38-40 Main Street, Toomebridge, Co Antrim, BT41 3TF

A substantial terraced three-storey house built around 1790, situated at the south end of a row of five houses on the east side of Main Street in Toomebridge. The building faces west and forms part of the historic core of the village.

The house is rectangular on plan with extensions and an attached outbuilding to the rear. It comprises a commercial unit on the ground floor with residential apartments above. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate and semi-circular ridge tiles, with timber eaves board. Two painted roughcast chimney stacks are present: one to the south gable and another to the party wall.

The walls are painted roughcast with straight-channelled rendered quoins and a smooth rendered plinth. The principal elevation is asymmetrical, three bays wide with a wider south bay. At first and second floor levels, replacement timber painted 6/6 sliding sash windows with exposed boxes are set within smooth rendered chamfered window surrounds with painted masonry cills. The ground floor commercial frontage comprises a central single-leaf hardwood four-panel door, a double window to the right, and an ATM machine to the left set within an original window opening. These are surmounted by a timber-panelled shop front with timber sides and signage panel above.

The rear elevation contains a single timber casement window opening at second floor level. To the right is a two-storey extension detailed as the main block with a cat-slide roof. To the left and partially abutting this extension is a one-and-a-half-storey annex, also detailed as main block, with a wall head dormer window; this extends further into a slightly lower outbuilding range. A lean-to porch occupies the internal angle between the extension and annex. All doors are modern replacements. The south gable is blank. Rainwater goods are uPVC. An associated outbuilding to the north has a segmental-headed coach arch facing north.

The house is bound to the north by No. 34 and a two-storey outbuilding with random rubble walling, and to the south by outbuildings belonging to No. 42. The yard is accessible from Main Street via a narrow alleyway between buildings 40 and 42.

The building appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map dated 1833, and by the 1857 map it had been slightly enlarged. The 1836 Townland Valuation records it as the house and offices of Mr Patrick Mackel, appearing to be listed as an inn, though numbering is unclear. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1836 notes that in that year Toomebridge consisted of 26 buildings, including two three-storey buildings (of which this is one), eleven two-storey buildings, and the remainder cottages. The market house in the row was built in 1786. The proportions and styles of this block of buildings suggest they date from a similar period, forming part of the historic core of the village situated east of a quay recorded on the 1833 map.

The interior has been largely modified and retains no original details. The building has been substantially remodelled and extended in more recent years, particularly to the rear. The appealing traditional characteristics of the facade remain and contribute significantly to the architectural heritage of the area.