112 Saul Street, Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 6NJ

112 Saul Street is an attached three-bay house of two and three storeys, with a basement and semi-attic, built around 1840 (deeds held by the current owners give the date as 1841) and remodelled and extended around 1880. It sits on the north side of Saul Street, Downpatrick, and forms part of a group of eight similarly designed mid-19th-century dwellings erected as part of the north-eastern expansion of the town. The adjoining houses at nos. 108–122 Saul Street are contemporary with no. 112 and share many of its original features; only no. 116 significantly departs from the rest of the row, being the only other dwelling to stand three storeys in height.

The building is rectangular on plan. Its principal elevation faces south-east. The lower left and central bays are conventionally early Victorian in appearance, while the taller right bay employs more decorative detailing in a later Victorian style, the result of remodelling around 1880. The right bay has a full-height projection fronted by a three-storey canted bay window. The roof is partially clad in fibre cement tiles, with sections replaced in slate; angled clay ridge tiles (some replaced) and reconstructed brick chimneystacks. Rainwater goods are a mixture of uPVC and cast iron fixed to a modern fascia. The walls are finished in ruled and lined cement render with stucco sill courses and a pediment detail to the right bay projection.

Windows throughout are generally original six-over-six sliding sash without horns, except where noted. The three vertically aligned canted bay windows in the projecting right bay are sashed, and diminish in size from bottom to top: a two-over-two sash at ground-floor level with a sill at floor level, a six-over-six above that, and a diminished three-over-three at the top storey.

The principal entrance is set within a central gabled porch with a natural slate roof and an elliptical opening containing an original six-panelled door with a bronze knob and the remains of sidelights (the fanlight had been removed at the time of survey). The porch is lit on its exposed left cheek by a tall four-light window. The south-west gable is blank, with cement render repairs to the chimney flue.

The rear north-west elevation has an exposed basement and is abutted by a two-storey yellow brick lean-to addition of around 1900, carried on a segmental brick arch. This rear extension was added by the Johnston sisters and contained bathrooms. The right bay at the rear is abutted at basement level by a refurbished gabled pantry extension, with a window to each floor. The left bay has two windows to each floor: two-over-two at basement level, one-over-one at ground floor, six-over-six at first floor, and small fixed casements at attic storey. The north-east gable is abutted by the adjoining house.

A number of original features survive, including a cellar, coal bunker, and a servants' tunnel to the rear of the building. Rear access from the house is via stone steps leading to a service passage with a barrelled roof, lime-rendered walling, and an original quarry-tiled floor. This passage is bounded on one side by an enclosed Victorian rainwater tank fed by a cast iron gutter from the terrace above (now a modern patio). There are remains of several small brick garden buildings, accessible from the passage. A former entrance leading to the area beneath the patio has been blocked and may have been infilled.

The house is set slightly back from the road in a suburban setting, flanked by a number of individually designed houses of a similar period. A small front garden is bounded by a rendered wall. To the rear there is a long, steeply terraced garden.

When originally completed, no. 112 would have conformed to a conventional early Victorian pattern — a simple rectangular three-bay two-storey building without any returns or projections — more closely resembling the adjoining nos. 108 and 110 Saul Street. The entrance porch and the three-storey canted extension were both added at some point between around 1864 and around 1906 according to the evidence of a detailed town plan of Downpatrick. Stylistically, the extension appears to date from the late 19th century. A valuation change recorded in 1884 suggests some alteration to the site at around that time, though the rateable value was in fact decreased on that occasion (to £21), which is not the change one would normally expect following the construction of a large addition.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1863, no. 112 Saul Street was valued at £19 and owned by Hugh Croskery, a grocer and spirit merchant and one of Downpatrick's town commissioners, who also owned several adjoining dwellings. He leased no. 112 to Edward Gardner, described in his will as a Gentleman, who resided there until his death in 1867 and left the property to his son Edward Gardner Junior, a solicitor and town commissioner who vacated the house shortly before his death in England in 1883. The valuation was increased to £29 in 1864, though the reason was not recorded. Between the 1863 valuation and the commencement of Annual Revisions in 1864, Mary White replaced Croskery as owner and continued to lease the site until the 1930s.

Subsequent occupants changed with great frequency. The Reverend William Napier, a former minister of Clough Meeting House in Dundrum, briefly resided there in 1883, followed by Charles Wilson in 1885, Samuel C. N. Lowry (manager of the Ulster Bank on Irish Street) from 1888 to 1890, and William Egan from 1890. The house briefly fell vacant in 1892, before Martha and Elizabeth Johnston took possession in 1893 and remained for two decades. By 1901, the house was also known as Ardcuan, as recorded in the Ulster Town Directory of that year. The 1901 census recorded Martha Johnston (aged 71, Unitarian) and Elizabeth J. Johnston (aged 69, Unitarian) as unmarried and unemployed, residing at Ardcuan with a sole domestic servant; the building return described Ardcuan as a first-class private dwelling with nine rooms and no major outbuildings. By 1911, Martha Johnston resided there alone and was described as a gentlewoman, though the building return had by then reclassified the house as second class. She died in September 1912, after which the house passed to the Reverend J. G. Graham. By 1918 it had changed hands again to the Reverend F. B. Aldwell of Down Cathedral. William Tweedie, a tobacconist with premises on Market Street, occupied the house from 1920, followed by William J. Dickson from 1925. The rateable value was decreased to £19 10s. in 1927 but under the First General Revaluation of 1935 was significantly increased to £27. At that date, William Martin had taken over ownership from the estate of Mary White, continuing to lease to William J. Dickson and also owning the adjoining nos. 114, 118, and 120 Saul Street. The Second General Revaluation of 1956 found the value unchanged at £27, with William Martin remaining the lessor. William J. Dickson had vacated the house by the 1950s; a Mr. J. Doris subsequently resided there, and in 1967 Rose Doris took possession, remaining until the end of the revaluation period in 1972.

Dunleath, Rankin, and Rowan described Saul Street as "a long narrow street climbing steadily out of the town" with dwellings from different periods, noting "some fine Georgian houses near the junction with Scotch Street … the remainder are pleasant though out-dated low terraces of houses changing to detached small Victorian villas on north side."

Although the building retains much original fabric and detailing, the house is not listed, as the later Victorian extensions have created an unusually proportioned building that does not meet the listing criteria for architectural interest.