Washhouse, Adjacent to Nos 3-6 Coastguard Cottages, Causeway View Lane, Portrush, Co Antrim, BT56 8DA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey wash house and attached outbuildings to the rear of a former)Coastguard station of 1896. The station consists of a detached two-storey station building / commander officer's house, and six two-storey dwellings arranged in a terrace, as well as the wash house, outbuildings, and a later boathouse / associated store. Designed in a simple, loosely Georgian-style, the entire grouping may originally have been finished in brick but is now almost entirely rendered. The buildings are set in urban surroundings, to the north of Portrush town centre, on a slight rise between Main Street (in the south) and Causeway View Lane (in the north). Gardens belonging to each of the dwellings are detached and set to the to the west side.

The wash house and its attendant buildings are set to the immediate east of the terrace, in the yards of nos.3-6 Coastguard Cottages.

The roof is pitched; this is set at right angles to the roof over the rooms, thus presenting a gable to the west front façade. The roof is finished with natural slate and the ridge tiles are grey fireclay. To the rear of the ridge there is a brick chimneystack with a corbelled cap and clay pots. Eaves are without overhangs; there is a fush timber eaves fascia.

The walls of the wash house are faced with red clay brick and the eaves are set approximately 600mm higher than the adjoining outbuildings. The attached outbuildings have rendered walls with flat-arched doorways with timber sheeted doors, slated mono-pitched roofs.

The building houses a communal washhouse and a series of small rooms. Nos.3-6 are each allocated two of the rooms, with one of these two originally serving as a fuel store and the other an outside WC. All are now used as stores / junk rooms. There are six no. rooms to the north side and two to the south side.

The west wall of the washhouse advances forward revealing side walls to the north and south sides. On the north side wall there is a flat-headed door opening with a timber sheeted door; the brick lintel is flat-arched. To the west wall there are two flat-arched window openings with painted timber 6/6 sash frames. The lintels are as the doorway and the sills are painted cut stone.

Historical information

This former coastguard Station to which these buildings once served, was built in 1896 and originally consisted of the station itself (No.130 Main Street) and the six dwellings –with detached gardens- to the north (1-6 Coastguard Cottages). It replaced a pre-1857 station, which was made up of a station house itself and four smaller dwellings, all arranged in a terrace fronting directly on to Main Street (and which may not have been purpose-built). The Board of Works tender notice for the construction of the new buildings appeared in August 1892, however, it is only in 1896 that the valuations make reference to a 'new coastguard station in progress'. The identity of the architect is not known, but the valuations appear to suggest that the building costs amounted to £2,500.

The wash house and its attendant outbuildings served nos.3-6. These houses are smaller than nos.1-2 and were probably for lower ranking officers. In 1923, with the placing of the Coastguard under the Broad of Trade and the changes that this entailed, the number of staff was reduced and nos.3-6 began to be rented out to private individuals, with the freeholds for each of the properties sold off later in the century. The outbuildings probably ceased to be used for there original puposes during the mid 20th century, when indoor WCs and washing facilities were intorduced into the dwellings themselves.

For more on the history of this former Coastguard station see HB03/10/057B.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS6/1/2/2 OS map, County Antrim sheet 2, 1857
2 PRONI VAL2D/1/7 Valuation plan of Portrush, c.1859
3 PRONI VAL2B/1/30B Second valuation, Dunluce parish, c.1859
4 PRONI VAL12B/6/2A Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED, 1859-64
5 PRONI VAL12B/6/2B Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED, 1864-76
6 PRONI VAL12B/6/2C Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED, 1876-84
7 PRONI VAL12B/6/2D Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED, 1884-89
8 PRONI VAL12B/6/2E Annual valuation revision book, Portrush ED, 1889-95
9 ‘Irish Builder’, 1 August 1892
10 PRONI VAL12B/4/22A Annual valuation revision book, Portrush Urban ED, 1895-1906
11 PRONI VAL12E/46/2/1-4 Valuation plan of Portrush book, 1897[-1916]
12 PRONI VAL12B/4/22B Annual valuation revision book, Portrush Urban ED, 1906-13
13 PRONI VAL12B/4/22C Annual valuation revision book, Portrush Urban ED, 1914-25
14 PRONI OS6/1/2/4 OS map, County Antrim sheet 2, 1921
15 PRONI VAL12B/4/22D Annual valuation revision book, Portrush Urban ED, 1925-30
16 PRONI VAL12F/1/15 Annual valuation revision book, Portrush Urban ED, 1930-35
17 NIEA OS map, County Antrim sheet 2, 1935
18 PRONI VAL3B/1/16 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush Urban ED, 1935
19 PRONI VAL3C/1/30 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush Urban ED, 1936-57
20 PRONI VAL4B/1/64 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Portrush Urban ED, 1957-72

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by owners, August 2009

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Single-storey wash house and attached outbuildings to the rear of a former Coastguard station of 1896. The late Victorian Coastguard station of which this property is part has maintained much of its original form and appearance as well as some ancillary buildings and most of the gardens relating to the individual dwellings. Although lacking the architectural flourishes of some earlier stations, the main terrace has an attractive Georgian-style - almost ‘artisan-cottage’ - simplicity, whose impact is enhanced by its location, wedged between two streets with the properties facing into their respective detached gardens, whilst the main freestanding station building, again of Georgian derivation, has a sturdy, commanding presence which adds interest to the streetscape. It is a good example of the type and of interest as part of the Coastguard estate in the Province. The retention of these ancillary buildings adds to the group value, with the wash house a particularly interesting piece of domestic heritage.