20 Riverside

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 2-storey house, 2-bay to the ground floor but 1-bay to the first floor, built as part of a terrace of 3 houses, and occupying a central position. Main entrance faces east.

East elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; one chimney, to right, in red brickwork; 3 red pots. Cast iron gutter.
Walling is smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked; plain plinth; narrow vertical stop to each extremity. One window to ground floor, arched timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, without horns; above it, one window to first floor, rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 3 over 6, without horns, projecting cill. Doorway contains a rectangular timber panelled door set in a moulded painted stone surround with sunken Gothic panels, moulded cornice and base, and panelled and moulded Gothic arch; Gothic pattern to glazing bars of arched fanlight.

Rear elevation: 2-storey, with a single-storey projection cantilevered over the river which flows past the rear of the house. Main block: roof slated as previous; looks like pvc gutter and downpipe; walling is rendered wet dash; single-storey lean-to roofed projection to most of ground floor, with roof slated as previous.
Two windows to first floor, rectangular timber single pane, looks like top-hung casements. One window to ground floor of main wall, rectangular timber fixed light with top-hung vent. Two windows to lean-to projection, rectangular timber top-hung.

SETTING: The building stands in the centre of a terrace of three houses facing directly onto the pavement and the street, with their rear elevations tight against the river. There is no rear or secondary access to this particular building.

Historical information

Precise date of building not recorded but the terrace of which it is part appears for the first time on the OS map of 1857.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 50.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 10.
2. J. Hanna, Old Antrim (Catrine, Ayrshire, 2002), p 26 (a view of this block from the north is included in an early 20th century photograph).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an early to mid-19th century terrace house which retains sash windows and a Gothic arched doorway but is otherwise of little architectural or historic interest.