Dispensary House, 88 Main Street, Loughgall, Armagh, Co Armagh, BT61 8HZ

Dispensary House, 88 Main Street, Loughgall

This is a mid-19th century house, probably dating from the 1840s–1850s, which retains many original features. It is of local interest as the former village dispensary, a function recorded at the site since at least the early 19th century.

The building comprises a 2-storey, 5-bay gabled main house with a small single-storey gabled block attached to its north side. The main entrance faces east onto the street.

The east elevation of the main house features a slated roof with oversailing gable walls and two chimneys of rustic brick with red pots, one to each gable. The walls are smooth cement rendered and painted, with raised quoins at the extremities, a projecting plinth and platband, and a timber eaves board. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 2 over 2 with horns, set in moulded surrounds with projecting stone cills. The central entrance is a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door topped by a semi-circular fanlight, recessed in a moulded semi-circular arched surround with keystone and set between ornamented plaster brackets carrying a moulded cornice. A stone doorstep is present. To the left is a screen wall, smooth rendered with stone coping. The south elevation is a blind gable, smooth cement rendered with painted quoins, and features oversailing timber barge boards with tongued and grooved sheeted soffits.

The rear or west elevation is 2-storey with a part basement to the right. The roof is slated as the front. The wall is smooth rendered with modern PVC rainwater goods. At first-floor level is a rectangular timber sliding sash window, 6 over 6 without horns, set in plain reveals. The ground floor contains a pair of modern rectangular timber French windows with small paned fanlight, opening onto a small projecting terrace supported on rear steps, a brick nib wall and iron girders. A timber boarded door is present at basement level. The rear return is 2-storey, rendered as the main block, with sashed 6 over 6 windows both with and without horns. Modern small-paned fixed lights with top-hung vents are present to the north and south sides, along with modern glazed timber doors to the south. A lean-to porch with corrugated iron roof is attached to the north side, containing a modern panelled door.

The single-storey dispensary block to the north has a smooth rendered east wall with a Bangor blue slated roof in regular courses, timber eaves and barge boards. Three rectangular timber sliding sash windows, 6 over 6 with and without horns, are set with projecting cills (two concrete, one stone). A 1-bay block with parapet wall to the right contains a timber panelled door. The rear elevation comprises a gabled original block, slated as the east elevation, with smooth rendered walls, and a later red brick lean-to block with basement. The original block has a sashed window and PVC rainwater goods; the red brick block has rectangular timber fixed lights and metal top-hung vents, with a sashed window and tongued and grooved sheeted door to the basement.

The building stands facing the main street, overlooking the pavement. On the pavement, in line with each main gable, are two octagonal stone posts. To the north of the single-storey block is a gateway with square rendered piers, lined and blocked, with tooled stone capstones and modern timber boarded doors, leading to a rear yard with gravelled surface. Concrete brick paving skirts the rear of the buildings, with a sloping grassed area beyond. To the north of the gateway is an old gabled building used as a garage, and various other freestanding gabled outbuildings. A single-storey gabled shed projects from the gable of the rear return.

The building shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map appears to have undergone significant refacing or remodelling, with the present structure representing a mid-19th century rebuilding or substantial alteration. The site is marked as a "Dispensary" on the 1908 Ordnance Survey map. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830s, the dispensary was then "a plain stone dwelling house, not built for the purpose of a dispensary", rented for that use at 12 pounds per annum. The dispensary function appears to have been associated with the site from at least the early 19th century. The building is located within a conservation area.