'Antrim House'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey terrace shop with apartment(s) of 1895, fronted by a Freestyle façade with Flemish gable, and a later bowed shop front. The property, which was latterly part of the (now rebuilt) neighbouring hotel but is currently largely disused, is set on the west side of Main Street, in Portrush town centre.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces NE, but for the purposes of this description NE will be read as E etc. To the left on the ground floor of the front elevation is a doorway, which leads to the apartments. This doorway consists of a recessed panelled timber door and plain semicircular fanlight with plain pilaster-like jambs and a moulded archivolt; just above the latter is a small moulded ‘gable’ (or ‘tympanum’) feature.

To the right of the apartment doorway there is a is a very broad projecting shop front with a shallow bow and flat roof. This shop front was added in the early twentieth century. Formerly this shop front was spanned by a large mullioned and transomed window, with a doorway to the right hand side. The window has been completely boarded up (though mullions can be seen) and the doorway is now filled with a recent flat panel door.

To the first floor there are two large square windows with recessed ‘apron’ panels under. These windows are set within a broad, shallow bay which is flanked with pilasters. Beyond the bay, to either side, there is a much narrower (‘Georgian proportioned’) window with moulded surround and pediment. All of these windows are boarded up. To the second floor there are two windows to the centre (within the gable- see below), these are also of ‘Georgian proportions’ but smaller than the outer windows to the first floor. Both have moulded surrounds and timber sash frames with plate glass glazing.

The façade is finished in painted render. There are slender full-height pilasters to the edges of the façade with similar but broader pilasters to either edge of the central bay. The pilasters ‘continue’ beyond a cornice-like string / cill course moulding to the second floor where they become piers. Between these piers, to the outer edges, there is a short balustrade, whilst between the inner piers (i.e. those rising from the edges of the bay) there is a Flemish gable with moulded ‘coping’ and small tympanum to the apex. The inner piers are topped with urn finials.

To the rear of the building an un-painted sand cement return projects. This extends from the rear of the main block at two and half stories, for the approximate depth of a standard return. It then steps up to three stories for three bays of one over one sash windows to the northern side. There is a simple rendered chimney with two pots at the junction. The windows at second floor are of standard sash proportion those at first floor are of the longer proportion in fashion at the end of the nineteenth century. That closest to the building is a pair of windows of sloghtly narrower proportion. At ground floor to each side the building has been extended by flat roofed projections. To the south this is to the site boundary. To the north is a similar infill arrangement between the return and the adjacent hotel. At the rear, ground floor is briefly exposed before meeting a retaining wall and a modern casement window can be seen. The end gable is blank apart from a fire exit door at second floor level. This is served by a corroded steel external fire escape. The return has a natural slate roof simply detailed its walls are finished in a mixture of dry dash and cement render, with painted cement render to the ground floor.

The W gable elevation of the main front building could not be seen, but internal observation shows that there are two windows to far left at first floor level, with another to a higher half-landing level, all with timber sash frames as before. To the far right there is a doorway to the ground floor, with partly glazed timber door and large (almost square) fanlight. This doorway is set within a small single-storey lean-to projection.

Internal observation shows that the eastern end of the building has a gabled roof with the ridge set on a N-S alignment, with a short projecting gable at right-angle to this to the eastern side. To the western side there is a much longer gabled section set at a right angle. Only a small section of the western end of the roof could be seen from outside. It is slated and has two cast-iron skylights to the N side and one to S. The rainwater goods appear to be largely cast-iron.

Historical information

This property –‘Antrim House’- was built in 1895, replacing a house dating from some time between 1833 and 1859. The valuers’ describe the new building as a ‘house and shop’, but, due to its large size, they add the phrase ‘really two houses communicating’. They also tell us that around £1,300 was spent on construction, a sum they regarded as a ‘great outlay’ considering the owner, a Mrs Annie Woods, only had a 32 year lease.

The architect Berkey Wise who extended and renovated the former Northern Counties hotel adjacent has been attributed by some to designing this building at the same time.

A plan supplied in the valuers’ office notebook, shows that the original shop front consisted of a square projecting bay measuring 19ft x 4 x 12, and that there was originally a narrow open yard to the southwest.

In 1918, Annie Woods leased the property to a Joseph Elkes, who was followed by an ‘Israel Samuels & Son’ in 1929, with the house section occupied by a Joseph Sandford in 1935. The following year the property was purchased by the owners of the neighbouring ‘Northern Counties Hotel’ and used, (it is believed), as a bar and for staff accommodation. It was probably at this point, (or slightly later), that the original square shop front was replaced with the present ‘bowed’ projection, and the narrow two-storey extension built over the formerly open yard to the south.

The Northern Counties Hotel itself was destroyed in a fire in 1990 and another built on its site shortly afterwards. Antrim House escaped the fire unscathed, is now partly used as a store for the new hotel.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1B/137 Valuation book, Ballywillin parish (1833-38)
2 PRONI VAL/1D/1/6 Valuation town plan of Portrush (1838)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/1/30a Second valuation, Ballywillin parish (1859)
4 PRONI VAL/12B/6/2a Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED (1859-64)
5 PRONI VAL/12E/46/1 Valuation town plan of Portrush (1859-98)
6 PRONI VAL/12B/6/2b Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED (1864-76)
7 PRONI VAL/12B/6/2c Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED (1876-84)
8 PRONI VAL/12B/6/2d Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED (1885-89)
9 PRONI VAL/12B/6/2a Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED (1889-95)
10 PRONI VAL/12A/1/119 Valuers’ office notebook, Portrush UD (1895)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/6/22a-d Annual valuation revision books, Portrush ED (1895-c.1930)
12 PRONI VAL/12E/46/1-5 Valuation town plans of Portrush (1897-1916)
13 PRONI VAL/12E/46/1 Valuation town plan of Portrush (1907-28)
14 PRONI VAL/3B/1/? First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush UD (1935)
15 PRONI VAL/3C/1/? First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush UD (1936-57)
16 PRONI VAL/4B/1/? Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush UD (1956-72)
17 EHS File for Northern Counties Hotel HB03/10/012 (DELSTED)
18 EHS File For Antrim HouseHB03/10/038

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS NORTH ANTRIM P11.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Three-storey terrace shop with apartment(s) of 1895, fronted by a Freestyle façade with Flemish gable, and a later bowed shop front. The decorative, front elevation of this building adds considerable interest to the streetscape of this part of Portrush. The building is of special interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, structural system (which is a example of an early steel frame) and the related surviving plan form particularly of the front section. Its age and association with the former Northern Counties hotel contributes to its interest as does its construction as a decorative late victorian shop in a prosperous seaside resort.