5 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 right-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 right of the common archway, three bays wide to the first floor, to the right of the bay containing the archway, and two bays wide to the second floor.
Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, common with No. 4; chimney to right-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 right of coachway, rectangular timber panelled door with fanlight, set in raised pilastered surround with frieze and cornice. Coachway, common with No. 4, is segmental arched with raised block surrounds and shared keystone surmounted by a shared name panel inscribed 'Strandview'.
To right of doorway next to coachway is a later modern two-pane shop front incorporating a glazed panelled door.

Rear elevation: 3 storeys, two bays wide at ground floor to left of common coachway with No. 4, two bays wide to first floor, to left-hand side of bay of common coachway, and three bays wide to second floor which includes a room two floors above common coachway.
Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; modern pvc gutters and downpipes; walls rendered with wet dash; windows are modern rectangular fixed light with top-hung vent, with concrete cills.

Within common coach archway: ceiling is flat plain plastered; side wall is plastered, lined and blocked, to left-hand end is a modern rectangular flush timber door; below ceiling level are four iron cross beams.
Projecting from ground floor is a single storey rear return, of similar walling to main block: monopitch roof of modern pre-formed metal decking. Rear return has pvc rainwater goods; a modern open tread wooden fire escape stairway runs along the side of the return, turns across its roof, and then gives access to the second floor of the main house. Side of rear return contains two modern pvc windows and one flush timber door. Rear return abuts an original two-storey outbuilding at rear of site. Rear outbuilding has roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; pvc gutter and downpipe; rendered wall, wet dashed; one window to each floor: to first floor is an original small rectangular timber four-pane window with stone cill; to the ground floor is a modern pvc window.

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
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. The building makes an important contribution to the character of the surrounding area.