48 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical-fronted two-storey building, three windows wide, with central doorway flanked by single storey canted bays to each side. Main entrance faces north.

North elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; abuts higher gable of no. 50 to right; continuous with no. 46 to left. Chimney of concrete brickwork to left hand extremity, modern. Cast iron gutter across front eaves, discharging into cast iron downpipe in front of adjoining building to left (no. 46 Main Street). Walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked, painted white, with raised quoins to left extremity; moulded cornice and moulded plinth continuous around canted bays. Ground floor has central doorway with single storey canted bay window to each side. Door set in segmentally arched moulded surround; fluted keystone, panelled pilasters. Rectangular metal plaque screwed to wall above doorway with inscription 'G.A.H. Lockhart LLB Solicitor'.

Ground floor bay to left: roof hipped, with what looks like asbestos slates in regular courses with lead rolls to ridges. Moulded cornice with concealed gutter; circular cast iron downpipe with top portion sunk into wall; walls of bay smooth cement rendered, lined, with wooden framed windows on deep projecting stone cill. Windows rectangular timber vertically hung sliding sash, 1 over 1 to canted sides, 2 over 2 to front face, all with horns; flat wooden soffit to heads; some rot visible to woodwork. Bay to right similar. Front door rectangular glazed and panelled, with 9 panes, bowed front to glazing bars, all modern, painted; modern metal handle and letterbox.
Three windows to first floor, rectangular timber vertically hung sliding sash, 1 over 1, with horns, with exposed sash boxes, set in aedicule surrounds incorporating triangular pediments, curved brackets, panelled pilasters, and brackets under cills (one bracket missing to left hand window). The first floor and roofspace above it is now in ownership of no. 50 Main Street (HB20/15/004).

Rear elevation: two-storey main block with two-storey gabled return projecting from it. (The return is in ownership of no. 50 Main Street.) Main block has roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; chimney of concrete brickwork. Original metal rooflight. Wall rendered with dry dash of white chippings. One small window to left hand side tucked under eaves, looks like rectangular timber fixed light.

SETTING: The building stands facing the main street of the village and forms part of a terrace. Its entrance front is set back slightly from the pavement, with the area in front of each bay enclosed by original cast iron railings (some damaged) on coved stone plinth walls; enclosed areas surfaced in concrete. Slightly ramped path laid with small pavings leads from pavement to original granolithic front doorstep.

Historical information

Precise date of construction not known; a building appears on OS map of 1832-3 but the style of the present building suggests a rebuilding of the early Victorian period. Listed in 1974, and subsequently subdivided between the lower and upper floors, the ground floor was sold and the upper floor was retained as the link with the adjacent house at no. 50 Main Street. The house was known in the past as 'Ulsterville Cottage' but that name does not appear anywhere on it.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832-3, Co Antrim 59.
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 59.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, West Antrim (Belfast, 1970), pp 8-9 (entry no 6).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an example of an early Victorian building which retains most of its original features to the front but has suffered inappropriate alterations to both the rear and the interior which have adversely affected its original character to a significant degree.