11 Kingsgate Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A painted brick two-bay three-storey mid-terrace 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 artificial slate roof with chimneystack removed. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on brackets. Walling is Flemish-bonded brick to upper floors, painted white; full modern shop front beneath. Windows are replacement 1/1 timber sash with horns and projecting masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is three openings wide at upper floors over modern shopfront.

The east elevation is abutted by taller adjoining building, which projects forward (HB03/17/03/002A).

The south (rear) elevation was not viewed.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/17/001E).

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: Artificial slate
Walling: Brick
Windows: Replacement timber sash.
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Number 11 Kingsgate Street is of uncertain date but documentary evidence suggests that there was a school on this site by the mid-eighteenth century and that the current building, present in the 1830s, was raised or rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century (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. This may be the Irish Society school that was built c1738 and was said to be in ruins by 1814. 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 eleven had been taken over by Jane Haddock and was a private house valued at £20. The three-storey house had a basement and a three-storey addition with a ‘coach house’ to the rear. In 1911 the occupier was widow Ellen Irwin, a merchant who lived with her three adult children, two of whom were teachers.

Subsequent occupiers were Teresa Donnelly (1917) Alexander Thompson (1919) and Robert Blair (1923). The valuation was raised to £28 in 1923 as a new shop front of mahogany and plate glass was added bringing the front of the building forward two feet, together with a ‘tessellated floor to entrance’. A new kitchen was also added and a new WC in the yard. In the 1920s the accommodation comprised a shop, kitchen and scullery on the ground floor and a drawing room, bedroom, bathroom and WC on the first floor. There were three bedrooms on the second floor. By the 1930s part of the building was being used as a hairdressing salon and part as a bootshop and fitting room. In the 1950s the premises became a fish shop and the walls and floor were tiled and the former fitting room used as a filleting room.

The shop was listed in 1977 and a new shopfront and signage were fitted in the late 1990s. (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 – 03/17/001F
12. New Directory 1839
13. 1901/11 census online

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

A painted brick two-bay three-storey terraced 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 and the diminution of historic character to 5 - 9 Kingsgate street.