16 Victoria Square, Rostrevor, Co.Down

16 Victoria Square, Rostrevor

Mid-terrace three-bay two-storey house with attic, built in 1880 to designs by David Mahood, local builder and contractor. The building is rendered and painted, with a T-shaped plan form facing southeast and a two-storey return centred at the rear. It is one of five similar houses forming a terrace originally named Albert Terrace, which line the northwest side of the formally designed Victorian Square. The square is arranged on three sides around a central green, primarily accessed from Shore Road to the southwest.

The pitched roof is covered with natural slate, with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and raised verge tiles. Red brick chimneys with corbelled coping are shared with the adjacent properties: one to the southwest shared with No. 14 Victoria Square, and one to the northeast shared with No. 18 Victoria Square. Scrolled brackets on painted timber eaves board support painted timber soffit to the roof overhang. The gutter is ogee moulded, discharging to a circular downpipe. A pair of dormers to the southeast feature hipped slate roofs, lead flashing, terracotta ridge tiles and finials.

The walling is generally smooth rendered to ground floor level and rough-cast rendered to first floor, with a smooth raised rendered sill course at first floor. Window openings are square-headed with roll moulded lips to the reveal edges at timber box frames. The principal windows are three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows throughout, except where otherwise stated.

The principal front elevation facing southeast is symmetrical, with a central entrance flanked by single-storey canted bays having hipped lead roofs and half-round cast-iron gutters. The entrance has a depressed-arched opening with projecting roll-moulded edge to the rendered reveal, and is set with a square-headed six-panelled timber door flanked by side-lights with scrolled pilasters. A fanlight over features a glazed circular inset. The dormers have square-headed timber casement windows.

The southwest elevation is attached to No. 14 Victoria Square. The side elevation of the rear return is two-bay two-storey with a cat-slide roof, featuring three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows to ground and first floor and a timber panelled door with fanlight over. The rear elevation faces northwest and is three-bay two-storey with a projecting central return having a cat-slide mono-pitch roof. The rear return has a single-bay single-storey abutment to the northwest with a slated mono-pitch roof, and a single-storey flat-roof extension with parapet adjoining to the right side. The opening to the right side of the return on the ground floor has a three-part timber casement window with multi-paned fixed upper lights and an arched central pane. Three small modern rooflights serve the attic level. The northeast elevation is attached to No. 18 Victoria Square. The side elevation of the rear return has a single-storey flat-roof extension with raised parapet.

The house is set back from the road behind a low smooth rendered boundary wall with curved coping, square-plan piers with domed coping and decorative timber gate. The rear garden is enclosed with rendered walling. A single-storey rendered garage with pitched roof stands in the rear garden, forming the northwest boundary with an attached rough-cast rendered wall having a square-headed opening and timber sheeted door; the garage is not of special interest.

Materials include natural slate to the roof, cast-iron rainwater goods (uPVC to rear), smooth and rough-cast render to walling, and timber sliding sash windows to the main building.