10 Ann Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, plain rendered three storey terrace shop with apartment which appears to have assumed its present form in 1872 possibly with the raising of the roof and remodelling of an old part two part one and a half storey property. The building is set on the NW side of Ann Street, within Ballycastle town centre.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces roughly SE. To the centre and left on the ground floor is a simple tradition shop front (?a recent replacement) with panelled and glazed shop door with large two pane timber window to left and simple pilasters encasing both. To right of the shop doorway is another doorway (leading to the apartment) with panelled timber door, plain rectangular fanlight and simple pilaster jambs. This whole ensemble is topped with a painted timber signboard with projecting cornice. To the far right is a carriage gateway with shallow segmental arch head and t & g timber door.

To the first floor are three off-centre, unevenly spaced plain sash windows, with three more slightly smaller versions in the same position to the second floor. The front façade is finished in painted lined render with bevelled in-out quoins.

To the left hand side of the ground floor to the rear elevation is the back end of the carriage gateway. To immediate right of this is a relatively small single storey flat-roofed extension with to right (SW) abuts a two storey gabled return. The extension is blank to both its exposed faces, but a metal staircase rises against its NW face giving access to a glazed door on the upper level of the NE face of the return. To NW the return abuts a long 1½ storey gabled outbuilding. To the first floor of the main building there are three unevenly spaced windows of various size, all with modern frames. To the second floor are two widely spaced windows, also of differing size and also with modern frames. The rear is finished in painted roughcast.

The gabled roof is slated to front but to the rear it appears to be covered in an artificial ‘slate’. The gabled roof of the return also appears to be in artificial ‘slate’ though the outbuilding is slated. Rendered chimney stacks to each end of main roof. The rw goods to front consist of a recent square downspout and what looks like an extruded aluminium gutter. The RW goods to rear appear to be PVC.

Historical information

The valuations of both 1834 and 1859 record a lower one and a half to two storey dwelling on this site, the home of a Robert Mullan in 1834 and a Patrick Cassley in 1859. The latter valuation tells that the property contained a ‘shop and garret over, two small rooms below and two over’ that the storeys were low and the building had an ‘inferior finish’.

The property appears to have remained as such until 1872 when the lease was acquired by a John McMichael and the rateable value jumps from £7-10-0 to £15. As subsequent valuations mention no significant changes to the property we must assume that the building had assumed its present three storey form in 1871-72. Whether the new larger building incorporated any of the fabric of the older one is difficult to say, however the fact that the façade is asymmetrical may be significant.

The McMichael family sub-let the property to John Black in 1874, and then Greg Morrison (1884-86), Mary Magill (1886-c.1920), but had apparently assumed the tenancy again by 1921. The family appear to have held on to the lease [?later freehold] of the property until at least 1957.

The current shopfront is changed from that recorded by EHS in 1970 even though it is a good replication of a traditional type.

[*Note on primary sources- Though Ballycastle has its full compliment of valuation books dating back to 1834, the earliest extant valuation plan of the town (indeed the earliest large scale plan) is that dating from 1898. This means that though the first and second valuations (of 1834 and 1859 respectively) present the usual detailed accounts of properties throughout the town, bereft of their contemporary plans it is almost impossible to discover exactly to which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involved method of reading the records backwards- i.e. taking the more recent (mid 20th century) valuations and tracing each building back from these, using the 1898 map as a marker along the way.]

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 OS Memoirs, Parish of Ramoan, 1831-39, reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.92 etc
3 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish, 1834
4 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
5 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
6 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
7 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish, 1859
8 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a-g Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle ED, 1864-1921
9 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
10 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1898-c.1935
11 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
12 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a-c Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle UD, 1921-31
13 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
14 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
15 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
16 Information supplied by the owner (May 2003)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large, plain rendered three storey terrace shop with apartment which appears to have assumed its present form in 1872 possibly with the raising of the roof and remodelling of an old part two part one and a half storey property. Though the front façade has been maintained a traditional appearance, much about this property, inculding the shopfront, has been altered .