Glenside, 31 Water St., Rostrevor, Co.Down

Glenside, 31 Water Street, Rostrevor

Glenside is a substantial private house that appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and is recorded in the 1835 valuation as a 'new' dwelling. The building's appearance suggests construction around 1810–1820. It measures 28½ feet by 19 feet by 15 feet high, with an associated office (outbuilding) of 32 by 16½ by 15 feet. The house was originally occupied by Alexander Broom (or Browne), who held a 31-year lease at £14–10–0 per year. The building is undoubtedly one of the three 'good private houses' along Water Street mentioned in the 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoirs.

By 1861 the property had been let furnished by John Fitzpatrick to William Calvert, listed in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory of that year as a general grocer. The house subsequently passed through numerous occupants, recorded in valuation books: Mrs. Sutcliffe (from 1869), Elizabeth Tumulty (1872), William Lyons (1881), Edwin H. McMullen (1904), Annie Cromie (1908), Martha Fearon (1909), David Dunegan (1913), Robert Wilson (1914), Annie [?Mullery] (1915), Patrick Cole (1918), and Thomas and Mary Rainey (1940), who were still in occupation in 1972. In 1869 outbuildings to the north were added to the property valuation, raising the assessment from £8 to £11.

The house stands within the Rostrevor Conservation Area. Water Street itself, historically known as 'The Back Lane', developed as part of Rostrevor's growth as a resort for the gentry at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The street runs at right angles to the main thoroughfare, leading southeasterly towards the Rostrevor or Kilbroney River.