21 Shore Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached gable-fronted single-bay single-storey rendered former store, built c.1947. Rectangular on plan facing west fronting onto the east side of Shore Street.

Pitched corrugated asbestos sheeted roof with synthetic ridge tiles; cement fibre / steel half-round guttering discharging to uPVC downpipes. Smooth cement rendered walling with render plinth course. Square-headed window openings with flush sills and bipartite fixed-pane timber windows.

Gabled front elevation having stepped quoins with rendered verge framing the gable having painted raised cement lettering stating; ‘Estd. / 1800 / ARTHUR McALISTER / TIMBER, CEMENT, SEEDS & FERTILISERS.’ A single square-headed vehicular opening with steel-sheeted sliding doors.

Four-bay north side elevation with high level windows.

Gabled rear elevation obscured by adjacent dwelling. High level window within gable with exposed steel head.

Four-bay south side elevation with high level windows.

Setting:
Fronting onto the east side of Shore Street at the end of a terrace of houses. Later twentieth-century structures to the north and rear.

Roof Corrugated asbestos
RWG Steel / cement fibre and uPVC
Walling Smooth cement render
Windows Fixed-pane timber

Historical information

No. 21 Shore Street, a single-storey garage/store located on the south side of Shore Street at the east of Cushendall, was constructed in c. 1947. The building was constructed on the site of an earlier coal store which had been erected in c. 1912. In that year the Annual Revisions noted that the coal store on this site was valued at £2 and 10 shillings and was leased by the Turnly estate, proprietors of Cushendall, to Arthur McAlister, a local merchant who established his business in c. 1800 and held business premises at No. 8 Shore Street (UTD). The original coal shed was depicted as a minor outbuilding on the First Revaluation Town Plan (1934-56) and continued to stand on the site until c. 1947. In that year the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) noted that the coal shed had been replaced with the current building. No. 21 Shore Street was also utilised a as a store by Arthur McAlister and, as it was much larger than the preceding structure, the new building was valued at £20. The McAlister family purchased the store outright from the Turnly estate in c. 1967 and continued to hold the premises by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the building’s value remained at £20.

The buildings along Shore 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 (Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
2. PRONI OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
5. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
2. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached gable-fronted single-bay single-storey rendered former store, built c.1947 and situated within the Cushendall Conservation Area fronting onto the east side of Shore Street at the end of a terrace of houses. A utilitarian structure of significant local character and interest, employing industrial early twentieth-century materials and enlivened by the raised lettering to the front gable. Not of sufficient special architectural or historical interest to merit listing.