35-37 Bowling Green

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long, two-storey (solicitors) office in the plain Georgian vernacular mould, probably built pre 1833 as two dwellings. The property is set on the east side of (the) Bowling Green.

The long front elevation faces roughly E. To the left of centre is the entrance, which consists of a panelled timber door and a rectangular fanlight with chinoiserie style tracery. To the left of the entrance there is a flat-arch window with hornless Georgian-paned timber sash frame (six panes over six) and a painted stone cill. All the other windows to the front are the same as this, however this particular window has wrought-iron security bars over it. To the left of the window is a flat-arch vehicle entrance with timber double door.

To the right of the entrance there are four windows, with seven more to the first floor, directly in line with the ground floor openings. The front elevation is finished in painted lined render. There is a small traditional style projecting sign above the entrance. To the far right the façade is recessed slightly (this portion of the façade originally belonged to a neighbouring property which was demolished c.1988).

The N and S gables are finished in plain cement render and do not have any openings. The N gable did once possess a small pointed arch doorway to the ground floor, which allowed access to the garden of the neighbouring property, but this has been blocked up. Its outline is still visible from within the vehicle entrance archway, however.

To the left hand (S) side of the rear elevation there is a large gabled return, which was largely added in 1903. This return does not have any window or doors, but does have a number of small ventilation openings (to its N face at least). The N face of the return is finished in unpainted roughcast. To the right of the return (on the rear façade of the main section of the building) there are three windows to the first floor. That to far right is as those to front, whilst that to left is shorter (three panes over six), with the middle window considerably smaller and possessing a fixed timber frame (with nine Georgian style panes). All of these windows have wrought-iron security bars over. The rear façade is finished in unpainted cement render.

The gabled roof of the main section is largely covered in asbestos tiles, with the return and the very S end of the roof of the main section covered in a more recent artificial ‘slate’. There are four unevenly-spaced rendered chimneystacks to the ridge of the roof of the main section. Cast-iron rainwater goods to front, PVC-u to rear.

Historical information

This site is shown developed on the OS map of 1833-34. Unfortunately the plan of Strabane drawn up to accompany the valuation of 1832-34 has been lost, making it extremely difficult to trace any details of the buildings within the town at this date with any degree of certainty.

Reading through the valuation book itself, however, there appears to have been a long two-storey building on this side of the Bowling Green at that date, whose dimensions would seem to account the present structure. This particular building is recorded as in the hands of a Colonel Barnard. This name ties in with the information supplied in the second valuation of 1857, which states that the lease of the house and office on site at that point, (which, from later information, we can be certain does equate with the current building), was held by the ‘representatives of General Henry Bernard’. Presumably this is the same man of 1832 after he had moved up in rank. Returning to the 1832 valuation, we find that that Col. Barnard is listed as also holding a larger three-storey dwelling elsewhere in the Bowling Green, probably one of the houses which originally occupied the ground of the present police station. Assuming that a man of his position would probably have lived in the larger house, he must have been using the two-storey property for some other purpose. This is interesting, for the present owner states that he believes the building once served as a barracks.

Whatever the case, physical evidence in the form of differing wall thicknesses, suggests that the block was built in stages, with north end, (the section from the present entrance northwards), added at some point. The staircase in the southern portion of the property is of the type found in many late Georgian structures, indicating that it, at least, may date from around 1800.

The post-1857 history of no.35-37 is much clearer. In the valuation for that year the building consisted of two properties, with that to the south (later no.35) in the hands of a Lydia Carson, and a Robert Wilson holding that to the north. Wilson was a solicitor, who lived in the larger neighbouring house (the present no.39). No.37 appears to have been his office, the (now blocked) archway in the building’s north gable allowing him quick access to his workplace from his home. After his death c.1869, the business of the firm was continued by another Robert Wilson, and, from 1874, William Wilson, both presumably his sons or grandsons.

In contrast, no.35 went through a long list of tenants, starting with Francis M. Boyd (1863-71), John [?]Maturin (1871-72), John Donaghy (1872), Sarah Caldwell (1872-74), Mrs Urqhart (1874-80), Mrs McCarter (1882-87), Oliver White (1887-89), and R.B. Phillips (1889-c.92). In 1892 a ‘room’ was taken from the property and ‘added to no.17’ [no.37], reducing the rateable value of the former from £15 to £12. From c.1892 to 1895 the building is listed as occupied by the Unionist Registration Association, with a Mrs Wilson noted as resident the following year, a Mrs Elliott in 1896, Sergeant William McCloy (1897-1902), James Magee (1902-04), and from 1905, a Thomas Brady.

In 1912, after remaining vacant for about three years, the lease of no.35 was acquired by the now newly expanded neighbouring solicitors firm of Wilson & Simms, the whole building becoming an office. Part of this conversion involved the lengthening of the return to the rear, which, in order to keep the firm’s papers safe, was, according to the valuers, ‘made fireproof [with] concrete floors and ceilings, and firebrick walls’.

The building continues to serve as the office for the firm of Wilson & Simms.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/638A First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/638B First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
4 PRONI VAL/1B/638C First valuation, Camus parish (1832-c.38)
5 PRONI OS/6/5/5/1 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 5 (1833-34)
6 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
7 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
9 PRONI VAL/2B/6/41 Second valuation, Camus parish (1857)
10 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18A Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59])
11 PRONI VAL/2D/6/18B Valuation town plan of Strabane (1857 [-59]) [PRONI also holds a microfiche copy of this plan, catalogued under the ref. T/2933/4/252.]
12 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31A Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED(1860-64)
13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73)
14 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1870)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91)
17 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
18 PRONI OS/9/22/2/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
19 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908])
20 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
21 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
22 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
23 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
24 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
25 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
26 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
27 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
28 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
29 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
30 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
31 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
32 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
33 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
34 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983)

Secondary sources
1 Bradley, Jim, et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’ (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000)

Other
references
1 EHS HB10/14/004 First Survey report (10 Feb 1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Long, two-storey (solicitors) office in the plain Georgian vernacular mould, probably built pre 1833 as two dwellings. The building still retains significant character particularly to the front elevation.