Site of former 56-58 Irish Street, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 6BP

Site of former 56-58 Irish Street, Downpatrick

This site on the sloping east side of Irish Street formerly held a pair of small two-storey houses with shops, probably dating from around 1800, which were demolished circa 1991 and replaced with new dwellings.

The buildings were recorded in a survey of March 1976 as a two-storey block comprising two houses and shops with a slated roof and concrete brick chimney. The rendered and lined walls featured two first-floor drop-hung windows with Georgian panes. The ground floor of each property combined a window and door, each framed with thin fluted pilasters below a recessed narrow signboard. At No. 56, the window had been replaced with a steel casement and the door sheeted, with a plain fanlight above. No. 58 had a similar doorway but retained a four-light wood casement window. The survey noted the overall condition as poor.

The site is shown as occupied on the 1708 town plan of Downpatrick and on all subsequent plans. Like much of Irish Street, these properties probably dated from the late 18th or early 19th century, possibly around 1800. Both appear on the valuation plan of 1838, when No. 56 was owned by William Gordon and No. 58 by Robert Bell. The buildings were demolished around 1991.