CENTRAL BAR

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced four-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built c.1850, with pub shopfront spanning the ground floor, two-storey lean-to to rear and flat-roofed single-storey extension. Rectangular on plan facing southwest on the northeast side of Bridge Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and three symmetrically-placed rendered profiled chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering to moulded eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins and frieze panels below eaves. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement 4/4 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns.

Four-bay three-storey front elevation with painted stucco pub shopfront spanning the ground floor. Moulded architrave surrounds with keystones to four evenly spaced 4/4 timber sliding sash first floor windows. Four smaller similar windows to second floor level, without surrounds, aligned with those below. Channel-rusticated walling to the lower half of the ground floor with two fixed-pane display windows having etched glass and three square-headed door openings. The pub entrance has double-leaf timber panelled doors with kneed architrave surrounds with keystones and replacement double-leaf timber panelled and glazed doors. All openings flanked by flush rendered piers with plain panels below the full-span fascia. Plain painted fascia surmounted by full-span lead-lined cornice.

Northwest side abutted by adjoining building No.9 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023D).

Unpainted cement rendered rear elevation has full-span two-storey lean-to extended to the full extent of the site as a single-storey flat-roofed extension, built c.1980. Steel fire escape to second floor extends the full length of the rear extension crossing the rear access lane.

Southeast side abutted by adjoining building No.5 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023B) "The Lurig Inn".

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of similarly scaled buildings lining the northeast side of Bridge Street. Rear extension opens onto rear access lane.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted ruled-and-lined render
Windows Replacement timber sliding sash

Historical information

No. 7 Bridge Street, a three-storey four-bay late-Victorian public house located on the east side of Bridge Street, was constructed prior to 1859. The building originally consisted of two private dwellings and has been utilised as a public house since c. 1883 (although it was not converted into a single property until c. 1911). No. 7 Bridge Street is one of a number of local commercial buildings which were established in Cushendall as a result of the village’s development into a popular seaside resort and stopping-off point (for tourists travelling along the Coastal Road) during the 19th century. The 1901 Ulster Town Directory noted that Cushendall’s hotels were ‘comfortable and well conducted’ with the village providing ‘an excellent centre for making excursions from to view the far-famed scenery of the Antrim Coast’ (UTD).

No. 7 Bridge Street was first included in Griffith’s Valuation (1859) which recorded that the building consisted of two private dwellings, each of which was valued at £9. The original interior layout of the structure is unknown although the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1903 clearly shows that No. 7 Bridge Street was divided into a pair of similarly sized two-bay buildings. The houses were initially leased from the Turnly family to a Mr. Sampson Trick and a Ms. Catherine McAlister. The McAlister family continued to reside at the site until the 1920s, however the other occupant of the site changed with great frequency over the following four decades. The Annual Revisions note that the McAllister family converted their half of the property into a public house in c. 1883 whilst the adjoining house fell vacant in 1898.

No. 7 Bridge Street was converted into a single property by 1911. Following the alteration of the site the Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of the building at £30. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded that the enlarged public house was occupied by Patrick McAlister, a local spirit dealer and flesher. The accompanying census building return described the property as a 1st class public house and dwelling that consisted of 13 rooms and possessed a number of rear outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, fowl house, a boiling house and a store. McAlister continued to reside at No. 7 Bridge Street until his death in 1917 after which point the buildings was occupied by a Mr. John Maguire (PRONI Wills). The public house at No. 7 Bridge Street was increased in value to £47 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which noted that the building was occupied by a number of tenants until 1956 when Alexander McDonnell took possession of the site. McDonnell purchased the public house outright from the Turnly estate in 1967 and continued to reside at the address until at least the 1970s; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of No. 7 Bridge Street stood at £70.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described McDonnell’s Public House as ‘a tall stucco three-storey four-bay building with quoins and fanciful architraves on the ground and first floors’ (UAHS, p. 32). The buildings along Bridge Street were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975, only the second conservation area in the province to have been designated at that time, ‘testimony itself to the special qualities of the village.’ In that year the village was also chosen as one of Northern Ireland’s four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 7 Bridge Street was subsequently listed in 1976.

The NIEA HB Records note that No. 7 Bridge Street underwent internal refurbishment in 1989-90 which included the removal of its original Victorian-era snugs. In 1998 the upper floors of the public house were converted into bed & breakfast accommodation (NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guides).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
4. PRONI OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/40B – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/24/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1906-c. 1935)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
12. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (10 Feb 1917)
14. First Survey Record – HB05/02/023 (1971)
15. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/023C

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings and areas of architectural importance in the Glens of Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Co. Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1996.
3. Dallat, C., ‘The road to the Glens’ Belfast: The Friar’s Bush Press, 1989.
4. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
5. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993.

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

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Terraced four-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built pre1859, located on the northeast side of Bridge Street between No.9 (HB05/02/023D) and The Lurig Inn at No.5 (HB05/02/023B). The building originally consisted of two private dwellings and has operated as a public house since c. 1883, although it was not converted into a single property until c. 1911. It demonstrates a typical late nineteenth-century pub shopfront with fine stucco façade details to Bridge Street. The public house interior also retains some original historic detailing and retains much of its original plan form. The Central Bar continues to contribute to the social aspect of village life and is of local interest.