The Tavern

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description dated 25/10/2013:

This building has now mostly collapsed, the roof having fallen in or been removed. Scaffolding is holding up the north elevation, none of the original East or South elevations remain.

Description dated 26/01/2011:

A vacant two-bay, three-storey end-terrace former public house, pre-dating 1730 and located south of Bridge Street in the centre of Lisburn. Rectangular on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and replacement brick chimneystack. Cast-iron half-round chimneystack. Walling is painted smooth render on shallow plinth; rubble stone and brick facing to rear elevation. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash to first floor and 3/6 to second floor, with projecting masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is two openings wide to first and second floor. At ground floor left is a timber-sheeted door; symmetrical shop-front to centre comprising double-leaf timber-panelled door with transom light (boarded); plate glass windows (boarded) to either side on projecting timber sills; door and windows framed by pilasters and surmounted by fascia with painted lettering and cornice.

The east gable is blank, with timber joists at first and second floors and remnants of the rear wall of the once neighbouring building.
The south elevation is almost entirely concealed by overgrowth. Two windows to second floor and window to left at first floor; abutted to left by corrugated tin lean-to.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB19/12/016.

Setting:
Located at the centre of Bridge Street, with Market Square to west. Overgrown yard to rear bounded to car-park of Lisburn Health Centre by concrete block wall with metal railings.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: 6/6 and 3/6 timber-framed sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The town of Lisnagarvey, as it was known until the 1660s, was founded 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. The tavern itself also has oak beams, oak being a wood that was not generally used in house building in Ireland after about 1720, when it was replaced by imported pine. (Turner, p.17)

A building is shown on the site on Thomas Pattison’s 1833 map of Lisburn. From at least the late 1870’s an entry, called ‘Seed’s Entry’, between 30 and 32 Bridge Street led to a group of small houses in the rear. These were still inhabited in the 1960s and Turner’s history of Bridge Street contains the reminiscence of someone who lived there as a girl. (Turner, p.46)

The building is listed in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) as a house and outbuilding valued at £12 and later reduced to £9.10s. Dimensions are given, the house being designated as deteriorated by age and the outbuilding as in sound repair. The rent was £10. The occupier, Edward Donaghy, rented the house from Michael Woods, later Archibald McAfee. Edward Donaghy applied for a spirit licence in 1857 but was refused and appears to have carried on a trade as a clogmaker, advertising for ‘two sole makers’ in 1873 to whom ‘constant employment and liberal wages will be given’. (Belfast Newsletter)

William J Wilson, who had been granted a spirit licence in 1866, became the occupier of the premises in the 1870s and Moses McCorriston in 1883 (Annual Revisions, Belfast Newsletter). In 1891 the property is listed for the first time as a ‘public ho[use]’. Mr McCorriston becomes the owner in fee in 1900 at which time there is a large increase in valuation to £16, indicating additions or improvements. The house is listed as a ‘public house’ in the 1901 census but was vacant at the time and no further details are given. The house was taken over by Margaret Major in 1907, remaining a licensed house, although it was again vacant at the time of the 1911 census. Johnston Bell is the occupier in 1922. The building became a ‘licensed shop’ in 1918 and the valuation was raised further to £18 the same year. (1901, 1911 census; Annual Revisions)
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
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/61A – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/9A-T – Annual Revisions (1863-1924)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
9. Belfast Newsletter, 15th April 1857
10. Belfast Newsletter, 30th June 1866
11. Belfast Newsletter, 8th January 1873
12. 1901 census online
13. 1911 census online

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 two-bay, three-storey end-terrace former public house; pre-dating 1730 and located at south end of Bridge Street in the centre of Lisburn. The building is now mostly collapsed, only the North Elevation remains.