9 Kingsgate Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A red-brick two-bay three-storey mid-terrace former dwelling, now commercial premises with modern shopfront; pre-dating 1830 and located to the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Square on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystack with moulded cap. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on brackets. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick to upper floors; smooth painted render to ground floor shop front. Windows are replacement timber sash with horns and projecting concrete sills; 6/3 to second floor and 6/6 to ground floor; modern plate glass windows to ground floor shop-front.

The principal elevation faces north and is three openings wide at upper floors. Modern shopfront at ground floor has tripartite plate glass windows on painted smooth rendered stall riser having two large moulded panels; large modern timber entrance door at left. Ulster History Circle plaque between first floor windows reads “HUGH THOMSON / 1860-1920/ Artist and / Illustrator/ was born here”.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/03/001F).

The south (rear) elevation was not viewed.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/002A).

Setting:
Street-fronted and forming part of a terrace of commercial units to the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Enclosed yard to rear.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Flemish-bonded red-brick
Windows: Replacement timber sash with horns
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Number 9 Kingsgate Street has been reconstructed behind the front elevation in recent years, but documentary evidence suggests that there was a school on this site by the mid eighteenth century and that the current building, was originally built prior to 1830 (Valuation records).

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. The school is reported to have been in ruins by 1814 and it is not clear whether any of the fabric has been retained in buildings currently on the site. (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 numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7.

The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records numbers 9 to 11 as an auction house occupied by Michael Doherty, auctioneer, and valued at £16 (New Directory 1839). The measurements of the house, 40 feet by 24.5 feet and 17.5 feet high, suggest that in the 1830s the building was lower than its neighbours. The building had a double-height porch projection to the front and the rear yard housed a kitchen and pantry, privy and piggery and a single-storey schoolroom with return which may have been the Irish Society school that was built c1738. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the house had been divided into two and was three storeys high, suggesting that the building had been raised or rebuilt since the Townland Valuation. Number nine had been taken over by Jane Smith and was valued at £20 with a £20 rent payable. In the mid nineteenth century it was a private house and is described as ‘in good repair but not a very desirable situation’. The house bears a plaque stating that Hugh Thomson, artist and illustrator was born in the house, however, the Thomson family is not listed in valuation records for the period, and were perhaps lodgers rather than occupiers. Hugh Thomson was born on 1 June 1860 the son of John Thomson, tea merchant. His talent for illustration was spotted when he designed a commemorative address for his headmaster and he became an apprentice at Marcus Ward & Co in Belfast. He later moved to London where he illustrated over 70 books including novels such as The Vicar of Wakefield and Cranford and exhibited on numerous occasions including a joint exhibition with Kate Greenaway at the Fine Art Society in 1887. A complete set of his illustrated books is held by the Ulster Museum, as well as a number of his watercolours and drawings (Dictionary of Irish Biography). The present house was taken over by Rev A B Irvine, Curate of Coleraine parish church in 1863, (Clergy of Derry and Raphoe) and James Maclean in 1872, followed by the Misses Maclean in 1927.

James Maclean ran the premises as a grocery shop and is recorded in the 1911 census as resident with his wife and two daughters, one of whom was an assistant in the shop. The family provided lodgings for three boarders; a dressmaker, a draper’s apprentice and a 12-year-old girl still at school. The six-room house was designated first class. Ann, Charlotte and Mary Maclean were living at the house in the 1930s and valuer’s notes record the accommodation as a basement kitchen, a shop and pantry on the ground floor, two receptions and a WC on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. The associated plan shows the house and return with outbuildings in the rear yard.

The building was listed in 1977 and had been derelict for some time when it was reconstructed and extended behind the front elevation in the 1990s. A Georgian doorway and fanlight was replaced in the same style and has recently been obscured by signage (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 – 03/17/001E

Secondary Sources

1. Fawcett, FW Rev Canon; Crooks, DWT Rev Canon; Leslie JB Rev “Clergy of Derry and Raphoe” Ulster Historical Foundation, 1999
2. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in Coleraine and Portstewart” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971-2
3. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009
4. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in by-gone centuries” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1976
5. 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

A red-brick two-bay three-storey mid-terrace former dwelling, now commercial premises; pre-dating 1830 and located to the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Refurbished as a modern commercial unit in the late twentieth century with the loss of much historic fabric and detailing. Its group value has also been eroded with the demolition of 1 -3 Kingsgate Street. Little of architectural or historic interest remains apart from the upper floors of the front elevation.