The Hat Shop

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A restored three-bay, three-storey commercial property, pre-dating 1730 and located south of Bridge Street in the centre of Lisburn. Rectangular on plan with large full-height return and single-storey flat-roof extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and early red-brick chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is painted smooth render with sill course. Windows are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horns set into deep reveals, diminished to second floor, with slightly projecting painted masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is four windows wide to upper floors. Ground floor has reproduction shop-front framed by fluted pilasters, having single-panelled and glazed timber door and transom light to centre, flanked by fluted pilasters with carved capital heads; surmounted by fascia with dentilled cornice and modern applied lettering.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

The rear elevation is almost entirely abutted by the full-height return and single-storey flat-roof extension. The return has two windows to second floor; a window to left and a modern glass door to right at second floor; it is abutted at ground floor by the modern extension; east and west elevations are blank.

The west elevation is abutted by an adjoining building.

Setting:

Prominently located at the west end of Bridge Street, near Market Square. To rear the flat-roof extension is gravelled and accessed via the modern doors to first floor of the return. No access to rear from ground floor.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: 2/2 timber-framed sash with horns
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The town of Lisnagarvey, as it was known until the 1660s, was first established in the early seventeenth century when James I granted Sir Fulke Conway the south Antrim manor of Killultagh. Sir Fulke established the headquarters of his Killultagh estates at Lisburn and one of his first building projects was a timber bridge which formerly stood at the foot of Bridge Street. Bridge Street is shown stretching down to this river-crossing on an early map of Lisburn dating from 1640 which also shows both sides of the street lined with buildings. (Mackey, p.1) After a disastrous fire in 1707, the town was quickly rebuilt to its former street plan using improved materials, brick replacing wood and slates and tiles replacing shingles. (Ulster Star 20/04/2007) Oak beams taken from 34 Bridge Street have been dated by the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s University Belfast who give an estimated felling date of c1710, suggesting that these buildings were among the earliest to be constructed following the fire. (Turner, p.17)
Little is known of the current building’s early history. A building on the site is shown on Thomas Pattison’s map of 1833 and by 1901 the premises is known to have been in use as a grocer’s shop run by Samuel Cowan. Cowan’s grocery occupied the premises for some years and is recalled by a local woman in Turner’s history of Bridge Street, “There was a great big store they called Cowan’s provision store. And one side was for butter and cheese and the other side was for tea and sugar and all different provisions. But my mother used to say to me, ‘May, there’s a few coppers there. Go into Cowan’s and see if you can get a six penn’orth of butter. And the man used to cut me a little diamond off [for myself] where they had patted it all with the patters. They were very good like. They knew that we had got nothing.’” (Turner, p.22)

Turner also carries a contemporary advertisement for ‘Cowan Bros’, the answer to “The burning question! Where to get value for money?” (Turner, p.22)

The shop was refurbished as part of a Lisburn City Council Townscape Heritage Initiative in 2000s and is currently in use as a hat shop.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second Edition OS map 1857
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939

Secondary Sources

1. Mackey, Brian “Lisburn, the Town and its People, 1873-1973” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000
2. Turner, Brian S “Voices from the Street - Bridge Street and the Quay of Lisburn” Lisburn City Centre Management, 2006
3. Ulster Star 20/04/2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-bay, three-storey commercial property originally pre-dating 1730, located south of Bridge Street in the centre of Lisburn. Restored with Heritage Lottery funding as part of the Lisburn Historic Quarter Initiative (2001), including fenestration, shop-front and a fully refurbished interior. Situated on a historically significant street, originally the most important commerical thoroughfare in the city during the 17th and 18th centuries, the building is of local interest. It is not considered suitable for listing as it does not contain sufficient historic fabric as a result of numerous alterations over the years.