1 HIGH ST (including 2 Shore Street)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced corner-sited multi-bay two-storey with attic rendered commercial building, built c.1895, with chamfered corner entrance bay and traditional shopfront to both elevations. Rectangular on plan facing southwest onto High Street and further elevation facing southeast onto Shore Street. Located at the central crossroads in Cushendall village at the junction of High Street and Shore Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and three rendered chimneystacks, one rising from the southeast gabled elevation. Two gabled dormer windows to both southwest and southeast pitches with replacement timber bargeboards and replacement top-hung timber casement windows. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on corbelled eaves course with cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Two-bay two-storey southwest elevation with large fixed-pane display window with flush splayed sill, framed by painted stucco pilasters and surmounted by cornice and string course forming a shop fascia extending to the chamfered entrance bay and secondary southeast elevation.

Northwest abutted by adjoining building No.3 High Street (HB05/02/033B).

Northeast abutted by adjoining building No.4 Shore Street.

Four-bay two-storey southeast elevation has a further fixed-pane display window, described as above.

Chamfered corner entrance bay with a rendered stop chamfer having a brass plaque stating; 'The Cyclists Touring Club'. Square-headed shop entrance with replacement double-leaf timber glazed doors having margin lights and overlight opening onto a single terrazzo step.

Setting:
Located on a corner at the central crossroads of Cushendall village opposite Turnley's Tower (HB05/02/001) at the junction of High Street and Shore Street.

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

Historical information

Nos. 1 High Street and 2 Shore Street comprises one, two-and-a-half-storey corner-site building. Three bays (including the entrance) to High Street and four bays to Shore Street. Constructed c. 1895 on the site of an earlier building. Cushendall’s proprietor Francis Turnly had travelled to China in 1796 where he raised a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 Turnly used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family at a cost of £24,000; Turnly subsequently renamed the settlement Cushendall. Brett states that Turnly was an eccentric character who ‘effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property.’ Cushendall consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge at the time of the purchase however, due to an increase in the number of tourists travelling through the area (on the way to the Giant’s Causeway) the village was developed into a coastal resort with the erection of hotels (such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street) and numerous commercial properties (Dallat, p. 45; Brett, Buildings of Co. Antrim, p. 288; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

The Annual Revisions note that an earlier dwelling on the corner site of High Street and Shore Street (a contemporary photograph depicts it as a simple two-storey structure) was demolished c. 1895 to make way for the current building. The valuer noted that No. 1 High Street and No. 2 Shore Street was constructed as a dwelling with a shopfront at ground floor and initially valued at £11 and 10 shillings. The building was leased by the Turnly estate to Hugh Delargy, a local auctioneer who established a restaurant at the site with his wife Mary. The 1911 Census described No. 1 High Street and No. 2 Shore Street as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of eight rooms and possessed a stable, two cow houses, a fowl house, potato house and a workshop as its rear out offices. The Delargy family continued to reside at the corner site until c. 1918 when Patrick McCambridge took possession of the property. No. 1 High Street and No. 2 Shore Street was increased in value to £20 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which also noted that the building was occupied by the Hamill family (who converted the ground floor into a confectionary shop). The Hamill family purchased the corner site outright from the Turnly estate 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 the building stood at £21.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described High Street as ‘an outstandingly attractive street, of quite exceptional merit and character, climbing very steeply indeed from the crossing of the main street to Court McMartin, almost every building in it of individual merit apart from the value of the group as a whole; the roofs, gables, doors and windows rise in an irregular staircase up the hillside’ (UAHS, p. 34). The corner building at No. 1 High Street and No. 2 Shore Street was 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. The corner building was subsequently listed in 1976 (NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
5. PRONI OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/148 – Townland Valuations (1834)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/40B – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
12. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. First Survey Record – HB05/02/033 (1971)
15. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/033A

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
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Corner-sited two-storey with attic rendered commercial building, built c.1895, prominently located at the central crossroads of Cushendall, facing Turnly’s Tower (HB05/02/001). The building operated as a restaurant during the early 1900s and from the mid 1900s as a confectionary shop. While little interior historic detailing remains, no.2 Shore Street retains its historic character and proportions, turning the corner from High Street to Shore Street with a distinctive chamfered entrance bay below an oversized stop-chamfer under eaves. The historic setting of Cushendall village centre continues to be enhanced by its presence and its social function as a shop serving the village.