45 Lisburn Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AB

45 Lisburn Street, Hillsborough

This is a slightly asymmetrical two-storey, three-bay, pebble-dashed mid-terrace house built around 1800, situated on the east side of Lisburn Street in Hillsborough town centre. It forms part of a well-preserved terrace of mainly 18th-century houses on the approach to the town centre, and contributes to the character of the early 19th-century streetscape, though it has not been assessed as meeting the criteria for listed building status.

The building is rectangular on plan. To the rear it has a two-storey return, a single-storey flat-roof extension, and an L-shaped extension that incorporates a porch. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles, and there are rendered chimneystacks with tall clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round.

The external walls are finished in pebble-dash, with a smooth rendered plinth and a projecting band (plat-band) below the eaves. The rear walls are smooth rendered. Windows are timber-framed sliding sashes — one-over-one panes on the ground floor and two-over-two on the first floor — all set in smooth rendered surrounds with lugged detailing and projecting masonry sills. There is banding around the windows, thought to be a later addition. The principal (west-facing) elevation is three bays wide, with a four-panelled entrance door at the centre of the ground floor, fitted with brass door furniture and a transom light above, set in a smooth rendered surround.

The north elevation abuts the neighbouring property to the north. To the rear (east), the two-storey return adjoins the main block at the right, with the single-storey flat-roof extension attached beyond that. The two-storey return has uPVC windows at first-floor level, arranged asymmetrically. To the left of the rear elevation is the L-shaped single-storey extension, which incorporates a porch with a half-panelled timber door; there is also a uPVC window at first-floor level, a skylight in the roof, and a small window opening at first-floor level. The L-shaped extension itself has a timber-sheeted door and a timber-framed window. The flat-roof extension has a modern glazed timber door on its south elevation and a large timber-framed window on its east elevation. The south elevation abuts the neighbouring property to the south.

To the front of the house, three steps lead up to the entrance, enclosed by early cast-iron railings. To the rear is a raised and elongated landscaped garden, enclosed by hedgerow and a concrete block wall to the north.

The house first appears on a map of around 1800 and on an illustrated plan of Hillsborough dated around 1803, both of which show it as an oblong building at the northern end of Lisburn Street. At that time it was occupied by a Mr. Matty, possibly Philip Matty who died in 1818. Lisburn Street is the oldest part of Hillsborough and saw most of its development between around 1800 and 1830, during which period it was known as Great Newport Street, a name associated with the construction of the Lagan Canal in the late 18th century. No. 45 is one of the earliest Georgian houses on the street, constructed in the mid to late 18th century ahead of the later development of the northern half of Lisburn Street.

By the time of the first Ordnance Survey map (1833) and the Townland Valuation map of around 1830, a large rear return or lengthy outbuilding had been added to the house, along with a smaller out-office to the rear of the yard. At that time the property was occupied by a Mr. Francis Ford and was valued at £6 6s. By 1861, when Griffith's Valuation was compiled, Ford had left and the house was occupied by Mr. James McCarthy, who rented it from the Marquis of Downshire. The valuer classed it as a 1B+ dwelling measuring 10 by 6 yards, with a single-storey pantry of 3 by 3 yards, giving a total valuation of £8. McCarthy, a bachelor and bookkeeper in Belfast, died in 1864, leaving effects of £300 to his brothers.

The house subsequently passed to Mr. James Reid and then, in 1878, to Mr. James Jennings, recorded in the Annual Revisions as a schoolmaster, though he does not appear in the Ulster Town Directory for 1877 or 1880 as master of any of the Hillsborough schools. Jennings remained until 1887, after which the house briefly passed to Mr. John Taylor before falling vacant in 1889. It was not reoccupied until 1900, when Mrs. Margaret McGoveny took possession. The 1901 Census records her as aged 81, living with her two sisters; the building return described the house as a second-class private dwelling with seven rooms and no out-offices. Annual Revision maps show that the rear return or outbuilding visible on the earlier Townland Valuation map had been demolished sometime between 1890 and 1908. Margaret McGoveny died in April 1909, at which point the house was occupied by Ms. Jane Moore.

The 1911 Census records Jane Moore, aged 57, living at the house with her daughter Elizabeth, who was employed as a National School Teacher, though it is unclear at which of the several schools in Hillsborough she worked. Jane Moore remained at No. 45 through to the end of the Annual Revision record in 1930 and died in 1942, leaving effects of £555 1s. 1d. to her daughter.

Sometime between the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1919–20) and the 1966 Ordnance Survey map, the current two-storey return was added to the rear of the building. The single-storey flat-roof extension was added to the rear of that return in subsequent years.