35 Irish Street, Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 6BW

35 Irish Street, Downpatrick

A narrow three-storey single-bay terraced house dating to the early eighteenth century, now in commercial use with offices on the upper floors. Located on the south-west side of Irish Street close to Downpatrick's commercial core, the building retains significant early fabric despite ground floor alterations, including a finely crafted curved staircase and original plasterwork.

The house has a rectangular plan with a substantial full-height rear return set on a slight skew. The pitched natural slate roof has a raised cement verge and a single rendered chimneystack to the north-west gable, with half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The principal elevation, facing north-east, is rendered and painted over a contrasting plinth. It has two openings to each floor; the upper floors retain 1/1 timber sashes with horns and painted masonry cills, while the ground floor has a modern glazed timber entrance door to the left and an enlarged casement window to the right. Both side gables are abutted by adjacent buildings—slightly taller to the left, slightly lower to the right.

The rear is extended by a full-width return with a second formal entrance opening onto the yard of the adjoining building to the south. This entrance features an elliptical-headed door with replacement door and sidelights, but retains its pilastered surround and spoked fanlight with crown glazing over dressed granite steps. The return's upper floors have 6/6 sashes to the first floor and 2/2 sashes to the second floor, all with exposed boxes and horns. The ground floor has an infilled rectangular opening and a uPVC casement. The north elevation (not fully viewed externally) contains 4/2 sashes set at an angle to the upper floors. Interior inspection reveals that the building has been substantially altered, particularly on the ground floor.

The setting is particularly significant. To the rear, the return is abutted by a substantial range of low two-storey terraced buildings opening onto a narrow 'street' enclosed on the opposite side by the rear rubble stone walls of outbuildings on the neighbouring plot. These buildings are derelict and overgrown but retain remains of slated roofs, limewashed lime-rendered walling, and timber-framed windows. This rear range represents an apparent survival of a 'street' of diminutive terraced dwellings or outbuildings, largely concealed by undergrowth.

Historical Development

Irish Street was laid out in the early eighteenth century. A town map of 1720 clearly shows the plot as developed, with a row of buildings to the rear. The 'Shambles', the town's market area, was located to the front of this building. A drawing of the town from around 1830 (showing the new hospital buildings) also depicts a number of buildings in Irish Street with linear ranges to the rear; map evidence consistently shows that the range attached to No.35 was particularly long and likely survives only in part.

The former townhouse appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1832–33) with a rectangular footprint, a row of linear outbuildings and a shared garden plot to the rear extending south and accessed from Irish Street via a lane to the east at No.37. The Townland Valuations (around 1834) and associated map show that the house and outbuildings were occupied by Henry and Rowland Quail and John Lloyd, with a rateable value of £24. Street Directories from 1843 show that Rowland and James Quail operated as cabinet-makers and upholsterers from the premises.

By Griffith's Valuation (around 1860), the value had declined slightly to £21, perhaps reflecting a reduction in the number of rear outbuildings. This declined further to £16 in the Annual Revision of 1880, possibly for the same reason. From 1860, the house was occupied by a surgeon, Andrew McEwen, who operated a medical hall (a pharmacy) on the premises. McEwen was replaced by Benjamin Morrow in 1867, and the house and medical hall were subsequently occupied by a succession of pharmaceutical chemists until at least the 1930s. Census records show that whilst much of Irish Street contained commercial units on the ground floor, No.35 was listed as a 'private residence' until at least 1911, comprising ten rooms with two sheds and two stores to the rear. The timing of the ground floor shopfront insertion remains unclear.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, the upper floors were converted into offices and a modern shopfront was inserted.

The building represents an early and rare survival of an eighteenth-century townhouse in an Ulster context and enhances the historic character of the Conservation Area.