21 Bridge Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay corner-sited commercial premises with twin shopfronts, built c.1800 to designs by either Thomas Ivory and/or John Johnson and located to the north side of Bridge Street at the junction of Circular Road in Coleraine town centre. L-shaped plan with two two-storey gabled returns to rear.

Hipped artificial roof with angled tiles to ridges and hips; plastic rainwater goods on metal brackets. Walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth to west; roughcast render to rear. Windows are 1/1 timber sash with horns in plain reveals with projecting painted sills (unless otherwise stated); modern plate-glass windows to shopfronts.

The principal elevation faces south and has three evenly-spaced windows to first floor (that to far right is 2/2 timber sash without horns). Two replacement ground floor shopfronts flank a round-headed Georgian doorcase, comprising pilasters surmounted by moulded archivolt with keyblock, and containing a modern timber door surmounted by metal spider-web fanlight. Left shopfront is enclosed by panelled pilasters and has plate-glass windows with timber frames on ceramic tiled stall-risers; recessed central entrance is fully glazed with modern glass panel timber door surmounted by modern etched glass transom light. Porch is splayed and laid with modern floor tiles. Right shopfront is enclosed at left by panelled pilaster and comprises large plate-glass window on ceramic tiled stall-riser with modern glass panel timber door, surmounted by a plain transom light. Shopfronts each have modern metal hood with shutters over. Shopfronts each with applied plastic lettering over reading “HUEY & HENDERSON” at left and “SPORTS SPECIALISTS” at right.

The west elevation has five evenly-spaced windows at first floor; timber casement window to ground floor left and large plate-glass shop window to right enclosed by panelled pilasters.

The north (rear) elevation has projecting bay to right, abutted at left by gabled return, which is further abutted by a roughcast rendered lean-to. Left bay is also abutted by a two-storey gabled return, flush with that at right, each having two window openings at first floor fronted by metal bars. Left gabled return has timber-framed former shopfront at ground floor with twentieth-century multi-light casement window, toplights and glass panel timber door. To far left is a modern door opening.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/18/040).

Setting:

Corner-sited at the junction of Bridge Street and Circular Road, approached from west by the Bann Bridge. Forming part of a Georgian terrace of two-and-three storey commercial units in the most westerly pedestrianised area of the town. Bridge Street leads from the Town Hall (HB03/18/001) at east to the Bann Bridge at west. Gravelled yard to rear accessed from Circular Road at west by a modern metal security gate; enclosed to neighbouring property to north by modern timber fence

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted smooth render
Windows: 1/1 timber sash with horns
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

The present building is thought to have originally been a customs house, begun in 1783 and designed by Thomas Ivory or by John Johnson who submitted a bill for plans. The Public Record Office in Kew contains original records supporting a case for either or both of these architects to be identified as the designer. Further original records suggest that outbuildings were designed by John Mitchell. (www.dia.ie; Girvan)

However, the primary evidence suggests that by the 1830s the customs house was not the present shop at 21 Bridge Street but was a structure beside number 21 (now gone) that is shown on the first edition OS map of 1830, set back from the street and situated at the head of a small dock or inlet from the river that had been filled in by the second edition OS map (1849-50). It is this neighbouring building that is identified as the Customs House in the Townland Valuation and is noted by OS Memoirs as being in very poor condition and shortly to be demolished. OS Memoirs suggest that number 21 was by this time the residence of the customs collector, and the customs house was located in his former outbuildings. The building is depicted in the ‘Book of Coleraine’ much as today and is one of the least altered among the few buildings that still survive from this period. It is shown as a three-bay dwelling house with double chimneys, a hipped roof, small-paned windows and a fan-lighted central door. An ornamental railing runs in front of the house with large double entrance gates to the Customs House beside it and a single-storey extension (now gone) is shown to the eastern side. Mr M T Hill was the collector of customs in 1802 and describes the imports as consisting ‘chiefly of sugar, salts, coals, timber, deals, earthenware, hardware and herrings’. By the 1830s linen yarn, which was woven for export by local weavers, had been added to this list (OS Memoirs).

The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records the building as ‘Miss Henry’s Hotel’, valued at £38.16s.2d - a house with returns, a pantry, five outbuildings including a stable and a piggery, privy and safe. Miss Henry’s hotel was an important venue in the 1830s a time of political upheaval at election times. Mullin reports that 50 of the main inhabitants of the town had dinner at Miss Henry’s and passed an evening ‘in the greatest conviviality’ having turned out to support their candidate (Mullin). The Belfast Newsletter records the hotel as a venue for Linen trade meetings (21st October 1828), property auctions (31st March 1829), visits by travelling dentists selling artificial teeth (2nd April 1833) and Coleraine Farming Society dinners (4th March 1834). Miss Henry retired from public life in 1835 and the Newsletter notes that a dinner was held to mark the occasion and subscriptions were collected towards purchasing her a piece of plate ‘which will be to her a pleasing memento of the high estimation in which she was held by so respectable a portion of the community’ (Belfast Newsletter 20th March 1835).

By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the house had been taken over by Charles Doherty, a cabinet maker who ran an ‘auction and commission mart’ on the premises (Street Directory 1861). The building was valued at £32. In 1877 the valuation was raised to £42 in view of improvements to the rear. In 1895 the building was divided into two holdings, one remaining in the Doherty family and valued at £12 and the other leased by David Kennedy, draper, (Street Directory 1901) and valued at £35. In 1900 the smaller part of the building was taken over by a ‘Free and Easy Club’, a type of establishment then common which constituted a counter-attack on the local Temperance movements. The steward of the club, William Bunting, lived on the premises with his wife and two young children. In 1916 the premises was taken over by Thomas D Macready, draper, although part of the building was sublet to tenants. Thomas Macready remained in occupation until at least the 1960s and accommodation is listed by valuers in the 1930s as comprising a shop, stock room, fitting room and tailor’s workshop with a dressmaker’s room on the first floor. Some of the rooms on the first floor were used by Jehovah’s Witnesses as a place of worship from 1939. The building is currently in use as a sports goods shop.

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/A/5/1-17 Valuers’ Note Books (1895-1934)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-N Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
11. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/2/A/6 First General Revaluation 1933-57
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/1-3 Second General Revaluation 1956-72
13. Street Directory 1861
14. Street Directory 1901
15. Belfast Newsletter 21st October 1828
16. Belfast Newsletter 31st March 1829
17. Belfast Newsletter 2nd April 1833
18. Belfast Newsletter 4th March 1834
19. Belfast Newsletter 20th March 1835

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A., P. McWilliams, English L., eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry XII, 1829-30, 1832, 1834-6, Vol. 33.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1995.
2. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in Coleraine and Portstewart” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971-2
3. Mullin, Rev T H “Coleraine in Modern Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1979
4. www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey three-bay corner-sited commercial premises with twin shopfronts, built c.1800 to designs by either Thomas Ivory and/or John Johnson and located to the north side of Bridge Street at the junction of Circular Road in Coleraine town centre. This 18th century building, possibly connected to Coleriane Customs House has been much altered over the centuries and whilst it retains its overall outline it is not of sufficient interest to warrant listing.