2 Park Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AL

No. 2 Park Street is an end-of-terrace single-storey house with attic, built around 1800, with an irregular plan and south-facing elevation. The building is rendered and features a distinctive bowed west elevation that fronts onto Dromore Road, adding character to the terrace. It was extensively renovated and extended around 1995.

The pitched roof is covered with natural slate and bowed to the west with black clay ridge tiles. There is a rendered chimneystack. The front pitch has three gabled dormers, and the rear pitch has two larger gabled dormers. Replacement metal guttering is mounted on iron brackets with cast-iron downpipes. The walling is ruled and lined cement render.

Window openings are square-headed with raised render surrounds and painted masonry sills. The windows are replacement 6/3 timber sashes. The front elevation is three windows wide. An off-centre square-headed door opening has a painted render surround and opens to a replacement sheeted timber half-door onto the street.

The bowed west side elevation is abutted by a rubblestone boundary wall running along Dromore Road with stone coping. The rear elevation is abutted by a modern timber-frame conservatory. The rear elevation and dormers also have replacement 6/3 timber sash windows. The east side elevation is abutted by the adjoining house, No. 4 Park Street.

The house terminates a terrace of similar properties lining the north side of Park Street and sits at a lower level to the east of Dromore Road on the southern approach to Hillsborough.

A map dating to around 1800 shows No. 2 Park Street as an oblong building at the corner of Park Street and what is now Dromore Road, let to a Mr. Gorman. At that time it possessed a much larger rear yard than today. The bowed west elevation had not then been constructed. The curved road from the square, built to enclose Hillsborough Castle in 1826, had not yet been completed. The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows little change. The contemporary Townland Valuations of the 1830s record that No. 4 Park Street was valued together with No. 6, though both were exempt from valuation as they did not meet the minimum threshold of £3. The Second Edition Ordnance Survey map shows no discernible alteration.

In 1861, Griffith's Valuation records that the house was occupied by Catherine Puleston, a schoolmistress employed in one of the schoolhouses (later used as gate lodges) at the entrance to St. Malachi's Parish Church on Main Street. She let the house from the Marquis of Downshire at an annual rent of £4. The house itself was valued at £4, measured 8 by 6 yards, and was described as a 1B+ class 1½ storey dwelling. Ms. Puleston remained until 1868, when a new tenant of unknown name took over. Between 1868 and 1870 the house changed hands again. By around 1877, Jane Martin occupied the house and remained there until at least 1901, when her successor (or possibly relative), Maria Martin, is recorded as sole occupant in the census of that year. The 1901 Census shows that Maria Martin, aged 46 and Anglican, was employed as a National School Teacher. Maria was likely either Jane Martin's sister or daughter, as the Ulster Towns Directory records a Ms. Martin working in the Church schoolhouses and later at Downshire School, which opened on Ballynahinch Street in 1887. The 1901 and 1911 Census Building Returns describe the house as a 2nd class private dwelling consisting of six rooms with no outoffices. Maria Martin occupied it until at least 1907. By the time of the 1911 Census, Albert Johnston, a 34-year-old Anglican agricultural labourer, had come into occupation with his wife Sarah, aged 33. They remained until 1918, when Robert Paisley, a general labourer, became the final occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions, which ended in 1930.

The bowed west elevation was added between the Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919–1920 and the 1966 edition. The most recent extensive renovation and extension occurred around 1995. While very little original fabric remains, the overall external impression has been retained, and the curious curved west elevation continues to add character to the terrace. The building is significantly altered and does not meet the criteria for listing.