21 Bridge Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1DR

21 Bridge Street, Coleraine is a two-storey, three-bay corner-sited commercial premises with twin shopfronts, built around 1800 and attributed — with some uncertainty — to either Thomas Ivory or John Johnson, or both. It stands on the north side of Bridge Street at its junction with Circular Road in Coleraine town centre. Although the building retains its overall historic outline and is one of the least altered survivors from this period in the town, it has been significantly changed over the centuries and is not considered to be of sufficient architectural or historical interest to warrant listing.

The building has an L-shaped plan with two two-storey gabled returns to the rear. The roof is hipped with angled tiles to the ridges and hips, and is covered in natural slate. Rainwater goods are plastic on metal brackets. The walling to the west elevation is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth; the rear is finished in roughcast render. Windows are generally 1/1 timber sash with horns in plain reveals with projecting painted sills, except where noted otherwise. The shopfronts have modern plate glass.

The principal, south-facing elevation has three evenly spaced windows at first floor level, the far right being a 2/2 timber sash without horns. At ground floor, two replacement shopfronts flank a round-headed Georgian doorcase. This doorcase comprises pilasters surmounted by a moulded archivolt with keyblock, and contains a modern timber door with a metal spider-web fanlight above. The left shopfront is enclosed by panelled pilasters and has plate-glass windows with timber frames on ceramic-tiled stall-risers; the recessed central entrance is fully glazed with a modern glass-panel timber door surmounted by a modern etched glass transom light, and the porch is splayed and laid with modern floor tiles. The right shopfront is enclosed at the left by a panelled pilaster and has a large plate-glass window on a ceramic-tiled stall-riser, with a modern glass-panel timber door and a plain transom light above. Both shopfronts have a modern metal hood with shutters over, and applied plastic lettering reading "HUEY & HENDERSON" on the left and "SPORTS SPECIALISTS" on the right.

The west elevation has five evenly spaced windows at first floor. At ground floor there is a timber casement window to the left and a large plate-glass shop window to the right, enclosed by panelled pilasters. The north rear elevation has a projecting bay to the right, abutted on the left by a gabled return, which is itself further abutted by a roughcast-rendered lean-to. The left bay is also abutted by a two-storey gabled return flush with that on the right; each of these returns has two window openings at first floor fronted by metal bars. The left gabled return has a timber-framed former shopfront at ground floor with a 20th-century multi-light casement window, toplights and a glass-panel timber door. To the far left is a modern door opening. The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The building is corner-sited at the junction of Bridge Street and Circular Road, approached from the west by the Bann Bridge, and forms part of a Georgian terrace of two- and three-storey commercial units in the most westerly pedestrianised area of the town. Bridge Street runs from the Town Hall to the east to the Bann Bridge to the west. To the rear there is a gravelled yard accessed from Circular Road to the west through a modern metal security gate, enclosed to the north by a modern timber fence.

The building's historical background is complex. It is thought to have originated as a customs house, begun in 1783 and designed by Thomas Ivory or John Johnson, who submitted a bill for plans; original records held at the Public Record Office at Kew support a case for either or both architects. Further records suggest that outbuildings were designed by John Mitchell. However, the primary evidence indicates that by the 1830s the customs house was not the present building at 21 Bridge Street but a now-demolished structure beside it, set back from the street at the head of a small dock or river inlet that had been filled in by the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–50. This neighbouring building was identified as the Customs House in the Townland Valuation and was noted in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as being in very poor condition and shortly to be demolished. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs suggest that by this time number 21 was the residence of the customs collector, with the customs house relocated to his former outbuildings.

The building is depicted in the Book of Coleraine much as it appears today: a three-bay dwelling house with double chimneys, a hipped roof, small-paned windows and a fanlighted central door. An ornamental railing runs in front of the house, with large double entrance gates to the customs house beside it and a now-demolished single-storey extension to the eastern side.

The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records the building as "Miss Henry's Hotel", valued at £38 16s 2d, comprising a house with returns, a pantry, five outbuildings including a stable and a piggery, a privy and a safe. Miss Henry's hotel was a significant social venue in the 1830s, particularly during the politically turbulent election periods. The historian Mullin records that fifty of the town's leading inhabitants dined there and spent an evening "in the greatest conviviality" in support of their election candidate. The Belfast Newsletter records the hotel as the venue for linen trade meetings (21 October 1828), property auctions (31 March 1829), visits by travelling dentists selling artificial teeth (2 April 1833), and Coleraine Farming Society dinners (4 March 1834). Miss Henry retired from public life in 1835, and the Belfast Newsletter of 20 March 1835 noted that a dinner was held in her honour and subscriptions collected to purchase her a piece of plate "which will be to her a pleasing memento of the high estimation in which she was held by so respectable a portion of the community."

By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the building had been taken over by Charles Doherty, a cabinet maker running an "auction and commission mart" on the premises, and was valued at £32. In 1877 the valuation was raised to £42 to reflect improvements to the rear. In 1895 the building was divided into two holdings: one remained in the Doherty family, valued at £12, and the other was leased by David Kennedy, draper, valued at £35. In 1900 the smaller part was taken over by a "Free and Easy Club" — a type of establishment then common as a counter-attack on local Temperance movements — whose steward, William Bunting, lived on the premises with his wife and two young children. In 1916 the premises passed to Thomas D. Macready, draper, though part was sublet to tenants. Macready remained in occupation until at least the 1960s, and valuers' records from the 1930s describe the accommodation as comprising a shop, stock room, fitting room and tailor's workshop, with a dressmaker's room on the first floor. From 1939, some of the first-floor rooms were used by Jehovah's Witnesses as a place of worship. The building is currently in use as a sports goods shop.

One customs collector in post in 1802, a Mr M. T. Hill, described the imports through Coleraine as consisting "chiefly of sugar, salts, coals, timber, deals, earthenware, hardware and herrings." By the 1830s, linen yarn woven for export by local weavers had been added to this list.