Ascert

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay three-storey mid-terrace former house, now offices, built c. 1730 and located north of Bridge Street in Lisburn town centre. Rectangular on plan.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and early rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on corbelled eaves. Walling is painted smooth render with quoins. Windows are 4/4 timber-framed sliding sash to first floor and diminished 3/3 to second floor with projecting masonry sills. Ground floor shop front has been infilled by modern timber casement insertions.

The principal elevation faces south and is three windows wide to upper floors; ground floor shop front has modern timber doors to far left and right; ground floor surmounted by modern sign board with painted lettering.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building.

The south elevation is partially concealed. Second floor has a 6/3 window to far left and right and a diminutive window to right of centre.

Setting:

At the centre of Bridge Street, with Market Square to west, bounded to cemetery of Lisburn Cathedral at rear by cement rendered rubble stone wall.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows: Timber-framed sash
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 buildings in Bridge Street 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 confectioner’s shop run by Joseph McCourtney, ‘sugar and flour confectioner’. In 1901 McCourtney lived above the shop with his English wife and seven children. Two grown-up daughters were working as seamstresses and his oldest son, Patrick, was working as an apprentice confectioner at the age of 14. By 1911, nearly all the younger children had learned to speak Irish and four of them were known by their Irish names, McCourtney being transcribed as Mac Cúrnain for boys and Ní Cúrnain for girls. The McCourtneys had had 16 children in all, ten of whom survived, the elder two sons working as a confectioner and carpenter respectively. (1901, 1911 census) Joseph’s wife Elizabeth died in 1917 when the family were still living above the shop. (Will of Elizabeth McCourtney)

Turner’s history of Bridge Street carries a 1974 photograph of the building, then known as the Maxi Grill. The original shop front had been completely removed by this stage and the current shop front is a replacement. (Turner, p.54) The building is currently in use as offices.

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 Will of Elizabeth McCourtney, died 6th April 1917
7. 1901 census online
8. 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 restored two-bay three-storey former house, now offices, originally built c. 1730 and located north of Bridge Street in Lisburn town centre. The exterior has been restored in recent years under the Lisburn Historic Quarter Initiative (2001). The interior has been completely refurbished to accommodate a modern office and the internal floor-plan has been altered with little or no historic fabric remaining. Bridge Street was the most important thoroughfare in the city during the 17th and 18th centuries and is of significant social and historic interest. Whilst number 23 is interesting, being one of the earliest constructed houses in the street, it does not meet the criteria for listing as it has lost most of its historic fabric.