21 Altmore Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively plain, low proportioned two storey terrace house of possible pre 1832 construction. The property is set on the W side of Altmore Street.

The front (E) elevation is asymmetrical. To the centre-right on the ground floor is a rather low door opening with panelled timber door, plain fanlight and moulded cement surrounds. This surround matches architraves found within the house. To the right is a plain sash window. This also has moulded surround. To the left, but slightly farther over is a similar window. To the first floor are three similar windows; which sit directly above the ground floor openings. The façade is finished with painted lined render with plain quoins. The quoins to the right are wider.

To the ground floor of the rear elevation is a full width flat roofed return. To the left is a large recent timber window. To the right of this is a recent glazed door. To the right again is a smaller recent timber window while to the far right is a half glazed door. To the first floor are three recent timber windows with top hung openings . That to the centre is lower (lighting the half landing) while that to the left is much shorter. The rear is finished in unpainted roughcast render.

The gabled roof is slated and has three small skylights to rear. Two (shared) rendered chimney stacks. The rw goods appear to be mainly cast iron.

Historical information

ALTMORE STREET
Altmore Street takes its name from the Altmore River, a narrow brook which flows from the high ground to the south-east to the Glenarm River to the west. The earliest reference to building plots within its vicinity occurs in a lease of August 1673 which mentions a ‘housestead, garden of tenement…extending back to Altmore Brook’, with others of December 1678 referring to ‘tenements’ on the ‘south side of Altmore‘. The presence of a ‘street’ is also mentioned in some 1678 leases.

Many of the earliest houses within the street may have been built on the western side, for prior to the walling in of estate grounds in the immediate vicinity of Glenarm Castle in the 1750s, the village fronted on to both sides of the Glenarm River. Some buildings on this side of the street may even originally faced the river: the present no.15, for instance, appears to have originally had an almost symmetrical ‘rear’ elevation -facing the river- and a markedly asymmetrical ‘front’ elevation; whilst no.29 has a 1739 date stone on its river facing side, as opposed to its street facing ‘front’.

The earliest extant map of Glenarm, drawn up by John O’Hara in 1779, shows the street fully developed on both sides, the terrace to the west stretching further to the south than today, beyond the line of the present ‘Town Gate’ to the Glenarm Castle estate.

The construction of the Town Gate some time between 1832 and 1857 appears to have lead to radical changes to the layout the street, with the line of much of the terrace to the eastern side pushed further eastwards allowing for a broader, and slightly grander, approach to the estate itself. The writer has found no mention of this widening of the street in any account of the development of Glenarm, however, the discrepancy between the orientation of the line of much of the eastern terrace on the 1832 OS map and that of 1857 suggests it was indeed the case. The theory is also supported by an 1830 illustration of the town (primary source no.6), which shows the two sections of terrace on the eastern side out of line, and the fact that many of the buildings recorded in the 1833 valuation of this side of the street seem to bear no relation to those recorded in the valuation of 1859 (as if all had been demolished).

The age / condition grading of properties employed in the latter valuation indicates that most of these rebuilt dwellings were twenty years old or slightly more in 1859, which would date much of the redevelopment to the mid to later 1830s. This ties in with a remark made in the OS Memoirs of 1835 that ‘some two storey houses of a tolerable description have been recently built in Glenarm…intended for the accommodation of lodgers during the bathing season…’.

The western side of Altmore Street may have remained largely untouched by the changes of the mid 1800s, with some of the buildings we see today possibly pre 1830s, however, some properties to the very southern end were cleared away with the construction of the Town Gate, and the land incorporated within the estate itself.

No.21
This site is shown occupied by a building on John O’Hara’s map of 1779 and the OS map of 1832. On the former map this particular plot is recorded as a ‘tenement unset’, i.e. vacant.

The present house is likely to be that of the same dimensions recorded in the valuation notebook of 1859. At this stage the property was leased from Lord Antrim by a William Thompson and possessed ‘3 [rooms] below…4 above’ and a ‘small garret’ as well as a small single storey rear return (extended in the 20th century). The valuers grade the house ‘B’, suggesting (in their own estimation) a building at least twenty years old.

The surrounds to the front openings and the some of the interior decoration suggest that a craftsman of some skill worked on this house at some point. Could this have been a craftsman working on Glenarm Castle itself- possibly in the 1820s when the major alterations to the castle took place?

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.2977/3A/4/1/24 Antrim Papers Lease from Alexander MacDonnell of Glenarm to John White of Glenarm, 12th August 1673 [See also D.2977/3A/4/65/8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28- all late 17th century leases concerning the vicinity of Altmore Brook in Glenarm]
2 PRONI D.2977/4/65/33 Antrim Papers Lease from Alexander, Earl of Antrim, to John Richy of Glenarm, of a tenement in Altmore Street, 1 March 1736 [See also D.2977/3A/4/65/40, 41, 42, 48, 52, 55, 56, 59, 61, 72, 73, 74, 81, 94, 95, 99A, 99B, 101, 102A, 104- mainly 18th century leases relating to Altmore Street.]
3 PRONI D.2977/36/3/1A Antrim Papers Map, showing the Town of Glenarm, plus Glenarm Castle and demesne, by John O'Hara, 1779. [Includes a list of the tenants in Glenarm town.]
4 Ulster Museum A view of Glenarm Castle (painting dating from some time between 1768 and 1812) [This painting also shows the town itself.]
5 View of Glenarm c.1769-c.1812 (painting in possession of Lord Dunluce)
6 “The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim” [1830] by T.M. Baynes in ‘Ireland illustrated’ (London 1831) [This illustration shows the present no.27 Altmore Street, but gives no indication of any buildings directly to the north of this (including no.25), the angle of the illustration, however, precludes a clear view of most of the west side of the street.]
7 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…’ vol.13 [c.1830-35] ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992), p.127
8 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33
9 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833 [The map to accompany this valuation is now lost making it extremely difficult, (and in most cases impossible), to tell which properties the valuation book is actually referring to. In some cases (most notably the west side of Toberwine Street) the writer has been able to successfully correlate the information contained within the second valuation notebook for 1859 with that of the first valuation, in order to decipher some of the details contained within the latter, but for most properties within Glenarm this has not been possible. As stated above, with regards to Altmore Street, the mere fact that very little regarding the eastern side of the street contained within the first valuation book appears to relate with the later valuation is, paradoxically, revealing, for it indicates much rebuilding in the years after 1833. The fact also that the first valuation map is missing may also be revealing- could the post 1833 changes carried out in Altmore Street have rendered it obsolete within a few years of being drawn up?]
10 Samuel Lewis, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland’ vol.1 (London 1837), p.658
11 William Makepeace Thackery, ‘Irish sketchbook’ (1843), p.238
12 Mrs and Mrs S.C. Hall, ‘Ireland: Its scenery, character etc., vol.III (London 1843), p.130
13 PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859 [with later annotations- ?c.1900]
14 PRONI VAL/2B/1/41B Second valuation [notebook], village of Glenarm, 1859 [In the light of the problems concerning the first valuation this notebook and its accompanying map are both invaluable. For many areas the details of the second valuation only survive in the final printed form, with the names of householders and leaseholders and the rateable value for each property supplied only. For some areas, Glenarm among them, the working notebooks compiled by the valuers have survived, providing information such as dimensions of buildings, their use, the number of rooms they contain, notes on age and condition, and, (occasionally), comments regarding the overall appearance of properties. In many respect these notebooks closely resemble those of the first valuation, but frequently contain more detail.]
15 PRONI OS/8/103/1 OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903
16 PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907-[1935]
17 PRONI VAL/3G/20/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm. 1936-57

Secondary sources
1 C.E.B. Brett, ‘Historic buildings…Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast 1971), p.16
2 Eileen Black, “A view of Glenarm Castle” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.7 (1979), pp.29-30
3 Jimmie Irvine, “A map of Glenarm- 1779” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.9 (1981), pp.52-61
4 Hon. Hector McDonnell, “The building of the parish church at Glenarm” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.10 (1982), pp.31-36
5 Felix McKillop, ‘Glenarm- A local history’ (Glenarm 1987) [Though detailed, this book, (nor any other publication the writers have consulted), appears to make any reference to the widening of Altmore Street.]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively plain, low proportioned two storey terrace house of possible pre 1832 construction. A substantial level of internal period detail survives. To the rear there is a full width single storey return, which was extended to its present size some time in the early to mid 1900s.
Protection by listing is appropriate.