11-21 Stream Street

The scheme at 27-31 Irish Street Downpatrick was not the first that Hearth had been involved with in the town. At the end of the 1980s it tried to acquire 114-116 Irish Street and 11-21 Stream Street, but the successful purchaser was the contractor H J O’Boyle Ltd with whom Hearth had worked on other occasions.

O’Boyle then employed Hearth as architects to restore both properties. This was particularly important for the Stream Street houses, as they were unlisted and could have been demolished; in the event, the houses were restored in a quite similar fashion to how Hearth would have done the scheme had it been the owner.