9 BRIDGE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced four-bay three-storey rendered former townhouse, built c.1895, with shop to ground floor and full-height lean-to extension to rear. L-shaped on plan facing southwest with small rear yard enclosed to rear access lane by derelict rubblestone and red brick two-storey building.

Pitched roof with replacement natural slate and black clay ridge tiles. Rendered profiled chimneystacks to either end, that to the south east having some terracotta pots. Replacement steel guttering to corbelled eaves course and steel downpipe. Painted replacement ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling (unscored and unpainted to rear). Square-headed window openings with replacement concrete sills and replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns (replacement timber casement windows to rear).

Southwest front elevation is four windows wide with an enlarged shop display window and glazed door to the ground floor. Timber fascia and awning span the commercial unit with a further square-headed door opening to the right having replacement timber panelled door opening directly onto the street. 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to first floor with diminishing windows to second floor of similar design.

Northwest side abutted by adjoining building no.11 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023E), built c.1890.

Three-storey cement rendered rear (NE) elevation with lean-to three-storey rear extension having square-headed window openings with concrete sills and replacement timber casement windows.

Setting:
Part of a continuous terrace lining the northeast side of Bridge Street with a small paved rear yard enclosed to the rear access lane by an original two-bay two-storey rubblestone and red brick building having pitched natural slate roof, red brick chimneystack and blocked up openings at ground floor.

Materials
Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement steel
Walling Painted ruled-and-lined cement render
Windows Replacement timber sliding sash

Historical information

No. 9 Bridge Street, a three-storey four-bay late-Victorian building, constructed c. 1895. The structure was originally built as an extension to the adjoining no. 11 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023E) which had been erected in c. 1890 as a Temperance Hotel. The former hotel is one of a number of local commercial buildings which were erected in Cushendall as a result of the village’s development into a popular seaside resort and stopping-off point for tourists travelling along the coast 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).

The Annual Revisions record that three houses were demolished in 1887 to make way for the construction of nos. 9-11 Bridge Street. No. 9 Bridge Street was first included in the Annual Revisions in 1895, valued at £14. The valuer noted that the building was leased by the Turnly family to a Mr. Henry Chard. The 1901 Census of Ireland notes that Chard was a retired English Naval pensioner who resided with his wife Mary on High Street. Henry Chard died in 1904 at which time his property (including the hotel) passed to Mary Chard (PRONI Wills). The Temperance Hotel at nos. 9-11 Bridge Street was administered by Mary’s daughter Catherine under the 1911 Census which described the buildings as a 1st class hotel that consisted of 21 rooms and possessed a number of rear outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, boiling house and a store. Despite the extension of the hotel, the Annual Revisions continued to record nos. 9-11 Bridge Street as separate buildings and maintained the value of no. 9 at £14 until 1929. The Ulster Town Directories note that a shop located on the ground floor of the building was utilised as a general grocers (UTD).

Chard’s Temperance Hotel continued to operate from the site until the 1920s (Catherine Chard died in 1922) but by the 1930s nos. 9-11 Bridge Street was occupied by Joseph Spence. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of nos. 9-11 Bridge Street was combined at £50. The valuer noted that Spence did not maintain the Temperance Hotel but had converted the building into a café and entertainment hall. Nos. 9-11 Bridge Street were divided into two separate buildings in 1956. In that year Archibald Kinney, a local butcher, took possession of no. 9 Bridge Street, converting the property into a dwelling and offices with a shop unit to the ground floor which resulted in the revaluation of the building to £30. Under the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the value of no. 9 Bridge Street was increased to £32. Kinney purchased the building outright from the Turnly estate in 1967 and continues to operate a butcher's shop from the premises at the time of the Second Survey.

The UAHS 1972 publication for the Glens of Antrim described nos. 9-11 Bridge Street as ‘similar tall three-storey stucco houses with dentils at the eaves, and Regency-style glazing bars’ (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. 11 Bridge Street was subsequently listed in 1976. The NIEA HB Records note that nos. 9-11 Bridge Street underwent an extensive internal and external renovation in 2005 which included the renovation of the ground floor retail units, the conversion of the upper floors into apartments, the restoration of the roof and the replacement of the rainwater goods of both buildings. These works included the replacement of the aforementioned Regency-style glazing bars with plain 1/1 sashes.(NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

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/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/24/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1906-c. 1935)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (4 Nov 1904; 18 Aug 1922)
13. First Survey Record – HB05/02/023 (1971)
14. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/023D

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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Terraced four-bay three-storey rendered building, c.1895, originally built as an extension to the adjoining no. 11 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023E) which had been erected c. 1890 as Chard’s Temperance Hotel. The hotel was one of several buildings erected in Cushendall as a result of the village’s development into a popular seaside resort and stopping-off point for tourists travelling along the coast road during the 19th century. It operated as a hotel until the 1920s and has continued in commercial use until the present day. No.9 Bridge Street retains group value with no.11 due to their shared history as the hotel. While the ground floor shop unit has been modernised, the exterior retains much of its proportions. Its social history as a Temperance Hotel adds to its interest within the historic setting of Cushendall village centre.