14 Victoria Square, Rostrevor, Co.Down

14 Victoria Square, Rostrevor is an end-of-terrace Victorian house built in 1880 to designs by David Mahood, a local builder and contractor. It is a three-bay two-storey building with attic, constructed in rendered and painted brick. The house has a T-shaped plan form facing southeast with a two-storey return centred at the rear. It forms one of five similar houses originally named Albert Terrace, which together line the northwest side of the formally designed Victorian Square, arranged on three sides around a central green and primarily accessed from Shore Road to the southwest.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and mortared verge tiles. Two red brick chimneys with corbelled coping rise from the south-west and north-east gables respectively; the north-east chimney is shared with No. 16 Victoria Square. Scrolled brackets on the painted timber eaves board support a painted timber soffit to the roof overhang. The guttering is uPVC ogee-moulded, discharging to a circular downpipe. Paired dormers to the southeast feature hipped slate roofs, lead flashing, terracotta ridge tiles and finials.

The walling is rendered smooth on the ground floor and rough-cast on the first floor, with a smooth raised rendered sill course to the first floor. Window openings are square-headed with roll-moulded lips to the reveal edges at the timber box frames. The principal windows are three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows, with variations noted elsewhere.

The principal front elevation faces southeast and is symmetrical, featuring a central entrance flanked by single-storey canted bays with hipped natural slate roofs and half-round uPVC gutters. The entrance has a depressed-arched opening with projecting roll-moulded edge to the rendered reveal, a square-headed six-panelled timber door flanked by side-lights with scrolled pilasters, and a fan-light above with a glazed circular inset. A concrete pathway flanked by formal lawn with pair of concrete steps leads to the entrance.

The southwest gable end is composed of projecting chimney breasts to the ground and first floors, which join in a pointed arch at attic level, with crow-stepped gables having stone copings. The side elevation of the rear return is two-bay two-storey with a cat-slide roof. Square-headed openings throughout contain three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows to the first floor, a timber casement window to the ground floor, and a timber-panelled door with fanlight above.

The rear elevation faces northwest and is three-bay two-storey with a projecting central rear return and cat-slide northwest roof. The rear return has a single-bay single-storey abutment to the northwest with a slated mono-pitch roof. The opening to the right side of the return on the ground floor contains a three-part timber casement window with multi-paned fixed upper lights and an arched central pane; the left side has a uPVC casement window. Three small modern rooflights serve the attic level. The northeast elevation is attached to No. 16 Victoria Square. The side elevation of the rear return is two-bay two-storey with square-headed openings, a uPVC casement window and timber-sheeted door. A timber-sheeted door provides access to a single-storey extension. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods and a vented soil stack are present.

The house is set back from the road behind a low smooth rendered boundary wall with curved coping, square-plan piers with domed coping and a decorative painted timber gate. The rear garden is enclosed by a high rendered wall with a square-headed opening to the northwest. A single-storey rendered outbuilding within the rear yard has a mono-pitch slate roof, abuts the house at ninety degrees, and is attached to the boundary wall of No. 16 Victoria Square.