54 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 7 bay wide, 2½ storey building with shopfront and gateway.

Elevation to Castle Street, ground floor, from left : a segmented arched gateway with painted voissoirs, wide shop entrance, with splayed recess, with 2 large single pane display windows, with display window in splay of porch, framed with pilasters, long deep, inward sloping glass name fascia, framed and with cornice. Under window cills smooth plastered plinth. At 1st floor 7 no. 2 pane windows with top hung upper pane. Windows not evenly spaced and one centred over gateway. ½ round PVC gutter, slight eaves overhang, slated with 4 no. Velux type rooflights, 2 of them 2 light. Chimney stacks at each gable end. Wall smooth rendered and painted.

To the rear an extensive 2 storey back return as far as the newly created car park devoid of windows and spanning the full width of the building

The shopfront maintains the building line

Historical information

The present owner has been in possession of the premises for 25 years. Prior to that it was Messrs M McKinney. The building probably dates from the early 19th cenury and is indicated on the O.S. Map of 1832. In or around 1900 the occupant was W B Black who dealt in furniture, household goods etc. The stair suggests that renovations were carried out in the mid nineteenth century. Today it is a large supermarket. It has been extended to the rear since the first listing survey of 1972 and had a new 'traditional' shop front added and inappropriate signage removed. An interesting comparison can be made with an extant photograph of c 1900 with the present. It would appear that they were 2 shops formerly. That nearest the arch had a extending canopy. A rendered pedimented architrave surrounded a door into the lower shop. There was painted lettering at eaves level:' furniture carpets beadsteads and bedding'

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1832 Antrim sh. 8.
2. O.S. Map 1832 Rev. 1856 Antrim sh. 8.
3. Notes, 1st Survey EHS Hill St, Belfast
4. Photograph circa 1900 in shop

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Glens of Antrim p. 49.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A neat modern but traditional type shopfront with orderly first floor windows and good gateway. The extensive back return makes a visual intrusion in the roofscape when viewed from across the valley.