7 Church Street, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 8BS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large three-storey semi-detached house of 1871, with large L-shaped return, divided into flats / apartments in 1968. The property is situated on the south side of Church Street.

The front elevation faces roughly N and is asymmetrical. To the left on the ground floor is the main entrance. This consists of a panelled timber door with panelled timber pilaster jambs, a timber lintel with cornice and a plain elliptical fanlight, all encased with a relatively plain moulded surround with ‘keystone’. To the right of the entrance are two tall semicircular-headed windows with recent timber frames and surrounds as the entrance. There is a moulded stringcourse at arch-springing level.

To the first floor there are three flat-arched windows with frames as before [the frames throughout the property are similar] and plain surrounds with cornice hoods over supported on decorative brackets. The middle window has a segmental-arched tympanum over. To the second floor there are three slightly smaller segmental-headed windows with moulded surrounds with decorative ‘keystones’.

The front elevation is finished in painted lined render with cill courses to the first and second floors. There is a projecting eaves cornice supported on curved brackets.

The W-facing gable is largely finished in unpainted roughcast with various smooth render string / cill courses and smooth render ‘quoins’. To the right of centre on the ground floor there is a window, with another to the same position on the first floor.

To the rear of the building there extends a large L-shaped return which is part three part two-storey. The three-storey section directly abuts the main section of the building, with the hip-roofed two-storey section -which was originally an outbuilding- set at a right angle at the S end of the three-storey section.

To the ground floor of the W façade of the three-storey section there is a doorway to left with timber-sheeted door and plain rectangular fanlight. To the right of this are two windows of differing size, that to far right quite large. To the first floor there are three windows of uniform size, with three similar windows to the second floor. There other facades of this section could not be seen, but there relationship to neighbouring properties suggests they are devoid of openings.

To the N façade of the two-storey section there is a window to left on the ground floor. To right of this there is a flat-roofed single-storey projection with a doorway (with recent door) and window. To the first floor there is a similar arrangement. The upper floor doorway is accessed via a stair to the W which leads onto the roof of the projection. The W façade of the two-storey section appears to be devoid of openings. The S façade could not be seen, but judging from the proximity of the property to the immediate S, is likely to be without openings also.

To the rear (S) façade of the main section of the building, there is a window to left on the first floor, with another to left on the second floor. To the far right on the second floor there is another (smaller) window, set at a slightly higher level (possibly a half-landing level). This façade, and the facades of the return described above, are all finished in plain unpainted cement render.

The roofs of all sections are slated, with two gabled dormers (with semicircular-arched windows) to the front of the roof of the main section. The main section also has two large brick chimneys to its gables. The three-storey section of the return has a (mainly) rendered chimneystack to the E side of its roof. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast-iron and PVC-u.

Historical information

This house was built in 1871, on a plot previously occupied by two small (probably single-storey) dwellings. The original householder was a William Harpur, with messrs Spotiwsood & Lecky the immediate lessors. William R. Orr took over the tenancy in 1887, followed by Christopher Thompson in c.1890 and a Dr. J.J. Nicholl in 1910. A Dr. W.L. Stevenson became the occupant in 1917, with a Mary Webster Stevenson listed in 1935, Dr. J.A Browne in 1938, [?Annie] Scott in 1946, and Michael Doherty in 1951.

In 1967-68 the property was split into seven flats, with the rear outbuilding (the two-storey section of the return) converted to two further flats some time after this.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31A Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED(1860-64)
2 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73)
3 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester, 1870)
4 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81)
5 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91)
6 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
7 PRONI OS/9/22/2/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883)
8 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908])
9 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
10 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
12 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910)
13 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905)
14 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
18 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31)
19 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935
20 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57)
21 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55)
22 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.]
23 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 HB10/14/026 First Survey report (10 Feb 1970)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large three-storey semi-detached house of 1871, with large L-shaped return, divided into flats / apartments in 1968. Although the front elevation of this property has survived largely intact, the building is of little architectural or historic interest.