10-12 Toberwine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain two-storey rendered terrace house and shop of c.1840s with large rear return. The property is set at the S end of a short terrace, at the N east end of Toberwine Street.

The front elevation faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. To the left of centre of the W front face is a four-panel timber front door (to the house) with rectangular fanlight with ‘brick’ tracery. To the left is a tall sash window with Georgian panes (6/6). To the right of centre is a four panel timber front door (to the shop) with a plain rectangular fanlight. To the far right is a modern wide ‘domestic’ timber window set within the original shop window opening. Above the former shop window , shop door and house door is a painted shop signboard with a simple cornice. To the first floor are a further four (almost) evenly spaced windows, all as before. A wall projects from the right hand edge of the elevation.

The S facing elevation, (which consists of the main gable and the S face of the rear return), is blank.

To the S side of the E elevation is a large two storey gabled return. To the right of the N face there are two windows, as front only smaller. There are a further two to right on the first floor. To the left the return projects and has a right of centre timber door with a 2/2 sash window to left and a slightly larger window (with Georgian-paned frame) to right. To the first floor there is a timber sheeted loft doorway to right with a smaller timber sheeted opening to left. The S face of the return is blank. The upper section of the E face is swathed with rampant greenery while to the lower half there is a small single storey gabled shed with a door to the right side of the N face. The shed has a corrugated iron roof.

To the centre of the E rear elevation of the main section of the building there is a shallow mid 1900s two storey timber lean-to projection. To the left of centre on the ground floor of the E face of this there is a panelled and glazed door with a four pane fixed light to the left and 5 vertical narrow fixed lights to the right. To the first floor there are five ‘joined windows’ which give a ribbon glazing effect. The S face has 6 vertical narrow fixed lights to the ground floor. The projection is finished with timber cladding while the lean-to roof appears to be covered with natural slate. To the right of the ground floor of the E rear elevation of the main house is a window with modern frame. To the right side of the first floor is a plain sash window while to the left the upper portion of a sash window (Georgian panes) shows above the roof of the lean-to projection. There are three small Velux windows to the E face of the main roof.

The front façade is finished in painted render with v-jointed quoins to S. The S elevation is in unpainted rough cast. The rear elevation (including the return) is finished in a painted rough cast / harling.

The roofs are covered with natural slate, but the rear of the roof of the main house appears to be covered in asbestos ‘slates’. There are cast iron rw goods to the front and PVC elsewhere. To either side of the ridge of the main roof is a wide rendered chimneystack each with five decorative and matching chimney pots. To the E side of the ridge to the return roof is a pot less rendered chimney stack.

Historical information

TOBERWINE STREET
Toberwine Street (‘Street of the ‘sweet well’) may represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness betraying something of its antiquity. The original 13th century castle of Glenarm, around which the village developed, is believed to have stood at the south west corner of the street, on the site now occupied by the former court house. The castle itself was deliberately ‘broken’ by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and, seemingly, not repaired- Sorley’s descendant, Sir Randal McDonnell, building a new residence on the other side of the river. Some historians state that the old castle was occupied by tenants (and therefore presumably repaired in some fashion), in the later 17th century, but Richard Dobbs makes no reference to it in his 1683 description of the village.

The first mention of ‘Toberwine’ within the Antrim Papers appears to be in a lease of November 1672, which refers to a house within the area, with ‘Toberwine Street’ mentioned in a lease of August 1709. On John O’Hara’s 1779 map of Glenarm (the earliest extant plan of the village) the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market / court house to the south west end. There is no verifiable indication of any remains of the old castle shown on the map, but the remark made in the 1835 OS Memoirs concerning ‘the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago’ indicates that ruins of some kind may have lingered into the early 19th century.

Evidence provided by the valuation of 1833 suggests that most of the buildings we now see on the west side of the street were present (in some form) at that date and that many were probably 18th century. The east side of the street witnessed a much greater degree of development after 1833 however, with nos.4-12 all c.1840, and nos.20-34 and 62 post c.1860- some of the latter replacing modest single storey dwellings. There is evidence to suggest that large three storey former Antrim Arms Hotel (and possibly its neighbour no.56) may have been standing in the early 1830s, but this is not certain.

No.10-12
On the OS map of 1832 buildings are shown further to the east of this site. The present terrace is shown on the revised OS map of 1857 and (in greater detail) on the second valuation map of 1859. Judging from the overall design and detailing one suspects that the terrace was built closer to 1832 than 1859, perhaps in the early 1840s.

The notebook to accompany the second valuation tells us that the block was at that stage contained three dwellings belonging to John, James and William McMullan, with William occupying no.10-12. The valuation gives no indication of a shop within no.10-12 at this point, but judging from the simplicity of the shop front (prior to the recent alteration to the window), it is possible that it may have appeared in the later 1800s. The shop itself appears to have been in business until the late 1970s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.2977/3A/4/65/2, 30, 34A, 36, 37A-B, 43-45, 70A-B etc. Antrim Papers Leases relating to property in ‘Toberwine’ / Toberwine Street, 1672, 1709, 1736/7, 1753 etc.
2 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.]
3 Ulster Museum A view of Glenarm Castle (painting dating from some time between 1768 and 1812) [This painting also shows the town itself.]
4 View of Glenarm c.1769-c.1812 (painting in possession of Lord Dunluce)
5 “The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim” [1830] by T.M. Baynes in ‘Ireland illustrated’ (London 1831)
6 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…’ vol.13 [c.1830-35] ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992), p.127
7 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33
8 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.]
9 Samuel Lewis, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland’ vol.1 (London 1837), p.658
10 William Makepeace Thackery, ‘Irish sketchbook’ (1843), p.238
11 Mrs and Mrs S.C. Hall, ‘Ireland: Its scenery, character etc., vol.III (London 1843), p.130
12 PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859 [with later annotations- ?c.1900]
13 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.]
14 PRONI OS/8/103/1 OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903
15 PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907-[1935]
16 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)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Plain two-storey rendered terrace house and shop of c.1840s with large rear return. The shop front may be late 19th century but now has a modern ‘domestic’ window.Substantial original character survives to justify listing at the B1 grade.