38-40 Harbour Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay house with rendered walls, slated roof, and a shop-front to the ground floor, forming part of a terrace of six houses. Main entrance faces east.

Front elevation: Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a chimney at each extremity, smooth rendered; modern pots to left-hand one; wall rendered with dry dash of white limestone chippings with raised smooth rendered quoins to left-hand extremity, smooth rendered plinth, and projecting smooth rendered eaves course. Cast iron gutter and downpipe.
Windows to first floor are rectangular timber sliding sash, 1 over 1 with horns, set in smooth rendered reveals with projecting cills. Ground floor has one window similar to previous, plus two larger modern rectangular timber shop windows of fixed lights, one combined with a door to the shop: rectangular glazed and panelled, with plain rectangular fanlight. Door to house is original rectangular timber panelled, with plain fanlight. Shop window to left incorporates a post box.

South elevation is a blank gable, rendered as to front, with chimney at apex.

Rear elevation: two-storey, with asbestos slated roof in regular courses, with a rendered chimney at each extremity; plain replacement pots; three modern flush rooflights; PVC gutter with cast iron downpipe. Back wall of house, roughcast using crushed stones, with cement render border at extremities and below eaves. One window to first floor each side of central two-storey lean-to extension projecting from back wall; window to left, timber fixed light with top-hung vent; window to right, timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns. Below window to left, lean-to return with dry-dash finish of limestone chippings; PVC gutter and downpipe; roof of perspex; modern varnished teak door in side wall of return, panelled and glazed with patterned translucent glass. Central projecting extension two windows wide each floor: timber fixed lights with top-hung vents to first floor, timber fixed lights with casements to ground floor; concrete cills; asbestos slated roof in regular courses; PVC gutter and cast iron downpipe. To right of projecting extension at ground floor level, single storey return in painted brick; corrugated asbestos roof; ledged doors, stained; all 20th century. Concrete steps up from back door to yard finished in concrete pavings. Boundary wall to north dry-dashed, limestone chippings; to south, painted rendered wall with modern double doors of pine slats on rectangular steel frame. To rear of yard, marking west boundary, a gabled building, known as 55 and 57 High Street, with roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; wall facing yard, dry-dash rendered using limestone chippings, with smooth rendered vertical strip to left hand extremity, and smooth rendered plinth. PVC gutter and downpipe centrally positioned between two doorways; double doors to left, single to right, all of teak with narrow glazed panel, new brass handles, set in lugged cement render surround; concrete ramp to each doorway; all inappropriate. Door to left leads to ground floor interior: suspended ceiling; plastered walls; concrete floor carpeted. South gable blank, smooth rendered, with chimney at apex; cream earthenware pot. Elevation toward High Street: two-storey terrace houses with roof as previous; wall smooth rendered; chimney to each extremity, same finish as wall; cast iron gutter and downpipe. House to left, no. 57 High street: two windows to first floor, timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns, replacements; two similar to ground floor with panelled and painted wooden door between, replacement, with new brass handle. House to right, no. 55 High Street: one window to first floor, as previous; one similar to ground floor to right of door, as previous.

SETTING: The building stands at the south end of a terrace of six houses, within the built-up area of the village, facing directly onto the pavement, with an unobstructed view to the harbour across the main road.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but it appears on the OS map of 1903; a photograph taken by 1872 shows the site empty.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1903, Co Antrim 25.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Glens of Antrim (Belfast, 1971), p 20 (item no. 16).
2. C. Dallat, The Road to the Glens (Belfast, 1989), p 20.
3. M. McSparran, C. Dallat, and J. Irvine, Oh Maybe it was Yesterday (Glens of Antrim Historical Society, 1980), p 18 (a photograph taken by 1872 shows the site empty).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A plain building of no intrinsic architectural or historical interest.