19 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace single-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1884. Rectangular on plan facing southwest, built as one of a pair with No.17 (HB05/02/036C) and terminating a short terrace of four buildings lining the northeast side of High Street on a steep gradient.

Pitched fibre cement roof with synthetic ridge tiles and rendered chimneystack with terracotta pots to the southweast party wall, shared with adjoining house No.17. uPVC guttering and flint dashed walling with smooth cement rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted concrete sills and replacement timber casement windows.

Single-bay two-storey front elevation with a square-headed door opening to the left having replacement vertically-sheeted timber door.

Blind northwest gabled side elevation.

Single-bay two-storey rear elevation has smooth cement rendered walling with replacement timber casement windows.

Southeast side abutted by adjoining house No.17 High Street (HB05/02/036C).

Setting:
Terminating a short terrace of four houses built on a steep gradient on the northeast side of High Street with a small front paved area enclosed by replacement steel railings on low rendered plinth wall and matching iron pedestrian gate.

Roof Fibre Cement/Artificial slate
RWG uPVC
Walling Flint dash cement render
Windows Replacement timber casement

Historical information

No. 19 High Street, a two-storey single-bay late-Victorian terraced dwelling located on the north east side of High Street, was constructed along with the adjoining No. 17 (HB05/02/036C) in c. 1884. The majority of the buildings located along High Street were erected in the first half of the 19th century by the landowning Turnly family. 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).

Nos 17-19 High Street are amongst the latest buildings to have been constructed along High Street. The pair of dwellings were constructed in c. 1884 as they were first recorded in the Annual Revisions in that year. The valuer notes that the pair were each valued at £3 and were leased by Daniel Jamison, a local rate collector who resided at the adjoining nos 13-15 High Street (formerly one property). The Annual Revisions record that No. 19 High Street was initially leased by Jamison to a Mr. Daniel McVicker who remained at the address until 1889. The occupants of the small dwelling changed with frequency over the following decades. Nos 17-19 High Street were recorded on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903) which depicted them along their current layouts. In 1911 the Census of Ireland records that No. 19 High Street was occupied by William Skelton, a general labourer. In that year the census building return described the house as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of two inhabited rooms and possessed a piggery and fowl house as its sole outbuildings. The occupants of No. 19 High Street continued to change with frequency. The value of the house was increased to £5 and 10 shillings under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which also recorded that a Ms. Sara McQuaig purchased the house outright from the Turnly estate in 1956. McQuaig continued to reside at No. 19 High Street by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) when the value of the house stood at £6.

In 1972 the UAHS Guide 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.’ In particular the guide described nos 11-19 High Street as ‘a very pleasing group climbing the steepest part of the hill, their storeys accordingly somewhat breathlessly arranged, part Georgian and part Regency glazed’ (UAHS Guide, p. 34). The buildings along High Street were 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. 19 High Street was subsequently listed in 1976 (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/1/B/148 – Townland Valuations (1834)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/40B – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
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. First Survey Record – HB05/02/036 (1971)
14. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/036D

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

End of terrace single-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1884. A terraced single-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1884. This pair of houses have had all original external fabric replaced with inappropriate materials; the original openings remain. Though the building is of historic interest forming part of an original terrace at the centre of Cushendall, and the composition contributes to the conservation area, insufficient original historic fabirc remains for the building to be considered of special interest.