'The Framer's Corner' / 'The Taíse Gallery' (and apartment over)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Broad, two-storey shop, with apartment over, probably dating from the mid 18th century, but with large mid 20th-century shop front and an extensive two and single-storey workshop additions to the rear which cover almost all of the formerly open yard. The property is set on the S side of Castle Street, to the west of Ballycastle town centre.

The whole of the ground floor of the asymmetrical front elevation is taken up with a large mid 20th-century [?c.1930s] shop front with large areas of plate glass glazing and two recessed doorways with mainly glazed timber doors with margin panes. There is a further shop doorway to the left, which appears to be a later (perhaps c.1960s) insertion. This doorway now has a c.1990s partly glazed timber door. The shop front is topped with a relatively plain painted timber signboard. To the first floor there are five evenly-spaced windows with simple moulded surrounds and horned timber sash frames with plate glass. The front façade is finished in plain painted render with moulded ‘in-out’ quoins. There is a recently added projecting street lamp to the far right on the first floor.

Much of the centre and left of the rear elevation is taken up with a large two-storey extension, which appears to have been added before c.1910. To the W side this return directly abuts the neighbouring property. To the S side it is abutted by a very large two-storey hip-roofed workshop extension, which was added c.1930s, and only a small section of the right hand side is still exposed. Here there are two small-ish windows to the ground floor, both with modern timber frames (and security grills over). The E face of the extension is still fully exposed and has a doorway, with timber-sheeted door, to right on the ground floor, with a small window, with modern timber frame, to the left. To the first floor there is a large window to the right, also with a modern timber frame.

Due to the addition of the extension, only a small section of the far left of the first floor of the rear façade of the main building, and a larger section far right, are still exposed. The small exposed first floor portion has a small, squat window with modern timber frame. The larger section to right has a large window to the ground floor with modern timber frame. To the first floor there is a doorway with a window-like ‘sidelight’. The doorway has a modern mainly glazed timber door, and the ‘sidelight’ has a modern timber frame. The doorway leads into the upper floor apartment and is accessed via a modern timber stair. The exposed face of the return and the rear façade of the main section of the main section of the building are both finished in plain (mainly) painted render.

The large two-storey workshop addition to the W side of the yard abuts another large outbuilding to the S side, abuts the neighbouring property to the W, whilst to the E there is a large later (possibly c.1960s) single-storey ‘lean-to’ extension, (covering much of the rest of the formerly open yard). The large two-storey outbuilding to the S side of the yard appears to have been built (or possibly renovated) in the 1930s also. It is now disused and in poor repair.

The gabled roof of the main section of the building is slated, with large (shared) rendered chimneystacks to the E and W ends. To the rear face of the roof there are three relatively large modern dormers. The extension has a slated gabled roof with a smaller ‘upper’ gabled section, which is also slated. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast-iron and uPVC.

Historical information

A house of the same dimensions as the main section of the present building, (‘35ft x 28 x 17½’, with a cellar of 24 x 13 x 6), is recorded as occupying this site in the valuation of 1835.* As later records do not note any major structural changes, (apart from obvious shop front alterations), to this portion of the property, we can confidently assume that the building of 1835 is that we see today. The valuers state that the house was of considerable age, (grade 1C+), at that point, which suggests that it may have been built as part of Hugh Boyd’s development of Ballycastle in the mid 1700s.

In 1835, the building appears to have been divided into two properties, as two residents, John Brown and a John Sharpe, are mentioned, (the latter probably ‘leathercutter and seller’ named John Sharpe listed as residing in Castle Street -then known as ‘Main Street’- in Pigot’s ‘Directory’ of 1824.) To the rear of the property at this stage there was an ‘old’ addition of 14 x 11 x 7½, ‘small stores’ of 20 x 9½ x 5, an ‘office’ of 14 x 11½ x 5, as well as a ‘barn and small dwelling as office’ measuring 28 x 19 x 6¾.

When the second valuation was carried out in 1859, the property was being leased from the Boyd estate by a Widow Mary Henry and a Daniel Sharpe, although a valuer’s annotation states that ‘Mary Henry owns this house and the occupier pays no rates or taxes’. By this point the eastern ‘half’ of the ground floor had become a shop, which, when the valuation was carried out, appears to have been sublet to a James McCullagh. However, McCullagh’s name is stroked out, implying that he vacated the premises shortly afterwards.

In 1867 the shop was sublet by Mary Henry to a George Badger, with the rest of the property occupied solely by Daniel Sharpe. Daniel Sharpe was succeeded in 1870 by John Sharpe, who was in turn succeeded the following year by Jane Sharpe, [presumably all relations], with a Robert Stewart listed as the tenant of the shop in 1872, and a Patrick McAleese in 1875.

In 1876 a ‘house in rere’ occupied by an Arthur McVicker is recorded by the valuers. This may have been newly built or may have been the ‘dwelling as office’ mentioned in the 1835 valuation; whatever the case it was probably a very small dwelling as it is rated at a very lowly £1.

In 1878 the lease of the whole property was acquired by a George Scarlett. In 1899 a John Scarlett (probably George’s son) is noted as occupying the shop, succeeding George in holding the whole building by 1910. In the same year an entry in the valuers’ office notebook mentions that the shop had been ‘improved’, the front ‘stone finished’ [?a reference to a new shop front], with new single-storey brick-built ‘workshops’ added to the rear. As John Scarlett is listed in various directories as running a ‘boot and shoe warehouse’, it is likely that these ‘workshops’ were used for shoemaking / repairing. The two-storey return is also mentioned by the valuers suggesting that it to may have been added around this time, and, interestingly, the valuers note that the main section of the property as ‘very old’, a statement which would appear to support the notion of the building as mid 18th century.

The firm of ‘John S. Scarlett & Son’ continued to hold the building until at least 1972, by which stage the whole of the ground floor appears to have been converted to two shop units, with the workshops to the rear greatly extended. The valuations give little clue as to when this work was carried out, but the style of the shop front suggests that it, at least, dates from c.1930s.

When visited during the First (Historic Building) Survey of the town in October 1972, the shop unit to the east side was occupied by a launderette. At some point after this both units were combined, a move which resulted in the moving of the entrance to the living quarters on the upper floors from the front to the rear.

[*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 which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involving 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 Taylor, George, and Skinner, Andrew, ‘Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland, surveyed 1777’ (Dublin, 1778), Map 20 etc.
2 Linen Hall Library, Belfast, ‘A Map of County Antrim…by J. Lendrick’ (1780)
3 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
4 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
5 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1832)
6 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish (1834)
7 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
9 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
10 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1856)
11 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish (1859)
12 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1862-64)
13 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1865-76)
14 Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1876-84)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3d Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1884-93)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3e Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1892/3-98)
18 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Antrim’ (Dublin, 1888), pp.92-102
19 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3f Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1898-1907)
20 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plans of Ballycastle (1898-c.1935)
21 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
22 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
23 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3g Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1908-21)
24 PRONI VAL/12A/1/23 Valuers’ office notebook, Ballycastle Union (1910)
25 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North and South Wards (1921-27)
26 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North Ward (1927-30)
27 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD South Ward (1927-30)
28 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
29 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
30 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
31 PRONI VAL/4B/1/12 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD (1956-72)

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…The Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971), p.47
2 Information supplied by the owner (September 2004)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/15/008 First Survey report (12 October 1972)
2 EHS HB05/15/008 Photograph (?1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Broad, two-storey terrace shop, with apartment over, probably dating from the mid 18th century, but with large mid 20th-century shop front and extensive two and single-storey workshop additions to the rear which cover almost all of the formerly open yard. Although of undoubted significant age, this building, like a number of others within Castle Street, has had its architectural character devalued by extensive mid to later 1900s alterations.