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

4 Brick Row, Horner's Lane, Rostrevor, County Down

A one-and-a-half-storey, two-bay Victorian terraced house built around 1872–74, most likely designed by architect William James Watson. The building is constructed of red brick with blue brick and red sandstone dressings, and features an L-plan form with a full-width flat-roofed dormer extension and single-storey return to the rear, both added around 2009. It is one of six similar terraced houses located on the north-west side of Horner's Lane, off Bridge Street, Rostrevor.

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. A vehicular entrance to the east provides access to the gravelled parking area. The dwellings are grouped into symmetrical pairs, each pair sharing features with its neighbour. The houses have recessed semi-circular arched doors at the centre of each pair, with open porches formed by continuous over-sailing eaves supported on decorative timber brackets. Flanking each porch are narrowly projecting gabled bay windows. Shared dormers between each pair of houses contain single diminutive windows, with rectangular-section red and blue brick chimneys positioned at apex level. Both the gabled bay windows and dormers are decorated with pierced painted timber bargeboards.

The walling is principally English Garden Bond red brick with a red brick plinth and single blue brick courses at window cill and impost levels. Stop-chamfered brick detail features at door and window jambs. The front elevation has square-headed window openings with red sandstone heads to windows and splayed red sandstone cills. Windows are typically top-opening timber casement types. The pitched natural slate roof to the front block is finished with angled black clay ridge tiles graded in size, with larger slates at eaves level than at the apex. The flat felt-covered roof of the dormer extension extends north-west the full width of the original dwelling from ridge to rear wall, with a single skylight. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the south-west side has nine courses of blue brick to its top half and two terracotta clay pots. Eaves are narrowly projecting with exposed painted timber rafter ends. Metal rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular-section downpipes; the single-storey rear return has uPVC rainwater goods.

The principal front elevation faces south-east. A painted sheeted timber door opens onto an open porch to the north-east, formed by over-sailing eaves and framed by decorative painted timber posts with decorative trefoil brackets. The door opens onto a concrete platform with decorative polychrome clay tiles, accessed via a granite step from the shared gravelled yard. The dormer window above is centred between the paired porches and contains a diminutive side-opening timber casement window. A gabled narrowly projecting bay window to the south-west side of the porch holds a paired top-opening timber casement window at ground-floor level, with a red sandstone head and semi-circular red sandstone arch above, beneath which sits a herringbone-pattern brick flush spandrel panel. Gables are decorated with painted timber bargeboards.

The north-west (rear) facing elevation comprises a flat-roofed dormer room extension at first-floor level with horizontally sheeted timber cladding. This elevation is abutted on the right (south-west) side by a single-storey rendered rear return extending north-west to the boundary with the shared rear access passage. A narrow concrete yard lies to the left (north-east) side of the rear return. A painted sheeted timber door with glazed top half provides access to the rear elevation of the main block. Smooth render forms modern dwarf walling along the north-east yard boundary. The rear elevation displays painted timber sheeting at first-floor level and smooth cement render walling at ground-floor level. The return has two top-opening timber casement windows with slim concrete cills opening into the yard; the rear (north-west) elevation of the return has a three-part timber casement window. The dormer extension features a window and door at first-floor level, with a painted timber door (glazed top and bottom halves) opening onto the flat roof of the single-storey rear return.

The building is attached to No. 3 Brick Row on the north-east and to No. 5 Brick Row on the south-west. No. 4 Brick Row forms part of a terrace of six similar houses within the Rostrevor Conservation Area. The site is bounded to the front by rubble stone walling and to the rear by a high stone retaining wall. Rear facades along Brick Row are generally much altered with various extensions of different shapes and sizes. A pair of two-and-a-half-storey red brick semi-detached dwellings, located on a raised site at the south-west end of Brick Row, bear similarity to the Brick Row houses but are considerably larger with some significant differences in detail.