9-11 The Diamond

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Formerly two two-bay, two-storey mid-terrace houses dating from the 1880s; demolished in 2003 and rebuilt as one commercial unit; located to the east side of The Diamond in Portstewart town centre. Square on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks. Plastic rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is painted ruled-and-lined render. Windows are modern 3/6 timber sash with projecting painted sills; tripartite plate-glass windows to ground-floor shop-fronts.

The principal elevation faces west and can be read as two units. Six windows to first floor over two traditional style shop-fronts. Shop-fronts are identical, comprising tripartite windows flanked by wide panelled pilasters on rendered plinths over rendered stall-riser with projecting sill; modern four-panelled timber door to left accessed via a single stone step. Plain timber fascia over has applied lettering and cornice with lead covering.

The north elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB03/08/004C.

The east (rear) elevation was not viewed.

The south elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB03/08/004G.

Setting:

West-facing to the south end of the terrace. The terrace is prominently situated, facing an important junction on the approach to Portstewart town centre. The area is characterised by mainly commercial units housed in two-storey terraces on the southern edge of the town. Numbers 9-11 are set back from the road with tarmacadamed public parking area to front. Large two-and-a-half-storey modern extension with dormers to north side of terrace, extending to full length of terrace at rear. To north side of The Diamond is Agherton Parish Church (HB03/08/001).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Ruled-and-lined render
Windows: Timber sash
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

Numbers 9-11 were demolished in 2003 and rebuilt leaving no original fabric. Buildings are shown on the site of this terrace on the first edition OS map of 1830. However, valuation records record the dwelling houses then on the site as four structures of low value, ranging from £1 to £2.5s in valuation, and possibly therefore single-storey vernacular buildings. The terrace was remodelled in its present form as seven dwelling houses between 1875 and 1882, reflecting the growth of Portstewart into a successful bathing resort, although the row is without architectural pretension and is likely to have retained fabric from its simpler predecessors. The larger house and shop at the northern end were a successful commercial enterprise while the attached terrace was let out to a succession of working-class tenants, including local fishermen.

A newly remodelled number nine was entered into valuation records in 1880 and was leased from William Martin suggesting he was the developer of the site. The house and its neighbours, valued at £4.10s, are initially vacant but by 1885 the tenant was Robert McKergan. In 1900 the tenant was Mrs Campbell followed by Daniel McGowan in 1901. McGowan was a 45-year-old fisherman and the head of a very large household comprising his wife and nine children ranging in age from 2 to 20. The older three children were in employment, the eldest following his father into the fishing trade and two sons of 16 and 14 working as a baker and a message boy respectively. The seven-room house is designated second class and has two outbuildings. Daniel McGowan is followed by Deane (1909) and Robert Clarke (1912) then James Boyd (nd) and Elizabeth McCafferty (1951)

In the 1930s accommodation comprised a kitchen, one room and four bedrooms and the rent was £1 per month. The associated plan shows the house with a yard to the rear with coal shed and a further communal yard containing a row of WCs of brick and corrugated iron, one of which was allocated to each of the dwelling houses from number 9 to number 15.

Number eleven was entered into valuation records in 1882 and was leased from William Martin suggesting he was the developer of the site. The tenant was initially James Shaw, followed by Robert Irwin in 1885 and Andrew Logue in 1886. By 1900 the tenant was William Cox Junior, a carter who lived with his wife and three young children in the seven room house which was designated second class. In the 1930s the accommodation was listed as a kitchen and five bedrooms, the rent being £1 per month.

Girvan commented in the 1970s that the Diamond was ‘a pleasant enclosure, away from the sea-front...and dominated by the Parish Church’. (Girvan)

Numbers 9 and 11 were demolished in August 2003 and subsequently rebuilt. (www.planningni.gov.uk; HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 Second Edition OS map 1856
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1922-39
5. PRONI OS/6/5/3/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1939-50
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/539A-B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/10 Griffiths Valuation (1861)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/18 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/8/A/5 First General Revaluation 1933-57
11. 1901 census
12. 1911 census
13. HB file – 03/08/004A-B
14. Street Directory 1861

Secondary Sources

1. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in Coleraine and Portstewart” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971-2

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Formerly two two-bay, two-storey mid-terrace houses dating from the 1880s; demolished in 2003 and rebuilt as one commercial unit; located to the east side of The Diamond in Portstewart town centre. Once part of an important terrace that lends much to the townscape character of Portstewart. Despite the extensive rebuild/restoration, it still has group value as part of a listed terrace in a prominent position on the approach to the town.