6 BRIDGE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced three-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built c.1896, with two retail units to the ground floor and full-height rear return. T-shaped on plan facing northeast as part of a terrace of buildings of varying scale lining the southwest side of Bridge Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystack rising from the southeast gable. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets and cast-iron downpipe. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with replacement concrete sills and replacement single-pane hardwood sliding sash windows with exposed sash boxes and ogee horns.

Three-bay three-storey front elevation with central square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door. Enlarged square-headed shop display window to either side with replacement multi-pane hardwood display windows, that to the right incorporating a further square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door.

Southeast side abutted by lower building No.4 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023G) with blind gable rising to chimneystack.

Gable-ended single-bay three-storey rough-cast rendered return to rear elevation with uPVC rainwater goods and replacement timber casement windows. Steel fire escape encircles return.

Northwest side abutted by adjoining corner building No.2 Mill Street (HB05/02/022).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of buildings of varying heights at the main crossroads at the centre of the village.

Materials
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled-and-lined render
Windows Replacement hardwood sliding sash

Historical information

No. 6 Bridge Street, a three-storey three-bay late-Victorian building located on the south side of Bridge Street, constructed c. 1896. The Annual Revisions note that four earlier houses on the site were demolished to make way for the current structure. The valuer first recorded No. 6 Bridge Street in 1896, noting that the building was valued at £10 and was leased by the Turnly estate to a Ms. Bridget McAlister. No. 6 Bridge Street was first recorded on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1903 which depicted the structure along its current layout and noted that the building possessed a small return (this has since been replaced with a pair of modern extensions). The valuation sources record that the building has possessed a ground floor shopfront since at least the 1930s.

No. 6 Bridge Street is one of a number of commercial 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 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). The Census of Ireland recorded that a Ms. Catherine Mills occupied No. 6 Bridge Street in 1911. In that year the census building return described the property as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 12 rooms and possessed a piggery, fowl house and a shed amongst its out offices. The value of No. 6 Bridge Street was increased to £35 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which recorded that Catherine Mills continued to reside at the site until the 1950s. A Mr. Kevin Fyfe occupied the house in 1955 before purchasing the property outright from the Turnly estate in 1967. Fyfe remained at the address by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the total rateable value of the No. 6 Bridge Street stood at £45.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described nos. 2-6 Bridge Street as ‘a continuous terrace of two and three-storey houses, with most glazing-bars complete, of no especial interest, but pleasant and coherent; the dip in the pavement level lends unusual interest to what might otherwise be a little dull’ (UAHS, p. 31). 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. 6 Bridge Street was subsequently listed in 1976. The NIEA HB Records note that No. 6 Bridge Street was utilised as a restaurant by the 1980s and that the building underwent an extensive renovation c. 1991 which included the installation of new shop windows, new entrance doors, the complete reroofing of the building and the construction of its modern rear returns (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/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. First Survey Record – HB05/02/023 (1971)
13. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/023H

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Terraced three-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built c.1896, located on the south west side of Bridge Street and situated between No.4 Bridge Street (HB05/02/023G) and the corner building, No.2 Mill Street (HB05/02/022). First used as a hotel with a shop at ground floor since at least the 1930s. Poor modern extension to rear. Principal elevation to street remains of merit with some good detailing including painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling and square-headed window openings. It is of local interest and contributes to the historic setting of Cushendall village centre.