4 North Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Part of a 5 bay wide 3-storey building comprised of two houses with a common arched coachway in the ground floor of the central bay of the overall composition. This house occupies the left-hand side of the overall block. Main entrance faces north-east.

Entrance elevation of this building is two bays wide to the ground floor to the left of the common archway. It is two bays wide to the first floor, to the left of the bay containing the archway, and three bays wide to the second floor which includes a room two floors above the common archway.

Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, common with No. 5; chimney to left-hand gable.

Wall smooth rendered and painted, with projecting plinth, corbel course and projecting eaves course. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 1 over 1, with horns, set in plain reveals; projecting painted stone cills.

Doorway to left of coachway, rectangular timber panelled door with fanlight, set in raised pilastered surround with frieze and cornice. Coachway, common with No. 5, is segmental arched with raised block surrounds and shared keystone surmounted by a shared name panel inscribed 'Strandview'.

Rear elevation: 3 storeys, two bays wide at ground floor to right of common coachway with No. 5, three bays wide to first floor, which includes room immediately above coachway, and two bays wide to second floor to right-hand side of bay of common coachway. Central bay projects out, with a modern steel fire escape stairway attached; two modern flush timber doors open onto stairway.
Walls rendered with wet dash; roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with original flush rooflight. PVC gutters and downpipes. Windows are modern rectangular pvc, fixed light with top-hung vent, except for one window to first floor which is modern timber fixed light with top-hung vent, all with concrete cills.

Within common coach archway: ceiling is flat plain plastered; side wall is plastered, lined and blocked, with pvc downpipe to right-hand end; below ceiling level are four iron cross beams.
Concrete surface to rear yard which contains a modern concrete blockwork and rendered detached lean-to roofed shed against boundary wall, with a corrugated perspex roof and pvc rainwater goods; modern timber windows and old boarded door. At rear of yard, facing rear elevation of main house is a two-storey outbuilding or house: rendered walls, roughcast; roof slated as main house; one chimney, rendered with concrete cornice and modern red pot; modern rectangular pvc windows and pvc door.

SETTING: The building stands within a built-up area of the town, in a terrace of shops and houses, facing directly onto the pavement, with a view toward the sea.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but the block of two houses of which it is one part appears to be a mid-to-late 19th century rebuilding of an earlier property or properties.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 9 (shows buildings on this and adjoining sites).
2. OS Map 1904, Co Antrim 9.

Secondary Sources
1. DOENI, Ballycastle Conservation Area (ND), p 51.
2. UAHS, Glens of Antrim (Belfast, 1971), p 51.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a mid-to-late 19th century building which together with No. 5 North Street makes a unified block, albeit without consistent detailing across both properties. Much historic detail remains however and the building makes an important contribution to the character of the surrounding area.