) as occupied by Richard Duncan and leased from the Marquess of Downshire, valued as a house and yard at £2 15 shillings with weekly rent of one shilling and fourpence plus taxes. The house claims ownership of the passageway and was valued slightly higher than the neighbouring house for this reason. The building was listed in 1974. Various renovations were carried out in 1982 including replacement of the dormer window, and a velux roof light was added to the rear in 1989.