21-23 Molesworth Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a three-storey sandstone public house, formerly comprised of two dwellings, built c. 1861. The building is long, narrow and rectangular in plan. It stretches back to the South with an L-shaped two-storey addition facing onto a courtyard. Access to the courtyard is via a shared integral coach arch which is accessed from the ground floor to the left of the main front elevation, as part of the adjacent to property no 25 (HB09/13/017D). The L-shaped two-storey addition contains a pub and nightclub to rear.

The building forms part of a long row of mixed three-storey buildings, built in stages between 1850 – 80, now largely converted to shops, pubs and offices.

The North elevation is street fronted. The ground floor is partially clad in ceramic tiles and is separated from the first floor by a continuous projecting stone course. The upper storey is finished in the original sandstone.

The ground floor contains two painted timber doorways. The doorway to right is recessed into a painted timber plank surround laid in a horizontal fashion with an overlight. The doorway to the left is plain timber double door.
There is a mixture of single light and triple light replacement windows to ground floor with cut stone sills and decorative grills.

There are replacement timber casement windows to upper levels with cut stone lintels. There are banded rusticated quoins to edges of front elevation.

The front elevation has decorative wrought-iron torches attached to the upper levels between each bay.

There are exposed aluminium gutters with a projecting stone cornice at eaves level, and exposed aluminium downpipes to the front elevation, and a mixture of uPVC rainwater goods to the rear. Natural slate to uniform terrace roof with flanking brick chimneys.

The rear South elevation is partially visible from the courtyard to the rear with small replacement timber window openings with metal grills.

Returns and Additions:
The two-storey return has stone cladding to the ground floor single-storey projection, c. 1990. The ground floor contains a single timber recessed door, surmounted by horizontal timber fascia and uPVC guttering. The upper storey contains two 3/6 sliding timber sash windows, with additional replacement timber windows.
Artificial slate and a plain rendered chimney to the return.

An additional two-storey flat roofed rear return, c. 1960, has finishes as before. It also comprises an irregular array of window and door openings with timber and uPVC windows.

The courtyard to the rear of the building is overlooked by adjacent property no. 25 (HB09/13/017D). The returns of no. 21, and no. 25 are directly abutting the ‘Hall’ to the south.
The ‘Hall’ is a two-storey building with modern cladding and brash lighting and additions, with an irregular mixture of door and window openings.

Setting:
The building is set in North East of the town centre as part of a uniform and matching three-storey terrace.

Historical information

The present nos.21 and 23 were built as a single dwelling in 1861 by a William S. Crawford, and originally possessed a rateable valuation of £25. Stables were added to the rear in 1868, lifting this value to £30. In 1870, an Alexander Molloy is listed as the resident, with the house noted as vacant in 1872, and William S. Crawford returning in 1873. In the same year the rateable value rose by £10 to £40, suggesting the completion of a substantial addition to the property, undoubtedly the present no.25 (HB09/13/017D). It rose again to £47 in 1877, suggesting further additions, possibly involving the outbuildings to the rear.

In 1889, the ground floor level of the 1873 addition (no.25), was leased as a separate property (a shop, with a rateable value of £6-10-0), firstly to a Joseph Burnett (who appears to have been a butcher), and then, in 1893, to a Charles Rankin. In 1891 a 'shed' was added to the rear of the main block (present nos.21-23), lifting the rateable value to £50, and the following the year the main block itself is recorded as a public house; it have been so for some time- possibly even built as such. Joseph C. Crawford took over both the tenancy and the lease of the pub, and the lease of the shop, in 1894. In 1907 the lease of the pub was acquired by Edward Allen (who held the neighbouring pub to the western side), and a James McGuckin became the tenant. Crawford held on to the lease of the shop, however, which is noted as occupied by James McCulla in 1905 and Joseph Donnelly in 1907. In 1909, James McGuckin acquired the lease and sublet the living quarters and rear garden to a George R. Bear.

In c.1924 a radical reorganisation of the property was carried out with no.21 emerging as a single entity, and nos.23-25 sub-divided into several concerns.

No.21 after c.1924
A William and Robert McGuckin are listed as the occupants of what is now no.21 in 1930. By 1936 this property was being occupied by a T.A. and A.A. Quinn, with a John C. Eastwood the leaseholder. A William Eastwood became occupant and leaseholder in 1949, with Edward Quinn succeeding him in 1954, and Thomas A. Quinn, (probably the aforementioned T.A. Quinn), the tenant. At some point in the early 1930s, however the large outbuilding to the rear was sub-divided into four separate properties. In 1951-52 these appear to have been amalgamated once again and the outbuilding extended to become a cinema in the hands of the above Thomas A. Quinn, with whom it remained until at least 1972.

No.23 after c.1924
In 1924, what is now no.23 and no.25 (HB09/13/017D) were subdivided into multiple properties, recorded in that year as ‘a shop and room’, ‘2 rooms first floor front left’, ‘2 rooms first floor front right’, ‘room first floor (in rere)’, ‘2 rooms second floor left’, ‘2 rooms second floor right’ and a ‘garage (at rear)’. By 1936 no.23 is recorded as a separate property from no.25, and is noted as divided into an office occupied by [‘Auctioneers & Property Salemen’] Bear & McKeown, with Mr George R. Bear himself residing in the rooms above. By 1950, the former living quarters had been vacated and four separate offices are recorded, two of them rented by the NI government departments, the Ministry of Finance and the National Assistance Board for Northern Ireland. Six separate properties are recorded in the building in 1972, five offices, with a flat to the 2nd floor.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/2C/63 Second valuation, Union of Cookstown (Dublin, 1859) [This is the printed version of the second valuation. The handwritten version (which may have been more detailed and include property dimensions etc.) no longer exists. The printed volume merely provides names of tenants and leaseholders, and rateable values.]
2 PRONI VAL/2D/6/3/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1859-82 [2 sheets]
3 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1860-63
4 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1864-68
5 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1868-81
6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5D Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
7 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
8 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5F Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-90
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5G Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-88
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5J Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-94 [The reference number for this book is out of sequence in the
PRONI catalogue- the dates it covers are actually earlier than VAL/12B/37/5H.]
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5H Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1895-99
12 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5K Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-99
13 PRONI VAL/12E/171/1/1-2 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1892-97 [2 sheets]
14 PRONI OS/33/1/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
15 PRONI OS/9/10/2/1-2 OS plan of Cookstown, index map, 1895 [2 sheets]
16 PRONI OS/9/10/3/1-5 OS plan of Cookstown, 1895 [5 sheets]
17 PRONI VAL/12E/171/2/1-3 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1897-1910 [3 sheets]
18 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1901-07
19 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1909-15
20 PRONI OS/33/2/1-4 OS plan, 1909 & 1918 [4 sheets]
21 PRONI VAL/12B/37/7C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1916-29
22 PRONI VAL/3G/142/1 /1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1936-37 [4 sheets]
23 PRONI VAL/3C/7/8 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban, 1936-57
24 PRONI VAL/3G/142/2/1-4 Valuation plan of Cookstown, 1937-51
25 PRONI VAL/4B/6/10 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.1, 1956-72
26 PRONI VAL/4B/6/11 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Cookstown Urban vol.2E, 1956-72

Secondary sources
1 Oram, R.W. and Rankin, P.J., Historic buildings…Dungannon & Cookstown (Belfast, UAHS, 1971)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a quite large terraced house that is an important element of the nineteenth-century built heritage of Cookstown, whose external proportions and style makes a positive contribution to the group value of Molesworth Street. Although the applied ceramic tiling to the front façade detracts somewhat from the overall composition

Continual additions to the mixed terrace represent the urbanization and increasing prosperity of Cookstown at this time, particularly reflecting the arrival of the railway.

The terrace 19 - 53 Molesworth Street was built during a thirty year period; despite this time period and the fact that it was built in many stages it has maintained a remarkable uniformity.

General comments

This record includes the two buildings formerly recorded as HB09/13/017 B & C.