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

8 Arthur Street, Hillsborough

Single-storey stone terraced house with attic dormer, built circa 1830 as part of a terrace of 23 similar houses constructed for workers on the Downshire Estate during the mid-nineteenth century. The building faces west and is rectangular in plan.

The exterior walls are built of rubble basalt with redbrick surrounds to window and door openings, cement hood mouldings, and concrete sills. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A single redbrick chimneystack with terracotta pots rises to the north, shared with the adjoining house No. 6. The attic is lit by a single gabled dormer with sheet metal covering and a pair of leaded timber casement windows. Cast-iron brackets support a timber fascia with a cast-iron downpipe.

The two-bay west front elevation contains a single window opening and a door opening. The window is a replacement bipartite fixed-pane timber sash with applied lead. The door is a replacement timber sheeted door with glazed panel, opening onto a tiled step. The north side elevation is abutted by No. 6. The rear east elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed extension. The south side elevation fronts a shared passageway giving access to the rear, with a cement-rendered wall shared with neighbouring house No. 10. The passageway is fronted by a voussoired red sandstone arch to the street, with granite impost stones.

The earliest houses in the terrace were built by 1833, with evidence suggesting they may date from the late 1820s. This house is one of the earlier houses, built of random rubble masonry with granite used for mouldings and arched alleyways, distinguishing it from later additions which employed sandstone and more regular cut stone. It is first recorded in Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) as occupied by Richard Duncan, leased from the Marquess of Downshire, and valued as a house and yard at £2 15 shillings. The valuer noted the rents were 'moderate'. The house claims ownership of the passageway and was valued slightly higher than its neighbour for this reason.

All houses on Arthur Street were originally built with a rear yard, a 'pit' for household waste, and a dry toilet. Coal was stored in a hole under the stairs adjacent to the living room. Water was supplied from a tap at the top of Arthur Street or a pump at the end of Wapping Street.

The house was listed in 1974. Various renovations were undertaken in 1982, including replacement of the dormer window, and a Velux roof light was added to the rear in 1989. The building has lost its original doors and windows and has had many original materials replaced internally during recent renovations, yet it retains part of its original façade with galletted rubble stone walls and brick window surrounds, and constitutes an important part of the overall character of Arthur Street.