2 Atlantic Avenue and 39-41 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Building formerly hotel known as 'Londonderry Arms' (39 Main Street and 2 - 5 Atlantic Avenue) and building formerly shop trading under 'Black and Sons' (41 Main Street)

Former pair of terraced three-storey rendered buildings, built c.1890, with projecting ground floor shopfronts inserted c.1910. Rectangular on plan facing northeast with three-storey returns to both units, that to the end having a three-storey elevation fronting onto Atlantic Avenue with two traditional shopfronts and culminating in the two storey gable to the Atlantic Bar. Nos 39 and 41 form part of a terrace of three similar buildings with Art Nouveau shopfronts lining the east side of Main Street comprising 39, 41 and 43 (No. 43 - The Trocadero HB03.10.018B).

Building formerly hotel known as 'Londonderry Arms' (39 Main Street and 2 - 5 Atlantic Avenue) and building formerly shop trading under 'Black and Sons' (41 Main Street)

Pitched artificial slate roofs with synthetic ridge tiles and six wall-head dormers uniformly arranged across the entire elevation (three to each unit). Decorative timber bargeboards and finials with uPVC rainwater goods. Painted rendered walling and rusticated rendered quoins to the corner. Single-pane timber sash windows.

Each former unit is three windows wide abutted by a projecting shopfront to the ground floor. Three segmental-headed window openings to the second floor dormers with masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows with part-exposed sash boxes. Square-headed window openings to the first floor, three to the end unit with single-pane timber sash windows, enlarged to No.41 comprising two window openings having architrave surrounds, keystones and tripartite timber casement windows with leaded coloured glazing to the upper panes. The former Londonderry Hotel occupies the corner with a decorative faience-clad projecting shopfront returning to the side elevation. Built in brick with modillioned cornice and fascia with faience lettering stating; ‘LONDONDERRY HOTEL’, having a tripartite entrance to the left and a shallow three-bay bow to the right. Architrave surrounds and decorative cartouches frame all openings with boarded up windows and plain double leaf timber door. Door opens onto front tiled area with central mosaic stating; ‘LONDONDERRY HOTEL’. No.41 is also abutted by a symmetrical shopfront with flat roof. Central door opening flanked by bowed display windows having Ionic colonettes to dentilled transom and leaded overlights, modified double-leaf timber doors with matching lintel and overlight opening onto a mosaic tiled area stating; ‘Black & Sons’ and terracotta tiled front area. Entire shopfront framed by a pair of marble Ionic pilasters and large brackets supporting a hood.

East side (2-5 Atlantic Avenue) elevation eight windows long with a large stained glass window to the stairwell at the gable of no. 39 and a pair of traditional shopfronts to the ground floor of the now amalgamated buildings along Atlantic Avenue. This elevation has cast-iron downpipes and largely single-pane timber sash windows. The shopfronts have painted masonry surrounds with replacement windows and doors. This elevation is abutted by the Atlantic Bar (see below).

Rear elevation abutted by three-storey returns with pebbledash rendered walling and replacement timber casement windows.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.43 - the Trocadero (HB03/10/018B).

Roof Artificial slate
RWG UPVC / Cast-iron
Walling Render
Windows Single-pane timber sash

The Atlantic Bar (1 Atlantic Avenue)

Attached two-storey rendered building with pub shopfront, built c.1890. Rectangular on plan facing southeast.

Pitched artificial slate roof with synthetic ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack to either end. UPVC rainwater goods. Painted render over red brick walling. Square-headed window openings with masonry sills and boarded up windows.

Front elevation is four windows wide arranged in pairs to either side with a painted masonry shopfront inserted to the left. Symmetrical shopfront comprises a central square-headed door opening flanked by curved display windows with colonettes and tiled stall risers, all flanked by panelled pilasters having strapped fasces and scrolled brackets framing a timber fascia with lettering stating; ‘ATLANTIC BAR’. Replacement double-leaf timber doors open onto a mosaic tiled area with Art Nouveau foliate patterns and lettering ‘Atlantic Bar’.

Gabled south side elevation has a single central window opening to the upper floor with a 2/2 timber sash window. Failed render reveals a red brick wall beneath.

Rear elevation abutted by two-storey outbuildings forming the rear of no.s 39 and 41 Main Street.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining buildings described above, fronting on to Atlantic Avenue.

Setting
No.s 39 and 41 form part of a terrace of three similar buildings with Art Nouveau shopfronts lining the southwest side of Main Street. The return of no 39 Main Street (the Londonderry Arms) fronts onto Atlantic Avenue, and joins internally with nos 1 – 5 Atlantic Avenue, culminating in the two-storey rendered Atlantic bar, whose gable fronts onto Mark Street Lane.

Roof Artificial slate
RWG UPVC / Cast-iron
Walling Render over red brick
Windows Single-pane timber sash

Historical information

The numbering of commercial properties on Main Street, Portrush, appears to have changed three times during their existence. For example, The Londonderry ‘Arms’ Hotel and Bar Retro (formely Black and Sons) were initially nos. 96 and 97 respectively, but by 1889 they were known as nos. 27 and 29, and currently they are nos. 39 and 41.

Building formerly known as 'The Londonderry Arms’ Hotel (39 Main Street)

The present footprint, once trading as ‘The Londonderry Arms’, spans the width of three gables on Main Street.

A map of Portrush, of around 1834 (PRONI VAL/1/D/1/6), clearly shows that the hotel and what is now Bar Retro/Black and Sons (no. 41) had yet to be built.

By 1844 building-work had begun from the intersection of Main Street and Atlantic Ave (these are current names of the streets: in 1844 they had yet to be defined [PRONI D2977/36/6/10]. Before Atlantic Ave was named [possibly after the dairy that was established on it], the road was called Church Pass). A 14-perch plot (32ft wide by 123ft long, numbered some time later as no. 96) was leased for building to Thomas Dunlop, who erected the first property of a row of three-storey terrace-houses, which was to become The Londonderry Hotel. An isometric perspective of Portrush by Dan Hanna, dated 1857 (PRONI D2977/36/6/13) (described as ‘the Property of The Earl of Antrim Showing the Building Lots to be Let and the Description of Buildings proposed to be Erected’) illustrates a pitched roof without gables; a central door-opening on the ground floor with two flanking rectangular windows; and three rectangular lights to each of the first and second floors. It had a 10ft-deep front garden with a gate (the present footprint of the single story faïence extension and entrance), and a long rear garden/yard.

A licensed hotel (plus offices and gardens) was first cited on the site (then renumbered to 27) in the 1889-1895 valuation record (PRONI VAL/12/B/6/2E), though the rateable value does not seem to reflect its commercial use. Between 1895 and 1906 (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A) the rateable valuation of no. 27 Main Street (then The Londonderry Hotel) also included no. 1 Atlantic Ave. By 1914 the property incorporated nos. 1-5 Atlantic Ave. (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22C) and this remained the status quo until 1936 (PRONI VAL/3C/1/30) when numbers 1-5 Atlantic Ave. changed collectively to no. 2 Atlantic Ave.

Black and Sons or Bar Retro (41 Main Street)

At the same time as The Londonderry Hotel was being built, an 18-perch plot (44ft wide by 122ft deep), later known as no. 97, was leased to Alexander Dunlop, who also erected a three-story dwelling in the same style and aesthetic as his neighbour—a ground-floor door-opening manifest between the two dwellings (nos. 96 and 97) on the front façade. No. 97 too was given a 10ft-deep front garden with a gate, plus a long rear yard/garden in which two buildings were erected, seemingly accessible from what is now Mark Street, which runs parallel to Main Street. No. 97 (later 29, and then 41) was the footprint that would eventually become Bar Retro.

The isometric perspective (1857) mentioned above, showing building-plots to be let, demonstrates that nos. 96 and 97 were the first residential buildings at that location of Main Street which became an elegant terrace where The Trocadero Restaurant (HB03/10/018B) at no. 33, and The White House (HB03/10/018A) department-store, at no 45, would later emerge. The series of gables over the second-floor windows appears to have been added later, but a precise date has proved elusive.

Between 1889 and 1895 the building remained a private house with offices and gardens; its rateable value was similar to that of the adjoining building. From 1895 to 1906 the lessor changed to Jane B. Hurst who also acquired the lease for no. 31. She subdivided no. 29 into two commercial properties (reflected in their rateable values)(PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A). No. 29a (the side of the building immediately adjoining The Londonderry Hotel) became a small shop of 30 square yards, which traded independently until 1920 (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22C). No. 29b became a part of the ‘Osborne Hotel’ (extending from no. 31) retaining its offices and small garden, but included a ‘Billiard Room’. The combined square footage of no. 29b and no. 31 arguably maps the footprint of the present Bar Retro (PRONI VAL/12/E/46/2/2).

From c.1920 no. 29b ceased to be a part of the Osborne Hotel and was reinvented as a shop, bakehouse, and chocolate-factory—all rateable values reflect these shifts in ownership and use (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22C). By 1925 ‘Black & Sons’ (occupiers of the shop, bakehouse, and yard at no. 29b) became the occupiers of no. 31 (Osborne Hotel) and established a restaurant (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22D). The trading name ‘Black & Sons’ remains extant in coloured mosaic (Art Nouveau in style), all particularly modern at the time. In 1938 nos. 29 and 31 (then renumbered to nos. 41 and 43), became occupied by Black & Son(s), and the name ‘Trocadero Ltd’ emerged.

The Atlantic Bar (1 Atlantic Avenue)

The Atlantic Bar now occupies the rear part at ground foor of what was once called The Londonderry Hotel. A licensed hotel (plus offices and gardens) was first cited on the site in the 1889-1895 valuation record (PRONI VAL/12/B/6/2E), though the rateable value does not seem to reflect its commercial use. Between 1895 and 1906 (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A) the rateable valuation of no. 27 Main Street (then The Londonderry Hotel) also included no. 1 Atlantic Ave. By 1914 the property incorporated nos. 1-5 Atlantic Ave. (PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22C) and this remained the status quo until 1936 (PRONI VAL/3C/1/30) when numbers 1-5 Atlantic Ave. Changed collectively to no. 2 Atlantic Ave, the postal address of the Atlantic Bar.

The registered address of the establishment known as The Atlantic Bar first entered the Belfast and Northern Ireland Street Directory in 1980 at No. 2 Atlantic Ave (the address that had once been nos. 1-5 Atlantic Ave), and was occupied by those who ran The Londonderry Hotel at no. 39 Main Street.

The three buildings from this date forward appear to have been conjoined internally; the main buildings and outbuildings are connected through series of access doors and stairs connecting the various ground floor levels. Because they are joined interenally, because of their single ownership and and because of their interconnecting history, these once separate buildings - no 39 Main Street, no 41 Main Street, and no 2 Atlantic Avenue (comprising 1-5 Atlantic Avenue) - are considered to be a single record.

Primary Sources

Maps/Drawings
PRONI VAL/1/D/1/6, Portrush, 30” to one mile (c.1834)
PRONI VAL/12/E/46/2/2, map (1897-1916)
PRONI D2977/36/6/10, Map of Portrush, 60ft to 1” (1844)
PRONI D2977/36/6/13 Hanna, Dan, “Isometric Perspective of the Town of Portrush in the County of Antrim, Ireland, the Property of The Earl of Antrim Shewing the Building Lots to be Let and the Description of Buildings proposed to be Erected” (1857)

VAL Records
PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22A Ballymoney Union Portrush (Urban) ED, Co. Antrim (1895-1906)
PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22C Electoral Division of Portrush Urban (1914-1925)
PRONI VAL/12/B/4/22D Electoral Division of Portrush Urban (1925-1930)
PRONI VAL/12/B/6/2E Electoral Division of Portrush Urban (1889-1895)
PRONI VAL/3C/1/30 Urban District of Portrush, Electoral Division (1936-1957)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Former pair of terraced three-storey rendered buildings, built c.1890, with projecting decorative ground floor shopfronts inserted c.1920, and attached rear return and rendered terrace culminating in rendered building also with decorative bar/shopfront. Built as one of three similar buildings these two examples have been amalgamated into a single unit and interconnected along Atlantic Avenue internallyt to the Atlantic Bar. Despite also having been interconnected at first and second floor during its time in the early 20th C in which the Londonderry Arms served as a hotel, the buildings are still readable as several units externally with the Art Nouveau decorative ground floor shop, hotel, and bar fornts clearly defining the division. The set of interconnecting buildings contributes to an attractive group of rare early twentieth-century shopfronts in the centre of Portrush, giving the listing group value.