3 Brick Row, Horner'S Lane, Rostrevor, Co.Down

No. 3 Brick Row is a modest one-and-a-half-storey, two-bay red-brick terraced house, built around 1872 to 1874, most likely to designs by William James Watson, a local architect who practised almost exclusively in south County Down, operating from Newry, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor. It forms part of a coherent terrace of six similar dwellings (Nos. 1–6 Brick Row) situated on the north-west side of Horner's Lane, off Bridge Street, Rostrevor, within the Rostrevor Conservation Area. The terrace is L-shaped on plan and faces south-east.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The terrace was constructed during a period of rapid growth in Rostrevor during the mid- to late-Victorian era. The village's population expanded steadily in this period, coinciding with the arrival of the tramway from Warrenpoint in 1875 and the construction of the Rostrevor Hotel the following year. The majority of listed buildings in Rostrevor date from the early to mid-19th century, making this terrace, dating from around 1874, relatively late among them. It was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in that year.

The terrace was built on land leased by Edward Greer, a local solicitor and magistrate who resided at Moygannon. Three earlier houses standing to the rear of Bridge Street were demolished to make way for it. In September 1872 the Irish Builder recorded that Watson had designed four new houses intended to form the first portion of a terrace for Edward Greer, and that the contract — for £1,550 — had been awarded to Alexander Whelan, a Newry-based building contractor. The Irish Builder subsequently reported the terrace completed by at least May 1874. While it cannot be stated with absolute certainty that this is Brick Row, the dates and the association with Edward Greer make it very likely.

No. 3 Brick Row was originally valued at £3 in the Annual Revisions. It was initially leased to a Mr. Stephen McGivern by the Greer estate. By the turn of the 20th century it was occupied by John Cunningham, a local gardener. The 1901 Census of Ireland described it as a second-class dwelling comprising three rooms with no outbuildings to the rear. Occupants changed with considerable frequency over the following three decades. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value had risen to £4, and ownership of the row had passed to a Mr. Francis Morrow by the 1930s. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value stood at £5 and 5 shillings, at which point the house was owned and occupied by a Ms. Mary Rooney. Nos. 1–6 Brick Row were included in the Rostrevor Conservation Area in 1979 and were subsequently listed in 1981.

EXTERIOR

The walling is generally laid in English Garden Bond red brick with a red brick plinth and single courses of blue brick at window sill and impost levels. Door and window jambs feature stop-chamfered brick detailing. Window openings are square-headed, with red sandstone heads and splayed red sandstone sills to the front elevation. The porch is formed by continuous over-sailing eaves supported on decorative painted timber brackets, and the eaves are narrow with exposed painted timber rafter ends.

The dwellings along the terrace are arranged in symmetrical pairs. Each pair shares a semi-circular headed recessed door at the centre, flanked on either side by narrowly projecting gabled bay windows. Each pair also shares a dormer, with each individual dwelling having a single diminutive window to its half of the shared dormer. Gabled bay windows and dormers are both fitted with decorative painted timber bargeboards. Rectangular-section red and blue brick chimney stacks sit at apex level.

The front elevation of No. 3 faces south-east. It has a painted sheeted timber door with brass furniture, opening onto an open porch at the south-west end, framed by painted timber posts with decorative trefoil brackets. The door opens onto a concrete platform reached via a granite step from the shared gravelled yard. A diminutive side-opening timber casement window is centred in the dormer above the paired porches. The narrowly projecting gabled bay window to the north-east side of the porch has paired top-opening timber casement windows at ground-floor level beneath a sandstone head, with a semi-circular red sandstone arch above and a herringbone-pattern brick flush spandrel panel.

The pitched roof is covered in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods to the principal elevation are generally cast iron with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes. The rectangular-section red brick chimney, rebuilt around 2004, has nine courses of blue brick to its upper half and two terracotta clay pots.

The south-west elevation is attached to No. 4 Brick Row. The north-east elevation is attached to No. 2 Brick Row.

REAR ELEVATION AND LATER ADDITIONS

Access to the rear north-west-facing elevation is limited. Where visible, it shows a full-width dormer room extension at first-floor level, added around 2009, clad in vertically sheeted timber with a flat felt-covered roof extending from the ridge. This is abutted on the left (north-east) side by a single-storey rendered flat-roofed rear return extending north-west to meet the boundary with the shared rear access passage. A narrow concrete yard lies to the right (south-west) side of the rear return. A painted panelled timber door with two glazed sections to its upper half, and an attached window, opens into the yard from a recessed bay of the return next to the main house. Two three-part timber casement windows also open into the yard from the return. The south-west yard boundary is formed by smooth rendered modern dwarf walling adjoining No. 4 Brick Row. The rear elevation has varnish-stained timber sheeting at first-floor level and smooth cement render walling at ground-floor level with slim concrete sills. Two timber casement windows at first-floor level in the dormer look out onto the flat roof of the single-storey rear return. Rainwater goods to the rear elevation and return are uPVC.

The flat-roofed dormer extension and rear return, added around 2009, are considered out of keeping with the building's original quality and character.

SETTING

The terrace faces south-east and is fronted by a shared gravelled area bounded along Horner's Lane by a random-coursed rubble stone wall with rock-faced coping. There is a vehicular entrance to the east of this gravelled parking area. The site is bounded to the rear by a high stone retaining wall. Rear facades along Brick Row are generally much altered, with various extensions of differing shapes and sizes. At the south-west end of Brick Row, on a raised site, stands a pair of two-and-a-half-storey red-brick semi-detached dwellings that bear a similarity to the Brick Row terrace but are considerably larger and differ in certain details.

The rubble stone boundary wall to Horner's Lane contributes significantly to the character of the setting within the Rostrevor Conservation Area. As one of six coherent and similar terraced houses, No. 3 Brick Row represents a good example of small-scale domestic Victorian architecture, with considerable external character, well-judged proportions, and robust detailing.