16A/16B Ballynahinch Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AW

16A/16B Ballynahinch Street (also known as Combermere House) is an end-of-terrace, three-bay, two-storey townhouse of stone and brick construction, built around 1780 in Hillsborough, County Down. It forms part of a group of three closely related houses together with Nos. 18 and 20 Ballynahinch Street, all of which are believed to have originally formed a single large dwelling, built as a residence for the Marquis of Downshire's estate agent and later converted into offices for the administration of the Downshire estate. The house has good Georgian proportions and retains its original windows and external detailing, though extensive renovation during the last decade has resulted in the loss of interior fittings and the original external render.

The building is rectangular on plan, faces south, and sits at the end of a terrace lining the west side of Ballynahinch Street. It has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and three rendered chimneystacks topped with terracotta pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron guttering on iron brackets. The walling is rubblestone with redbrick surrounds to all openings, a rendered plinth course, and rough-hewn squared red sandstone quoins to the south end. Window openings are square-headed, formed in redbrick with painted masonry sills, and fitted with original six-over-six timber sash windows.

The front elevation is six windows wide. To the southern bay there is a former carriage arch, now built up in redbrick. The entrance is a three-centred arched door opening formed in brick with a tripartite timber doorcase. The flat-panelled timber door has brass furniture and is flanked by a pair of leaded Art Nouveau sidelights, with a lintel cornice and leaded fanlight above. The door opens onto a front granite-paved area fitted with a pair of wrought-iron bootscrapers. The area itself is enclosed by decorative cast-iron railings set on a low rendered plinth wall.

The west gable is rendered at ground floor level and rubblestone above. A former window opening at first floor level has been filled in with redbrick, and there is a single window opening at attic level fitted with a timber casement window. The rear elevation is rendered and is abutted by a gable-ended two-storey return with timber casement windows. Original multi-pane timber sash windows survive to the rear elevation, along with a flight of concrete steps to the return. The east side elevation adjoins No. 18 Ballynahinch Street.

The house sits within a small rear paved yard enclosed by a timber picket fence, with the remainder of the plot now used as parking for a modern housing development. A modern two-storey return has been added to the rear.

The house first appears on a map of Hillsborough dating from around 1800, where it is shown as a small oblong building positioned next to the grander Nos. 18 and 20, along with a small outbuilding to the rear. The Townland Valuations of the 1830s record the house as being valued at £12 and occupied by a Mrs Amelia Stackpole. Between around 1830 and 1861 the house passed into the possession of a Mr Alexander McDonnell. In 1861 it changed hands again to Mr Thomas S. Howe, a Justice of the Peace for County Down. By that year Griffith's Valuation had increased the property's value to £17, describing it as a first-class two-storey dwelling measuring 18 yards by 6 yards and noting the presence of a coach arch, which has since been blocked up.

Thomas Howe occupied No. 16 until 1871, when it passed to a Mr Samuel Hutton. Over the following thirty years the house changed hands a number of times: Mr George Knox, described in the 1880 Ulster Towns Directory as a member of the gentry, came into possession in 1880; William Crosby followed in 1890, then the Reverend R. Mears in 1895, and Robert Hanna in 1896. From 1900 the house was occupied by William George Maginess, a local solicitor. The 1901 Census records William George Maguinness, aged 37, living at No. 16 with his wife Mary, also 37, and their three children. The census enumerator classified the house as a first-class dwelling comprising 13 rooms, with the outbuilding at the rear in use as a stable and cow house. By 1911 the census recorded Maguinness's occupation simply as "labourer", though the 1907 Ulster Towns Directory had noted that he maintained offices in Lisburn. Maguinness continued to occupy the house until 1918, when it fell vacant. Samuel Hutchinson became the last recorded occupant, noted in the Annual Revisions which ended in 1930.

The house was listed in 1976. Repairs were carried out in 1985, and in 2007 the render on the front elevation was stripped and the stonework repainted. This work exposed both the blocked-up carriage arch and a blocked-up window on the west gable of the former estate office. Since listing, the house has been converted into two separate flats, one to each floor.