Coiffeur Salon

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace three-storey redbrick former house, built c.1850. Rectangular on plan with rear return, forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the east side of Railway Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and pair of shared brick chimneystacks with clay pots. Plastic guttering on steel brackets to dentiled brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, rendered to ground floor, rubblestone walling to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and original 6/6 timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a late twentieth-century shopfront to the ground floor, extended across the elevation of the adjoining building No.22 (HB19/13/026D). First floor timber sash windows are late twentieth-century replacements.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.22 (HB19/13/026D).

Rear elevation has rubblestone walling and redbrick linings to all openings and is abutted by a gable-ended two-storey rendered return. Original 6/6 timber sash windows to rear elevation. Tall rendered wall encloses small rear yard.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.18 (HB19/13/026B).

Setting:
One of a group of four similar former houses set among a terrace of various dates and heights lining the east side of Railway Street.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Plastic
Walling Redbrick / rubblestone
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

No. 20 Railway Street first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map for Lisburn (1857) along with the neighbouring buildings on the terrace which date from the same period (HB 19/13/026A-D). The building was constructed sometime after 1830 as it does not appear on a detailed map of the town centre by Thomas Pattison c. 1830; field research would support a construction date of c. 1850 when the extended terrace first appears on the Ordnance Survey maps.

No. 20 Railway Street was originally used as a private dwelling and was occupied in 1901 by a Ms. Frances Isabella Wilson, a 50 year old Unitarian spinster. Ms. Wilson continued to reside at No. 20 during the 1911 Census which described the house as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of eight rooms and which possessed a slated roof; the out office return indicates that the building possessed a turf house in 1901 but this was not recorded in 1911. Ms. Wilson's will tells us that she died in September 1911 leaving effects of £2,303 5s. 8d. to the Rev. John Alexander Kelly, who was minister of First Presbyterian (Non-subscribing) Church, Dunmurry and a Mr. George Alexander Duncan (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 05/09/1911).

Brett described the houses on this terrace (nos. 4 to 24) as ‘good three-storey Georgian brick or stucco houses with glazing bars intact ... the backs of [which] are of stone’ (Brett, p. 13). The Georgian glazed windows and the original layout of the building have been retained; however in the last 30 years a modern shop front has been added to the ground floors of nos. 20 and 22 Railway Street which has recently been converted into a hairdresser’s salon.

References

Primary Sources

1.
1. PRONI MIC/664/1 – Picture of Lisburn by Thomas Pattison c. 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First edition OS map 1833
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second edition OS map 1857
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third edition OS map c.1900
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth edition OS map 1920
6. 1901 / 1911 Census
7. Ulster Towns Directory (1910)
8. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1911)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, buildings of architectural importance in the Borough of Lisburn’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Mid terrace three-storey redbrick former townhouse, built c.1850. Part of a group of four similar former houses, the building retains some of its original late Georgian/early Victorian character and forms part of a historic terrace in the heart of Lisburn. Although interesting, the building is not considered to meet the criteria for listing, as it has extensive alterations to the ground floor and shopfront which extend into the building next door and detract from the integrity of the house and the group value of the terrace.

General comments

This record was completed without access to original source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.