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

No. 6 Brick Row is a modest one-and-a-half-storey, two-bay red-brick end-of-terrace house, built around 1872–74, most likely to designs by local architect William James Watson. It forms the end of a terrace of six similar houses (Nos. 1–6 Brick Row) situated on the north-west side of Horner's Lane, off Bridge Street, in Rostrevor, County Down, within the Rostrevor Conservation Area.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is rectangular on plan and faces south-east. The principal south-east elevation is well proportioned and robustly detailed. Walling is generally in English Garden Bond red brick with a red brick plinth and single courses of blue brick at window sill and impost levels. Stop-chamfered brick detailing is used at the end of the terrace and to door and window jambs. Windows have square-headed openings with red sandstone heads and splayed red sandstone sills, and are typically fitted with top-opening timber casement windows. The front elevation also features a painted sheeted timber door opening onto an open porch at the north-east end, formed by the over-sailing eaves and framed by decorative painted timber posts with decorative trefoil brackets. The door opens onto a concrete platform accessed via a granite step from the shared gravelled yard to the south-east.

The terrace as a whole is grouped into symmetrical pairs, each pair sharing a recessed semi-circular arched door to its centre. Continuous over-sailing eaves form open porches supported on decorative timber brackets, and these porches are flanked by narrowly projecting gabled bay windows. Each pair of houses shares a dormer, with each individual dwelling contributing a single diminutive top-opening timber casement window to the shared dormer. The gabled bay windows and dormers are both fitted with decorative pierced painted timber bargeboards. The gabled bay window to the south-west side of the porch has paired top-opening timber casement windows at ground floor level with a sandstone head above; over this is a semi-circular red sandstone arch with a herringbone pattern brick flush spandrel panel.

The roof to the front slope is pitched and covered in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. A shallow-pitched two-storey rear return abuts the main roof just below ridge level, creating a wide valley. The return roof is hipped on the south-east side where it discharges into the valley, and gabled on the north-west side. There is a rectangular-section red brick chimney to the south-west gable, with nine courses of blue brick to its upper half and a single terracotta clay pot. There are also rectangular-section red and blue brick chimneys at apex level to the shared dormers. Eaves are narrow with exposed painted timber rafter ends. Rainwater goods are generally metal with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes, with uPVC rainwater goods to the rear return.

ELEVATIONS

The south-west side elevation faces onto a pathway and a modest garden bounded on the south-west by a rubble stone wall. It consists of three bays with a decorative painted timber bargeboard to the verge on the south-east side. The finish is generally pebbledash render with top-opening timber casement windows and painted slim concrete sills. The first floor windows of the rear return are wider than the ground floor openings.

The north-west rear elevation faces towards a high stone retaining wall and consists of the two-storey gabled pitched-roofed rear return. This has a single window at ground floor level and a three-part top-and-side-opening timber casement window, along with a painted flush timber door to the left (north-east). The door has a glazed upper half and opens onto a narrow lowered section of concrete yard enclosed by dwarf modern blockwork walling, accessed via two concrete steps to its right (south-west) side.

The north-east elevation is attached to No. 5 Brick Row.

SETTING

The terrace faces south-east and is fronted by a shared gravelled area bounded along Horner's Lane by a random-coursed rubblestone wall with rock-faced coping. There is a vehicular entrance to the east. The site is bounded to the front and side by rubble stone walling and to the rear by a high stone retaining wall. The 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 is located on a raised site to the south-west end of Brick Row; these bear a similarity to the Brick Row houses but are considerably larger and differ in several details.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Nos. 1–6 Brick Row were constructed as part of the rapid development of Rostrevor during the mid-Victorian period, a time of steady population growth in the village that coincided with the arrival of the tramway from Warrenpoint in 1875 and the construction of the Rostrevor Hotel the following year. Although the majority of listed buildings in Rostrevor date from the early to mid 19th century, this terrace dates from around 1874, when it was first recorded in the Annual Revisions. The valuations records note that the terrace was built on land leased by Edward Greer, a local solicitor and magistrate who resided at Moygannon, and that three earlier houses located to the rear of Bridge Street were demolished to make way for the new row.

In September 1872, the Irish Builder recorded that William James Watson — a local architect who practised almost exclusively in south County Down, operating from Newry, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor — had designed four new houses forming the first portion of a terrace for Edward Greer. The terrace was constructed by Alexander Whelan, a Newry-based building contractor, who submitted a tender of £1,550. The Irish Builder subsequently reported the terrace as completed by at least May 1874. While it cannot be stated with absolute certainty that this terrace is Brick Row, the dates and the association with Edward Greer make it very likely.

No. 6 Brick Row was originally valued at £3. It was initially leased by Edward Greer to a Mr. William McBurney. By the turn of the 20th century it was occupied by Isaac Calvin, a local agricultural labourer. The 1901 Census of Ireland building return described it as a second-class dwelling consisting of three rooms with no outbuildings to the rear. Occupancy changed frequently over the following decades. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value had risen to £4, and ownership of the row had passed to a Mr. Francis Morrow by the 1930s. The Second General Revaluation (1956–72) recorded a total rateable value of £5 and 5 shillings, and noted that the building was at that time owned and occupied by a Mr. Patrick McCamley.

Nos. 1–6 Brick Row were included in the Rostrevor Conservation Area in 1979 and subsequently listed in 1981. In 1992, No. 6 Brick Row was extended with the addition of the two-storey rear return.

MATERIALS

Roof: fibre cement slates. Rainwater goods: uPVC. Walling: red brick, blue brick and red sandstone. Windows: painted timber casements.