G E McKee

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-bay two-storey mid-terraced Georgian shop with bowed front and traditional-style ground floor shopfront; built c.1820 and located to the north side of Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre. Rectangular plan with single-storey roughcast rendered return (c.1950) to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue-black angled ridge tiles. Curved cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on metal brackets. Walling is painted smooth render. Windows are 3/1 timber sash with horns and projecting sills; plate glass windows to shopfront.

The principal elevation faces south and is bowed with two windows at first floor over shopfront. Shopfront comprises plate glass windows with timber frame on a ceramic tiled stall riser, recessed splayed porch to left and slender fluted cast-iron column supporting the upper floor. Porch is tiled to left side with inset timber-framed glazed display unit; fully glazed at right side; modern tiles to floor and a painted timber ceiling. Original three-panelled timber door with glazed top section and brass pull handle surmounted by plain transom light. Metal-sheeting to fascia is printed and reads “G-E-Kee”.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/18/019).

The north (rear) elevation is abutted at ground floor by the single-storey extension (c.1950), of little interest. Upper storeys could not be viewed.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB03/18/041).

Setting:

Prominently situated on Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre, 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. No access to rear.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted smooth render
Windows: 3/1 timber sash with horns to first floor
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current premises in Bridge Street dates from c1820 and is shown on the first edition OS map as an extension to the neighbouring building (number 21) to the west. The building is not depicted in the ‘Book of Coleraine’ dating from c1816.

At the time of the Townland Valuation (1828-40) number 17 was included in the valuation of the adjoining ‘Miss Henry’s Hotel’ which was valued at £38.16s.2d. However, Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) values the building separately from its neighbour at £20, although at this stage it is likely that it incorporated some rooms in the adjacent structure. The house was occupied by John O’Kane, and later fell vacant. Dimensions are given for the two-storey structure with rear return, two single-storey and three one and a half storey outbuildings. Dimensions are also given for a single-storey tap room suggesting that the building was a public house at this stage. In the 1860s the premises was taken over together with its neighbour by Charles Doherty, who was a cabinet maker and ran an ‘auction and commission mart’ (Street Directory 1861). The house was described as ‘dilapidated’ in the 1860s and the valuation was reduced to £10. In 1896 the building was taken over by James and William Dunlop, cycle agents, (1901 Street Directory) and is described as a wareroom and store, valued at £22. The Dunlops were among the first to sell motor vehicles in Coleraine and in 1905 James Dunlop ‘procured for a customer a car called the “Minervette” of 6½ hp with 2 forward speeds, a reverse and two brakes’ (Mullin).

Hugh McKeag, able seaman and his wife Annie McKeag, a draper, were the occupiers from 1898, (1901 census) followed by James Caskey, seed and manure merchant, (1907 Street Directory) in 1907 and T B Morrison, cement, fireclay and monumental works in 1911 (1910 Street Directory). In 1913 the buildings were divided into two holdings, a shop, store, workshop and yard valued at £13 and occupied by TB Morrison and a shop and stores occupied by William McCandless, jeweller, and valued at £16 but having ‘no proper shop window, being merely a room of dwelling house used as shop’. By the 1930s the building was occupied by the Sun Decorating Company, followed by G E Kerr and R A Shorrock and consisted of a shop with a small stock room to the rear for which a rent of £30 annually was paid. The building continues in use as commercial premises.

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 Directories 1907/1910

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 Modern Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1979

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

A single-bay two-storey mid-terraced Georgian shop with bowed front and an elaborate cast iron column - the remaining element of a nineteenth century shopfront; built c.1820 and located to the north side of Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre. Retaining some of its original detailing and character this is a rare survivor of the architecture of Georgian Coleraine, and a good example of the domestic type and scale of building that would have characterised the town in the first part of the nineteenth-century. The bowed front is of particular interest and increasingly rare in the context of Northern Ireland. It forms part of a group along with numbers 11-15 (HB03/18/041) and 21 (HB03/18/019).

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.