24 Downs Road, Newcastle, Co. Down, BT33 OAG

24 Downs Road, Newcastle

A large two-storey seafront house dating from 1890–1900, positioned at the end of a terrace on the east side of Downs Road. The building is finished in lined render, painted throughout, with chamfered quoins to the main house and a dentilled eaves course to the front and north facades.

The east (front) facade is nearly symmetrical. At ground floor level, slightly left of centre, are timber panelled double doors with sidelights, each with panelled aprons and a three-pane fanlight with shallow segmental arch head, surrounded by a moulded surround. On either side of the doorway stands a full-height, hipped roof, canted bay. Each bay contains sash windows with segmental arch heads and splayed flush cills to both floors. Springing courses run beneath the ground-floor windows of each bay, with another course above the upper-floor windows that continues across the entire facade. Between the bays at first floor level is a panelled and glazed door with segmental arch head fanlight.

The north facade includes two similar bays to those on the front. A decorative wrap-around cast iron balcony, supported on thin cast iron columns, runs across both the front and north facades. The north facade includes a centrally placed bay with regular projecting cills. To the left of this bay at ground floor level is a panelled and glazed door with a moulded surround that rises high above the opening, crowned with a moulded crucifix in the space where a fanlight would normally appear. Above this at first floor level is a sash window with segmental arch head, margin panes with coloured glass. To the right of the bay are two similar windows, one to each floor, without margin panes. The entire north facade is finished in lined render with dentilled eaves.

To the rear is a large two-storey gabled return, largely rebuilt in 1998–99. The gable of the return has an attached gabled garage at first floor level. The gable itself features a sash window with segmental arch head to frame only on the first floor. The south facade contains five windows of varying sizes on the first floor, all with modern frames. A single-storey lean-to stretches from the south side of the garage section to the far right. The exposed sections of the main rear facade feature sash windows with segmental arch heads both at ground and first floor level. The roof is covered in natural slate with three rendered chimney stacks with corbelling and octagonal pots. Metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout. A low rendered wall fronts the property to the north and east.

The house was built circa 1890–1900 for John Henry King, a Newcastle solicitor, and originally included its own walled garden to the north. The property was acquired by the local Roman Catholic parish around 1940 as a residence for the priest(s), a function it continues to serve, with parish offices now occupying the ground floor. The walled garden survived until the 1960s, when the land was acquired by the parish as the site for a new church. The rear return was rebuilt and the entire property completely renovated and restored in 1998–99.