52 Toberwine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively plain, two storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1840, probably originally built as a public house. To the front there are gabled dormers (probably added in the early 1900s). The property is set on the E side of Toberwine Street.

The front elevation faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is a panelled door with a plain rectangular fanlight over. To the right side of the doorway there is a sash window while the left is a double sash window with three (almost) evenly spaced similar windows to the first floor. All of these openings have moulded reveals. The front elevation is finished with painted lined render with in-out quoins. Painted stone cills.

To the rear elevation is a two storey gabled return to the right while to the left is a single storey lean-to extension, both of which look as though they have been added recently. To the top left is a small area of the original elevation. There is a two pane modern window to the middle of this section. To the N side of the two storey return is a narrow section of the main elevation. There is a modern window to ground and first floors of this section. To the left (centred on the lean-to extension) is a large modern patio style window while to the left is a half glazed modern door and to the far right is a small modern window. The rear elevation is finished in plain painted render.

The gabled roof is slated. To the centre of the front side of the roof there are two small gabled dormers with modern window frames. To the rear roof there is a large central [recent?] gabled dormer. The gables have slight overhangs and plain bargeboards. To the N end of the ridge there is a rendered chimneystack while to the S side there is a tall chimney attached to the three storey gable of no.54. That to the S has two odd pots while that to the N has one modern pot. Close to the ridge on both N and S sides there is a small Velux window. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods.

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, 36-38 and 44-52 all c.1835-40s, and nos.14, 20-34, 40-42 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.52
A building/s is shown on this site on John O’Hara’s map of 1779 and all others thereafter. A relatively newly constructed building matching the same dimensions as the main section of the present property is recorded in the 1859 valuation notebook. This building, we are told, was licensed (i.e. it was a public house), possessed ‘8 apartments and 2 garrets over’ and was then on the hands of an Alexander McKay. It is probable that the property, like its neighbours to the immediate north, (the present nos.44-50), was built c.1840.

The building appears to have remained as a public house until at least 1947, but was a private dwelling when first surveyed in June 1971.

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Relatively plain, two storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1840, probably originally built as a public house. To the front there are gabled dormers (probably added in the early 1900s). To the rear is a large two storey extension and a single storey lean-to, both of which appear to be of modern (c.2000-01) construction.Does not meet criteria for listing and not of special architectural or historic interest.