5 Kingsgate Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The building was demolished c1998 following Planning Approval for its replacement.

First Survey record - 'Six three storey brick or rendered buildings with modern shopfronts. Upper windows, some triple, are modern, Georgian-paned or plain sashed. Roofs are slated and chimneys are of brick or finished in render.'

Historical information

Numbers 1, 3 and 5 Kingsgate Street were demolished in the late 1990s but the original buildings on the site, shown in a first survey photograph dating from 1993 are likely to have incorporated fabric of late eighteenth or early nineteenth century date, having been constructed across the line of the former city ramparts, which were levelled during the eighteenth century.

Kingsgate Street marks the position of a former gateway to the fortified town of Coleraine, earthern ramparts surrounded by a ditch having been constructed at the time of plantation in 1611 (Mullin). By 1622 what was formerly known as the ‘East Gate’ of the town had been fitted with a small gate and drawbridge 12 feet wide ‘having a small timber room over...slated’ (Mullin). By 1710, however the town gates had been dismantled, although the ramparts remained in the Kingsgate area for some years. In 1738 a holding of 17 perches in the Kingsgate area was appropriated for a school funded by the Irish Society. The holding is described as bounded on the west by the rampart and according to Mullin was situated at the point where the road widens in Kingsgate Street, equivalent today to numbers 9 to 11. (Mullin) By the first edition OS map of 1830 no rampart was evident on the south side of Kingsgate Street and the former line of the rampart had been built over by number 1, 3 5 and 7.

Numbers 5 is shown on the first edition OS map of 1830 and the townland valuation (1828-40) records house and offices occupied by John Sarson and valued at £10.16s. The valuation fieldbook gives measurements showing that numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7 were of identical height and depth but varied in the width of their street frontage. All four buildings had cellar kitchens. To the rear of number was a stable.

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64), number five was occupied by James Curry and valued at £13 with an annual rent paid of £16. The grocery concern was described as being in a ‘a neat shop in good repair’. The measurements recorded in the fieldbook suggest that this building remained unaltered from the previous survey in the 1830s.

Subsequent occupiers were Denis O’Shea (nd) John Massey (nd) H & M Lithgow (1863) Thomas Lithgow (nd) James McClean (nd) John Gracey (1872) Thomas J Hervey (1876) John Darragh (1877) James Darragh (1884) Jane Darragh (1897) and Mary Alice Darragh (1924) who remained resident until the late 1940s when it was taken over by Molly Holley and then the Keenan family. The 1901 and 1911 censuses record that the shop was then a draper’s with thirteen rooms and was occupied by Jane Darragh, a widow from County Down who was assisted by her three adult daughters (1901, 1911 census). The ground floor consisted of the shop and work room and WC to the rear with stores at the bottom of the yard. The living accommodation was entered through the shop. In the 1950s a modern shopfront was fitted and the former work room became part of the shop. The living accommodation still had no bath or hot water at this date.

The building was listed in 1977 and in 1998 permission was granted to demolish numbers one, three and five, which were then replaced with modern shops (HB file).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/542A-D Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/3/D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-N Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/2/A/12 First General Revaluation 1933-57
11. HB file – 03/17/001C

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
2. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in by-gone centuries” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1976
3. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in Georgian Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1977

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The building was demolished c1998 following Planning Approval for its replacement.

First Survey record - 'Six three storey brick or rendered buildings with modern shopfronts. Upper windows, some triple, are modern, Georgian-paned or plain sashed. Roofs are slated and chimneys are of brick or finished in render.'