2-4 MAIN ST., CLOUGH, Downpatrick, CO.DOWN

This building has now been demolished.

2-4 Main Street, Clough, was a plain two-storey mixed terrace block comprising houses and shops with apartments over, located on the corner of Main Street and Downpatrick Road on the north side of Clough village. The building was partly pre and partly post-1863, with the southern section (No.4) being the older part.

By the time of survey in May 1978, the group comprised only two properties: No.4 contained a post office with dwelling, and No.2 housed a grocery shop with an apartment over. No.4, the older southern section, had been greatly altered in recent years with all openings blocked. No.2, the larger hipped roof neighbour, had most of its window frames removed and was completely derelict and in poor condition. Between the two was a small portion rebuilt in the 1980s which appeared never to have been completed and existed merely as a shell.

The north front of No.2 featured two doorways and a window to the left (with the window and one doorway boarded up), a boarded-up shop-like window to the right, and five smaller unevenly spaced window openings to the first floor, all boarded up. A large modern internally illuminated sign covered one window. The east gable was blank; the apex had been removed and the roof space was exposed to the elements.

The west façade comprised three parts: the far left (No.2) was a former shop with a lower return to the south end, featuring a door with plain fanlight and boarded-up window to the ground floor, and four unevenly spaced first-floor window openings to the left without frames. The centre section was a partially constructed shop unit appearing as merely a shell, with two small first-floor windows and a partially bricked-up door and window opening. The far right (No.4) was a shop unit with all openings bricked up. The south façade (No.4) displayed a modern shop front and dilapidated appearance.

The building was rendered and roof-covered with Bangor Blue slate. Window frames were all modern and in poor repair. Rainwater goods were a mixture of PVC and cast iron. The rear elevation displayed a jumble of flat-roofed and lean-to extensions.

Historically, in 1836 the southern portion of the site was occupied by five modest dwellings, probably single storey and exempt from rating. The valuation plan of circa 1860 suggests the southern portion may have been rebuilt as the present two-storey structures. The northern corner portion was later, shown on the valuation plan with an annotation of circa 1905. With the corner portion's construction, the block appears to have comprised four properties, but by the early 1900s the two small dwellings in the centre were divided amongst their larger neighbours, leaving only two properties by the 1970s. In 1997 No.2 was given listed building consent for demolition. The buildings were demolished by September 2019.