16 Victoria Square, Rostrevor, Co.Down

16 Victoria Square, Rostrevor, County Down

This is a mid-terrace Victorian house built in 1880 to designs by David Mahood, a local builder and contractor. It forms part of a terrace of five similar houses — originally known as Albert Terrace — that line the northwest side of Victoria Square, south of Rostrevor town centre. The five houses share strong group value with one another. The square itself is formally laid out around a central green, primarily accessed from Shore Road to the southwest, with two terraces on two sides and semi-detached and detached villas forming the southeast boundary.

The house is rendered and painted, three bays wide, two storeys tall with an attic, and follows a T-shaped plan, with a two-storey return centred at the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and raised verge tiles. Two red brick chimneys are present: one to the southwest, shared with No. 14 Victoria Square, has a corbelled coping; a similar chimney to the northeast is shared with No. 18. Scrolled brackets on a painted timber eaves board support a painted timber soffit to the roof overhang, with ogee moulded guttering discharging to circular downpipes. A pair of dormers face southeast, each with a hipped slate roof, lead flashing, terracotta ridge tiles and a finial. Ground floor walling is smooth rendered; first floor walling is roughcast rendered, with a smooth raised rendered sill course at first floor level.

The principal southeast-facing elevation is symmetrical. The central entrance is flanked by single-storey canted bay windows with hipped lead roofs and half-round cast-iron gutters. The entrance opening is depressed-arched with a projecting roll-moulded edge to the rendered reveal, and contains a square-headed six-panelled timber door flanked by side-lights with scrolled pilasters. A fanlight above incorporates a glazed circular inset. Window openings throughout are square-headed with a roll-moulded lip to the reveal edge at the timber box frame, and are glazed with three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows. The dormers have square-headed timber casement windows. A concrete pathway flanked by formal lawn, with a pair of concrete steps, leads to the entrance.

The southwest elevation is attached to No. 14. The rear return's side elevation is two bays wide and two storeys tall with a cat-slide roof, containing square-headed three-over-three margin-paned timber sliding sash windows to both floors and a timber panelled door with fanlight over.

The rear elevation faces northwest and is three bays wide over two storeys, 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 a parapet adjoining to the right. Square-headed openings are used throughout; the opening to the right of the return at ground floor level contains a three-part timber casement window with multi-paned fixed upper lights and an arched central pane. Three small modern rooflights are present at attic level. The northeast elevation is attached to No. 18. The side elevation of the rear return has a single-storey flat-roof extension with a 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 a decorative timber gate. The rear garden is enclosed with rendered walling. A single-storey rendered garage with a pitched roof in the rear garden forms the northwest boundary, accompanied by a roughcast rendered wall with a square-headed opening and timber sheeted door; the garage is not considered to be of special interest.

Roofing is in natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast-iron to the front (uPVC to the rear). Walling is smooth and roughcast render. Windows to the main building are timber sliding sash.

Historical background

Rostrevor developed as a popular resort in the 19th century owing to its picturesque position on the northern shore of Carlingford Lough, with the Mountains of Mourne rising behind it. The area now occupied by Victoria Square was unoccupied at the time of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps of 1834 and 1859, and the present stretch of Shore Road south of Victoria Square did not exist at that time. The listed buildings in Victoria Square comprise three groups: a terrace of five houses (Nos. 14–22, originally Albert Terrace), a terrace of three houses (Nos. 34–38, originally Victoria Terrace), and a pair of semi-detached houses (Nos. 42–44, originally Glenmore Terrace). These names appear on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps revised in 1901–02 and published in 1904, and again on the map revised in 1919 and published in 1930. The address is not given as Victoria Square until the Ordnance Survey map revised in 1950–52 and published in 1954, nor in Revaluation Records until 1955 — though the name had been in common use for some time before this, appearing in street directories and probate records from the 1920s, and in an article in The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine in 1927, in which the author refers to "the grassy square called Victoria Square" at Rostrevor.

The development of these houses was largely the initiative of members of the Mahood family. David Mahood, son of Alexander Mahood, was born in County Down around 1830. In 1859, then working as a carpenter in Newcastle, County Down, he married Sarah Jane Mahood of Donaghmore in Donaghmore Church of Ireland. In 1871, by then a widower and a builder based in Newry, he married Eliza Jane McMurray of Warrenpoint at Warrenpoint Presbyterian Church. By 1881 he was based at Upper Edward Street in Newry, and by 1898 at Monaghan Street. In that year he was among the subscribers to George Lister Sutcliffe (ed.), The Principles and Practice of Modern House-Construction (London, 1898). In both the 1901 and 1911 censuses David Mahood is recorded as a resident of Warrenpoint, his age given as 70 and 79 respectively. He died on 14 October 1911. Referencing an obituary in Building News, the Dictionary of Irish Architects records that he was responsible for the erection of Newry Town Hall and the bridge on which it stands, the Great Northern Railway stations at Warrenpoint, Navan and Newry, railway works at Dundalk, the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor tramways, and Warrenpoint waterworks.

David Mahood appears to have developed Albert Terrace on his own initiative, while working in conjunction with James McMurray on Victoria Terrace. McMurray may have been related to Mahood through his second marriage — possibly a brother-in-law, though this has not been confirmed. McMurray may be the James McMurray, a 68-year-old retired master painter resident in Warrenpoint according to the 1901 census, who died on 8 February 1904. Glenmore Terrace was built by John Mahood, born around 1820, possibly David Mahood's older brother, who was a painter and decorator in Rostrevor and died on 24 February 1890.

Glenmore Terrace was the first of the three blocks to be built, appearing in the Valuation Revision Books in 1882; the earliest mention of its name appears in John Mahood's will of 8 April 1886. Victoria Terrace followed, appearing in the Valuation Revision Books in 1887. Albert Terrace was constructed between 1898 and 1903. Both Victoria Terrace and Albert Terrace were no doubt named after the Queen and her late consort. Albert Terrace also appears in street directories as Cloughmore Terrace. While Victoria Terrace had a relatively stable occupancy, Albert Terrace had a very high turnover of occupants in its early years, suggesting its houses may have been used primarily as holiday homes.

No. 16 Victoria Square was identified in Valuation and Revaluation records as property No. 5 Albert Terrace. It appears as a new entry in the Valuation Revision Books in 1903, listed as a house and yard with a rateable valuation of £30, and was initially vacant. A succession of different occupiers followed over the next quarter of a century; the last occupier listed in the Valuation Revision Books (which extend to 1930) was Lt Col. W. J. K. Dobbin, recorded from 1926. The First General Revaluation of 1935 gives the property name as Cariglee, in the occupation of Andrew McClure, with the house, office and yard valued at £37. The occupier's name was changed to E. A. Townley in 1940, and to John D. Deane in 1949. By 1970 the property was in the possession of Ida Foster and Leslie Gregg.

In 1979 the property was purchased as an extension to the Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor. Historic Buildings records indicate that considerable repairs were needed to the roof, chimneys, windows, doors, rainwater goods and other elements at that time; this work appears to have been completed by the summer of 1980. In 1987 an application was made for a change of use to a nursing home for the elderly, though it is not entirely clear whether this proposal proceeded. Further repairs to the roof and to internal and external plasterwork were carried out in 1990, by which time the property had reverted to private ownership. In 2009 an application was made to demolish a store and build a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the rear; planning approval was eventually granted.