Irish Naitonal Foresters, 38 North Street, Lurgan, Craigavon, BT67 9AQ

38 North Street is a detached, symmetrical, three-bay, two-storey former house, now used as a social club, built around 1860 on the west side of North Street, Lurgan, within the Lurgan conservation area. It is L-shaped on plan, with a return to the north side of the rear (west) elevation, extended by an L-shaped range of two-storey outbuildings. A series of 20th-century additions from around 1970, of no architectural interest, abut the building to the south.

The pitched roof appears to be covered with man-made tiles, with angled ridge tiles and rendered gable chimneystacks, each carrying seven original octagonal clay pots with corniced caps. The return has a hipped roof. Cast-iron ogee gutters are supported on corniced stucco eaves over a plain frieze. The walls are painted render over a low, contrasting chamfered plinth. On the principal elevation, the ground floor is band-rusticated below a first-floor sill course, with the remainder in smooth render. There are rusticated quoins to the ground floor and stepped quoins to the first floor.

Windows are generally rectangular 1-over-1 timber sashes set in moulded stucco architraves with painted projecting masonry sills, except where noted otherwise.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged around a central round-headed entrance with a deep, alcoved, pole-moulded surround, into which an "INF" panel has been crudely inserted at the head at a later date. The entrance contains a fluted Ionic doorcase on plinth blocks, with a plain semi-circular fanlight over a plain entablature, and a timber door with four raised and fielded panels. Plastic signage for the National Irish Foresters is mounted over the central entrance, with a suspended sign to the west side.

The south gable is blank. The south elevation of the return has blocked window openings and is abutted to the west. The rear (west) elevation is abutted by the return and outbuilding range; the exposed section is blank. The west elevation of the return has a 2-over-2 horizontally divided window to the first floor and a later timber sheeted door to the ground floor. The north gable is extended by the return, which shares the same eaves level, and has a window to each floor aligned to the north.

The return has three openings vertically stacked on its east side: a bolection-moulded four-panelled door with infilled sidelights, set over painted brick apron panels with panelled pilaster jambs, frieze and cornice; above this, a round-headed stairwell window with stained margin panes; and above that, a spoked coloured-glass oculus window. There are two openings at each floor on the west side of the return; those at ground floor are 2-over-2 sashes, horizontally divided.

The outbuilding range is plainly detailed, with an artificial slate roof, plastic rainwater goods, and a variety of timber and uPVC casement windows. The ground-floor east elevation has an inserted entrance from around 1970, with enlarged window and door insertions and tiled surrounds. The walls are buttressed.

Flush with the north end of the principal elevation is an original gateway. One half-width square pier, topped with half of a ball finial, is attached to the main building. The other pier is full-width, freestanding, with a panelled front and a lion finial. A wall — rendered on the inner side and roughcast on the outer — stretches westwards from this pier, enclosing the northern boundary of the property. Several metres along this wall stands another, taller pier, also with a lion finial. Beyond this point, the wall rises considerably in height and is roughcast to the outer side and bare rubble to the inner.

The extent of the listing covers the main block, the return, the gate piers and the northern boundary wall.

The building is well-proportioned and retains a strong original character, with historic fabric largely intact, including stucco ornamentation highly representative of the mid-19th century, a variety of original timber windows, a good Ionic doorcase, and original chimney pots that contribute to both authenticity and streetscape presence. The original interior floor plan survives generally intact with many salient features, although the building has been adapted over the late 20th century; these changes are generally contained within additions rather than affecting the original layout.

The site appears vacant on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835, with North Street still largely undeveloped at that time. By the second edition of 1863–64, the north side of North Street had been laid out in its current form, with No. 38 terminating the east side of an unbroken row of buildings. The adjacent plot, now a car park, was the site of North Street National School, which closed in the 1930s and was subsequently demolished; the OS Memoirs record the school as having been built in 1812.

Griffith's Valuation records William Macoun as the occupier of a house, office, yard and small garden valued at £40, with the land leased from Lord Lurgan. The Valuation Revisions of 1870 to 1894 record no change to occupier or valuation, although by this period Macoun also sublets several other properties on the street. A nearby interpretation panel confirms that the house was the home of William Macoun, who, with his brother James Macoun, founded the linen factory that became the Lurgan Weaving Company Limited. The Macouns were associated with the weaving of high-quality cambric handkerchiefs and linen for shirting. The Belfast and Ulster Directory of 1877 refers to the power loom factory of Messrs James Macoun & Co. The 1901 edition describes Lurgan as the "cradle of the Irish cambric industry", reflecting the town's deep economic embeddedness in textile production and finishing. The Macoun name is believed to be a derivative of McGeown; the Macoun pedigree in Ulster is known to have been Scottish Presbyterian, from Linlithgow, having settled in Magheralin in the mid-17th century.

Historical links that might account for the presence of a Star of David on the building have not been established. It is noted, however, that the Lurgan Hebrew Congregation was established for a period from around 1906 until the 1920s at 49 North Street, founded by Joseph Herbert (formerly Herzberg), who ran his home-furnishings business from 16–18 North Street. No connection with No. 38 has been found.

The building has served as the local clubhouse of the Irish National Foresters Benefit Society since the foundation of the Lurgan branch in 1892. The INF was established in 1877 as an Irish "friendly" or benefit society — a mutual organisation providing insurance, savings and co-operative banking of the kind widespread before the development of high-street banking and the welfare state. It broke away from the Ancient Order of Foresters following political disagreements, and was at one time the largest friendly society in Ireland, nationalist in political outlook, with over 250,000 members in more than 1,000 branches worldwide before its decline in the wake of the formation of the Irish Free State and the expansion of social welfare provision.