11 The Square, Rostrevor, Co.Down

11 The Square, Rostrevor is a Grade B listed building that combines retail and residential functions. The structure likely dates to around 1800–1810, based on architectural detailing including a left-hand doorway and tripartite window. It appears on an estate map of 1767 and all subsequent maps of the area.

The building was originally constructed as a single-occupancy house. The first valuation book of 1835 records it as a relatively new residence belonging to Matthew Wright, agent to Mr Ross. At that time it measured 27 feet by 28 feet by 19½ feet, with a front room over a gate entrance (10 by 14 by 9½ feet), offices of 24 by 7½ by 10½ feet and 31 by 17½ by 12 feet, and a writing office measuring 21 by 13 by 16 feet. What is now the shop window to the right (west) was originally an open carriage access. The second valuation of around 1861 notes the building as a vacant private dwelling, with the writing office referred to as a back house. Robert A. Jones acquired the lease in 1867, and was succeeded by Sarah Jane Jones in 1891, who was in turn succeeded by Sarah J. Gilcriest. By the 1901 census, the widowed Mrs Gilcriest, aged 60, was living here with four unmarried women who all worked with her in a local shop called the Fancy Bizarre, though it is uncertain whether this shop operated from the premises itself. It was only in 1906, when the lease passed to Jane Armstrong, that the building was first recorded as containing a shop, with the rateable value rising from £22 to £30 as a result. The carriage access was likely filled in around this time to provide additional retail space. In the 1911 census, Miss Armstrong, a 40-year-old unmarried merchant, is recorded as living here with a shop assistant, an apprentice, and a domestic servant. The building was noted as a second-class shop and private dwelling with seven rooms in use. Between 1929 and 1936, the shop was divided into two units, with Edith Flanagan and Ellen Funston (the shop assistant from 1911) operating one and James F. Sherwood the other, with Sarah Logan occupying the upper floor quarters. By 1952, Mr Sherwood had taken over both retail areas and remained until at least 1975, while Sarah Logan stayed in the living quarters until 1967, after which they were listed as vacant. At some point after this and before 2008, the shop was subdivided into two separate units again, with the former living quarters converted to an office.

The building stands within the conservation area of The Square and Church Street, a north-east to south-west thoroughfare that does not appear on maps of 1739 or 1755 but first appears on an estate map of 1767. The street was likely established as part of the development or upgrading of the road linking Rostrevor to the new village of Hilltown, which began development by Wills Hill (later 1st Marquis of Downshire) in the 1760s. The generous breadth and name of the street suggest it was intended to function as a marketplace. In April 1769, Rostrevor's landlord Robert Ross obtained a patent to hold a weekly market and quarterly fairs. The parish church, completed in 1821, forms a visual closing of the vista at the broader north-east end of the street. By the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, the street's current extent of development was in place. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of October 1836 describe the main street as running north-east and south-west for 620 yards, with the section between the new and old church (180 yards) being 120 feet broad, and the remainder averaging 30 feet in breadth. The houses were nearly all two storeys high and mostly in good order, many providing furnished lodgings for summer visitors.