Mullan’s Pub

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey, two structural bay rendered bar building located on the north east corner of Main street and Market Street. There are three first floor windows.Two adjacent shops to north east formerly part of building retain upper fenestration and roof line. Roof man made slates with painted PVC guttering and three roof lights. Single chimney on ridge line of gable overlooking Market Street. Main entrance to present bar in cutaway corner of building. Wide window adjacent with frosted glass. North east jamb aligns with jamb of two pane sash above with painted stone cill. This is one of a pair. Third window on first floor (similar) aligns with a second entrance on the facade. The entrance has a painted lugged architrave (stone) with a fanlight above which has a simple radiating pattern and a keystone. There are two steps to Main Street now tiled. To the north east at first floor there are two double pane sash windows over number 45 and a single double pane sash over number 47, the spacing of windows along first floor is not regular.

On the gable of the building facing Market Street is a wide window to the ground floor bar and a two pane sash above aligning with the south east jamb. A flush return sits out along Market Street with one window at ground level (modern), and a plain segmental arch to the courtyard behind.

In the courtyard there are two windows in the return. A second return sits out from the bar one metre and a four metre wide portion of this ascends three storeys and has a chimney to one side. The courtyard is enclosed to the north west by a range of single storey out-houses projecting in line with number 47. Since the date of the second survey the courtyard has been enclosed by a tent-like roof for functions.

Historical information

‘In 1692 a tenement to the west of the market house was leased to William Smith, innkeeper, who was at that time the Provost. This tenement is described in 1699 as Provost Smith’s new building’. (Rev Mullin p 32). The market house next door spanned over Market Street. It was built in 1664 and demolished in 1801 when it was rebuilt on the same site. This building was removed in 1855. There was a toll gate under onto Market Street. The corner bar is described by Samuel Lewis in 1737 and again in Pigot’s Directory of 1824. In 1894 Thomas Connolly the local landlord (HB02/12/008) announced that he would give a lease of five shillings a year rent to Mr William Ross of the market house in order that he could build a good room adjoining the inne for the accommodation of the ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood’. (Mullin). This may have been the present back lounge explaining the thick wall but more likely is the room described as part of the market house in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs: ‘Connected with this apartment (and fronting Market House Lane) is another used as a supper room on assembly nights and as a Sunday School’. (Ordnance Survey Memoirs p.73) this could be the room in the return above but in which there is now no trace of decoration. The 1830 map marks the market house as the space exactly over the road, and the inn as present number 43, 45, and 47. The 1858 Griffiths Valuation has the present arrangement without the market house. Samuel Mercer is occupant of the ‘Hotel’ renting from Mary Ross, sister of Jane, (see HB02/12/019). In this century McGowans bought the bar in 1913. Mr Carty in 1939 (license displayed in bar) and Mullans in 1959. The present owner owns and rents number 45 to Mrs McNicholl of 51 Main Street (HB02/12/019). The windows to the main bar have been enlarged during the tenure of the present occupants.

References:

Mullan T E, Limavady and the Roe Valley
The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol 9
The occupants (1997)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A small bar with a simple exterior enlivened by an unusual lugged doorway which is the only hint of the buildings age. The building is of interest primarily for its long and interesting historical association with Limavady where it seems to have been one of the main focal points of the town for 300 years. Interior fittings which reflect this association and should be preserved are the lugged doorways, the arch, the staircase (which is quite a grand entrance arrangement). The roof rafters are a rare survival (in part) of early construction techniques which also add to the importance of the building.