56 Toberwine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, relatively plain three storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1835-40, which may originally have contained a shop but which, in the early 1900s, acted as the local police station. The property is situated on the E side of Toberwine Street.

The front elevation faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. To the right on the ground floor of the front elevation is a panelled door with a three pane rectangular fanlight over (each pane has a segmental arch frame). To the left of the doorway are two sash windows with Georgian panes (6/6), with three more to the first floor. To the second floor there are a further three sash windows, as before but smaller (6/3). Windows to first and second floors are without horns. The front façade is finished in painted lined render with plain quoins to right (S). Cast iron rw goods.

To the ground floor of the rear E elevation there are three sash windows, as ground floor front. To the second floor there are two such windows one to the left and one to the right. To the second floor there are three similar (but slightly smaller) windows. That to the far right is set at a slightly lower level . All the rear windows have horns. The rear elevation is finished with lined render.

In the archway to the immediate N of the property (originally belonging to no.54, but now a pedestrian alleyway), there is a doorway.

The gabled roof is slated. To the S and N ends of the ridge there are plain rendered chimney stacks, that to the N is slightly taller. Both have modern pots.

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.56
A building/s is shown on this site on John O’Hara’s map of 1779 and all others thereafter. Undoubtedly the present building is the relatively newly built (perhaps c.1835-40) property of the same dimensions recorded in the valuation notebook of 1859, then in the hands of John Turnley but occupied by a James McNeill. The notebook refers to the property as a ‘house as store’ with a ‘shop (entered) below, 2 good rooms over, walled in garden and kitchen behind’.

The building succeeded the present no.50 Toberwine Street as Glenarm’s constabulary barracks (i.e. police station) in c.1900 and remained as such until the new station was built on the Carnlough Road in the 1930s. In the mid 1950s the property was acquired by the neighbouring Antrim Arms Hotel (no.54) and amalgamated with it. The hotel remained in business until 1973. In 1984 both no.54 and no.56 were acquired by Hearth Housing Association and the latter converted for use as a dwelling house.

*Apparently the building contains roughly hewn roof timbers which could suggest that it may be older the c.1835-40. However, the above mentioned valuation grades the property ‘A-’, suggesting that it was probably twenty to thirty years old at that point.

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

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, relatively plain three storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1835-40, which may originally have contained a shop but which, in the early 1900s acted as the local police station.The exterior, front and rear has been conserved which means that the building meets listing criteria sufficiently to be on the list at the B2 grade.