42 Upper English Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached three-storey late eighteenth-century former town-house, converted to commercial and office use, located on Upper English Street in Armagh conservation area. Irregular skewed plan form with shop to ground floor.

Artificial slate roof, replacement gutters and cast-iron downpipes supported on cavetto stone eaves; replacement redbrick chimneystack shared with adjoining building. Walls are roughcast cement render to front over painted smooth render at ground floor; gable is roughcast throughout; rear elevation is exposed Flemish bonded brick to upper floor, random sandstone rubble to first floor, and recently executed cement-based roughcast render to ground floor. Variety of windows; those to upper floors at front are generally replacement 1/1 horned sashes with painted masonry cills; there are original multi-paned timber sashes without horns to gable, having smooth rendered architraves. Windows to rear are generally replacement plain sashes with concrete cills; there is one original 6/6 sash with exposed box and no horns or cill, having rubble sand-stone voussoirs.

Principal elevation faces north-east. Ground floor has entrance door to the left, set in a deep paneled timber reveal within a tooled stone long-and-short keystoned surround, painted. The door is original six-panelled, accessed by two sandstone steps, with hinged kickboard, brass knob and bronze knocker. There is a round-headed recess at ground level to right of the door, formerly housing a boot-scraper (now gone); there are two additional rectangular recesses at the base of the paneled linings, possibly once also accommodating boot-scrapers. The remainder of the ground floor is shopped, with modern multi-paned timber display window and flush fascia beneath additional projecting timber fascia; shop door covered by a roller shutter; steel grille to shop window. Upper windows aligned; three windows to each floor, those to left offset slightly.

South-east gable has a sash window to second floor and attic, centrally placed. There are ghost marks of a former lower gabled abutment set to right. The gable is also abutted by a classically styled rusticated ashlar stone arch with balustraded parapet, leading to the rear yard.

Rear elevation is abutted by a timber sheeted cantilevered toilet extension accessed from the second half-landing, and rising to beneath eaves level. Ground floor is recently rendered, having a timber-sheeted panel with glazed central section inset beneath the toilet extension' abutments recently removed. First and second floor each have a window set to left side.

West gable is abutted by the adjoining building, which is similarly proportioned.

Setting:
Prominently located in an urban
setting in Armagh city centre, along Upper English Street, opposite the junction with College Street. Buildings of varying quality in the immediate vicinity, including a listed nineteenth century terrace opposite to west, and the fine Italianate former bank, now St Patrick’s Trian visitor centre (HB15/20/016), to immediate east, and joined to it by an arch. Substantial yard to rear, recently laid with tarmac and enclosed by boundary walls, recently rendered following removal of outbuildings.

Roof: Fibre cement slate
Walling: Rendered, exposed redbrick and sandstone rubble
Windows: Timber sash
RWG: Replacement metal and plastic

Historical information

First shown on the first edition OS map (c.1834-35), the precise date of construction is not recorded but stylistic elements including the joinery and entrance door indicate a late eighteenth century date, (with renovation work during the early 20th century). As illustrated in the town plan map (c.1834) the building was L-shaped on plan, with two outbuildings and a yard to the rear. Occupied by a Dr. Meredith Armstrong, the building, was initially valued at £17 in the first Valuation Records (c.1834).

Although the plan of the building altered little during the 19th century, the value was increased to £25 in Griffith’s Valuation (c.1862). Occupied at this time by a James Armstrong, the property was noted as being a ‘Medical Shop’; the addition of the commercial premises to the ground floor, coupled with improvements to the rear outbuildings, likely resulted in the increased valuation. The occupier changed to a Dr. Henry Frazer in 1871, followed by a chemist, Andrew McBride in 1892, who operated the ground floor shop and resided in the house with his wife and two children (1901 Census). The value increased significantly in the Annual Revaluations (c.1902), rising to £41. The valuer stated (c.1907) that the premises had been renovated; the ‘rear (?)’ had been burnt down and rebuilt; and that the former L-plan yard had been ‘covered over’. Despite this sharp increase in value, it remains unclear as to the extent of the renovation and rebuilding work, carried out at this time.

Historic photographic evidence from the period illustrates that a shop-front fascia and windows were not added until the early 20th century; prior to this, the property retained two windows on the ground floor, which were similar in size to those above.

Contemporary OS maps illustrate that the building has altered little on plan, except for the removal of the former stable to the south-western end and the remodelling/removal of the rear abutments which was carried out recently (substantial buildings to rear appear on Google Maps); the ground floor of the building has been re-rendered to rear, possibly with original windows obscured.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/2/12/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map (1835)
2. PRONI OS/9/16/1/2 – Manuscript Town Plan map (c.1834)
3. PRONI OS/6/2/12/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1860)
4. PRONI OS/8/2/1/6 – Published Town Plan (1889-91)
5. PRONI OS/6/2/12/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1905-06)
6. PRONI OS/6/2/12/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1948-49)
7. PRONI VAL/1/D/2/9B – First Valuation map (1834)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/55/1/5 – Town Plan Annual Revisions Map (c.1865-1900)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/55/4/2 – Town Plan Annual Revisions Map (1909-c.1935)

10. PRONI VAL/1/B/21A – First Valuation Records (1834)
11. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/1A – Griffith’s Valuation (1862)
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/4A – Annual Revisions (1864-73)
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/4C – Annual Revisions (1873-82)
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/4E – Annual Revisions (1883-93)
15. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/4G – Annual Revisions (1893-99)
16. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/6A – Annual Revisions (1899-1910)
17. PRONI VAL/12/A/2/10 – Annual Revisions- Valuers’ Notebook (1904-08)
18. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/6C – Annual Revisions (1920-31)
19. The Ulster Directory (1843-1918)

Online Sources

20. Census of Ireland (1901-1911)
21. The National Library of Ireland- Historic Photograph (The Lawrence Collection)
(http://catalogue.nli.ie)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

42 Upper English Street is an attached three storey two-bay former townhouse, which can be reliably dated to the late eighteenth century from surviving historic elements, and which terminates the vista looking south along College Street within Armagh Conservation Area. The building's architectural and historic interest has been adversely affected by the addition of a twentieth century shopfront, dry dash render, fibre cement slates and the demolition of its outbuildings to the rear.