The ‘Corn Store’, 1 Castle Street, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1NZ

The Corn Store is a large warehouse of probable mid-to-late 19th century construction, possibly originating as part of an earlier distillery or corn mill complex, and now in use as a restaurant and shop. It stands on the north side of Castle Street, Portaferry, within a conservation area, and is of particular architectural and industrial archaeological interest owing to its Anderson-type Belfast roof trusses and its long and varied history of use.

The building measures approximately 16.5 metres by 10.6 metres and is constructed in snecked random rubble with brick quoins and brick dressings to all openings. Because it sits on a slope, it is two storeys to the north and three storeys, with a basement level, to the south. The roof is a shallow segmental arch form covered in felt, carried on Anderson-type Belfast roof trusses, with cast iron gutters and downpipes.

The west (front) elevation forms one of the gable ends and is symmetrical. A timber main entrance door sits beneath a projecting pitched-roof canopy supported on timber brackets with decorative bargeboards. To either side are 2-over-2 sash windows with brick dressings; the ground floor windows have slim concrete cills while the first floor windows are without cills. Five steps rise to the front door, with a long wheelchair ramp to the right. A wooden restaurant sign sits above the left-hand ground floor window. The ground slopes away from this elevation down into Castle Street.

The south elevation faces onto a courtyard set at a considerably lower level than the other elevations, which accounts for the building being three storeys on this side, including a basement level. At basement level there is a low coach arch with an elliptical head and brick dressings, now filled with timber and glazed shop doors with sidelights and a plain timber-sheeted double outer door; a painted timber shop sign sits above the arch. Traces of other blocked openings are visible at this level. The first floor (equivalent to ground floor at the front) has three windows matching those on the front elevation. The second floor (equivalent to first floor at the front) also has windows as before, except for a much larger eight-pane window to the far left. Steps rise from the right-hand side of the courtyard into a narrow lane leading to Cuan Place.

The north elevation has five openings at ground floor level. To the far left and far right are two almost identical large arches with elliptical heads, now filled with twelve-pane timber windows and diagonal timber sheeting below the windows. The arch to the right has a concrete cill and a rendered area at its base. To the right of the left-hand arch is a window matching those on the front elevation. In the centre is a staff doorway with a plain sheeted timber door and a plain fanlight, with a large eight-pane window directly above it on the first floor; this vertical bay may originally have served as a warehouse loading door at upper level. On either side of this central bay at first floor level are two further windows matching the front elevation. A modern projecting internally illuminated plastic pub sign is fixed to the far right.

The east elevation shows clear evidence at ground floor level of once having been entirely open, with the still-visible lintel and brick piers of the former opening. This has since been blocked up in matching random rubble, creating two bays: a plain timber-sheeted door to the left and a window matching the front elevation to the right, with a timber restaurant sign above the window. The first floor has three windows, all matching those described elsewhere.

The building has a complex and layered history. A building on this site appears on the valuation map of circa 1835 to 1838 as part of a distillery complex belonging to a John Maxwell. By 1861 the complex had been converted to a corn mill, with this building serving as the mill itself; the water wheel was positioned to the west end and a mill pond lay to the north, adjacent to the Rope Walk. At this point the valuation records describe the mill as dilapidated. The Ordnance Survey town plan of 1900 shows a building of the same siting and plan, though both the water wheel and mill pond had by then been removed. For most of the 20th century the building functioned as a warehouse before being converted to restaurant use in the early 1990s.

The precise date of the present structure is difficult to establish with certainty. The Belfast truss roof construction and the variety of window openings suggest a late 19th or early 20th century date, though the building may alternatively represent a remodelling of the mid-19th century mill, which in turn may itself have been a remodelling of the earlier distillery building. Its architectural interest lies in its style, proportion, ornamentation, and the quality and survival of its interior; it also holds local historical interest as part of the industrial heritage of Portaferry.