11-15 Bridge Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A multi-bay three-storey-with-attic mid-terraced commercial premises, formerly three separate units, incorporating carriage-arch entrance and modern ground floor shopfront; built c.1820 and located to the north side of Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre. Rectangular on plan with single-storey modern flat-roof extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded ridge tiles and four rendered chimneystacks (some clay pots only). Plastic rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is smooth cement render, painted to facade; painted brick with a contrasting plinth to east elevation under carriage-arch. Windows are a variety of timber sash with horns, generally 6/6, some panes with original glass, all in moulded architraves with projecting painted sills; openings infilled with concrete blocks to rear elevation; modern plate-glass windows to shop-front.

The principal elevation faces south. Seven evenly-spaced window openings to upper floors; modern shop-front with over-sized timber fascia extends almost full-width of ground floor; elliptical-headed carriage-arch entrance at ground floor right, with modern steel fascia and entrance gates.

The west gable is abutted to first floor by adjoining building (HB03/18/040); upper gable is blank.

The north (rear) elevation is partially concealed with infilled window openings to upper floors and abutted at ground floor by the single-storey rendered extension. To left and far right is a round-headed former stairwell window (infilled). Far left bay has brick corbelled eaves and a single former window opening to second floor over elliptical-headed carriage-arch entrance.

The east elevation is abutted at upper floors by the adjoining building. Ground floor, under carriage-arch, has a modern steel door in a plain smooth rendered painted surround, accessed by a single step.

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. Carriage-arch entrance is laid with concrete and leads to enclosed yard at rear.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: Variety of timber sash with horns
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

Numbers 11-15 Bridge Street date from c1820, pre-dating the first edition OS map of 1830. The seven-bay shop was originally three separate holdings, recorded in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as three houses and a gateway. The dimensions recorded in the fieldbook suggest that the buildings present in the 1830s have continued largely unaltered to the present day. Earlier two-storey structures on the site are shown in the Georgian ‘Book of Coleraine’ which is thought to date from c1816. Dimensions are given in the Townland Valuation for buildings identical in height and depth with slightly varying widths at the front. All the houses had a cellar kitchen and a store or stable to the rear. Number 11 was listed as ‘to be let’, later occupied by John Young who kept a yarn store (Street Directory 1852) and was valued at £9.15s.3d. Number 13 was occupied by Charles Daly, nursery and seedsman (Street Directory 1843) and valued at £9.4s.1d and the final house, number 15, also ‘to be let’ and later occupied by doctor Alexander Kennedy was valued at £8.12s.8d. These three men remained in occupation at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) which gives further details and dimensions for the three houses/shops. The buildings were leased from Mrs Rebecca Rice of Portrush and were of three storeys with two-storey rear returns. John Young’s house and shop was valued at £21 while the other two were valued at £18.

In the 1860s/70s Charles Daly and Son took over the house at number 15. Charles Daly came to Coleraine in about 1821, a descendant of a Galway family. He established his seed merchant’s business in 1825 and built up his nurseries at the corner of Lodge Road and Nursery Avenue (which took its name from Daly’s nurseries) to 48 acres and to 42½ acres at Spruce Bank, Waterside. Glass houses at Lodge Road were devoted to flowering, ornamental and herbaceous plants and the nurseries were noted for roses, hyacinths, narcissi and tulips. The Spruce Bank nurseries specialised in trees of both ornamental and forest types. Charles Daly senior died in 1871 and was succeeded by his son Charles Daly (jun) who lived in America for some years but ultimately settled in Coleraine, becoming a Town Commissioner (Mullin).

Number 11 was taken over by James Cochrane in 1882 and in 1892 by Connolly Lecky Smith followed by Samuel T Alexander, draper, in 1893 (Street Directory 1901). All three buildings were taken over by draper John Henry in 1897 and remained in the Henry family for some years. The 1901 census records widow and draper Martha Henry living in ten rooms above the shop with her five children and a niece. The older two children assisted in the shop and the niece worked as a mother’s help. The family employed a live-in domestic servant and two further young women, one as a milliner and another as a draper’s assistant. In 1907 number 11 was improved by the addition of a new projecting shop front and as a result the valuation was increased to £30. All three holdings passed to Martha’s son James Edward Henry in the early 1930s and part of the structure was sublet as living accommodation to John Ferris. James E Henry continued to own the remainder of the building which comprised a shop on the ground floor, four receptions, a kitchen, scullery, bathroom, WC and three bedrooms on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second floor. In the early 1960s the shop became known as the Midland Household Store Ltd and it is currently in use as a cafe and gift shop on the ground floor while the upper floors are vacant office/storage accommodation.

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 1843, 1852
14. 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 Modern Times” Belfast: Century Services Ltd, 1979

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

A multi-bay three storey with-attic mid-terraced commercial premises, formerly three separate houses and shops, incorporating a carriage-arch entrance; built c.1820 and located to the north side of Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre. A modern shopfront at ground floor is unsympathetic in style and compromises the original front elevation, but otherwise the building retains its historic appearance and much of its Georgian detailing and fabric, including fenestration to the upper floors. As a rare surviving example of Georgian architecture in the town, the building represents the commercial development of Coleraine in the first part of the nineteenth-century, before the large-scale development during Victoria’s reign. It forms part of a Georgian group along with numbers 17 (HB03/18/040) and 21 (HB03/18/019).

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply.