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

31 Main Street, Hillsborough is a Grade B2 terraced townhouse of early nineteenth-century date, built between 1803 and 1833. It is a two-storey building with attic, constructed in stone and redbrick, retaining its original Georgian proportions and forming part of a significant group with Nos. 27 and 29 Main Street.

The building is square on plan facing east, with a rubblestone two-storey return to its rear and a single-storey flat-roofed extension. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate and fitted with black clay ridge tiles. Two shared redbrick chimneystacks rise through the roof, with modern rooflights inserted to the rear pitch. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets sits to the brick eaves course, with a cast-iron downpipe.

The external walls are built in snecked coursed basalt walling with squared pink granite quoins. All window and door openings are surrounded by redbrick. The front elevation is two windows wide. The ground floor has a replacement tripartite timber sash window, whilst the camber-headed door opening contains a replacement timber panelled door with replacement overlight, opening onto two granite steps with a wrought-iron bootscraper. All windows are camber-headed with painted masonry sills and replacement timber sash windows throughout. A granite milestone abuts the front elevation. The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining No. 33, whilst the north side is abutted by No. 29. The rear elevation features a gabled two-storey rubblestone return and a flat-roofed single-storey extension with decking and steel railing, with replacement glazed timber doors to the first floor opening onto the decked area.

The house was constructed on land owned by Mr Robinson, occupant of Hill House at the corner of Main Street and The Square. It is first depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the Townland Valuation plan. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records occupation by Mr Hugh White, with a value of £6. The house was built at the same time as Nos. 27 and 29 Main Street, all three valued at £6 and erected on the same Robinson-owned plot, though No. 31 was built at a slightly higher level. By 1861, Griffith's Valuation records ownership by the Marquis of Downshire, who let the property to Mr Hugh Morrow. It was recorded as a first-class dwelling measuring six by seven yards, two storeys high, valued at £6 10 shillings. From 1861 to 1930 there was no recorded change to its value or discernible alteration to its layout on Ordnance Survey maps.

The house lay vacant in 1864 after Hugh Morrow moved to neighbouring No. 29. George Johnston occupied it from 1874 to 1878, followed by Ms. Mary Anne Balmer. In 1891, Mr Francis McBride came into possession. The 1901 Census records McBride, a 70-year-old widower, living there with six children, including three daughters employed as linen winders. The building was recorded as a second-class dwelling with four or five inhabited rooms and no outoffices. After McBride's death in 1904, his eldest daughter became occupant, and the 1911 Census shows her as sole occupant, still employed as a linen winder. Mary McBride remained the recorded occupant until 1930. In 1974 architectural historian C.E.B. Brett described this as one of "four extremely good stone houses (Nos. 29-33), with some brick trim, some galleting, and most of the Georgian glazing intact." The building was listed in 1976, and repair work to windows and chimney was carried out in 1983.

The house stands as one of a terrace of four houses lining the east side of Main Street at its elevated end where it joins The Square. It is situated within a conservation area and has group value with Nos. 27 and 29 Main Street, all three contributing to the overall character of Hillsborough.