23 Mill Street, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

23 Mill Street, Cushendall, is a terraced four-bay three-storey stucco-fronted public house with an integrated carriage arch, built around 1840 and first recorded with certainty on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. Originally constructed as two separate dwellings, the building has since been interconnected on all floors and sits within the Cushendall Conservation Area, forming part of a continuous terrace of similarly scaled buildings lining the northwest side of Mill Street in the centre of the village.

Rectangular in plan and facing southeast, the building has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles — the roof over the north section being lower than that over the south — fitted with steel skylights to the front pitch. Three rendered, profiled chimneystacks survive with clay and terracotta pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron throughout, with drive-through brackets to the guttering. The external walling is painted in a ruled-and-lined render finish with painted rusticated quoins to the north end only.

Window openings are square-headed with stucco architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills, and replacement multi-pane sliding timber sash windows with angled horns as the general provision. The south section retains its original 6/6 timber sash windows to the ground floor, with slender ogee horns and partially exposed sash boxes.

The four-bay three-storey front elevation is stepped to the centre. The north section carries a traditional pub shopfront comprising two square-headed door openings and two square-headed shop display windows with fixed six-pane glazing. The pub entrance has a replacement double-leaf flat-panelled timber door, while to its left an original four-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings survives. Above the shopfront, a painted rendered fascia carries applied ceramic lettering reading 'J. McCollam', surmounted by a hood cornice. This signboard is particularly noteworthy as a rare surviving example of raised ceramic lettering. The south section has an integrated elliptical carriage arch with replacement hardwood doors. To the southwest, the building is abutted by the adjoining No. 25, and to the northeast by No. 21.

The stepped rear elevation is largely obscured by a two-storey timber-framed glazed structure. Walling here is in painted roughcast render, possibly lime, with square-headed window openings containing 3/6 and 6/6 sliding timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes. Single-storey outbuildings to the left (east) side of the rear surround an internal courtyard, now covered by a modern glazed lantern. These outbuildings have natural slate roofs, roughcast rendered walling painted white, sheeted timber doors, and some sliding sash windows painted black; their footprint matches that shown on the second and third edition Ordnance Survey maps. Now converted to stores, WCs and a rear lounge, they are enclosed beyond by a timber-framed glazed structure covering the entire yard.

Internally, the building retains most of its structural supporting walls and some historic detailing, particularly to the ground-floor bar. Despite various alterations, the building remains one of the most architecturally intact on the street, retaining three tall chimneys, its decorative stucco detailing, its authentic shopfront, and Georgian-style fenestration that together make it one of the most visually striking buildings in the village.

The historical significance of the building is considerable. The majority of the two- and three-storey buildings along the north side of Mill Street were erected in the first half of the 19th century by the landowning Turnly family. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had travelled to China in 1796 where he accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase the village consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge, but an increase in tourists travelling through the area — principally on the way to the Giant's Causeway — led Turnly to develop it into a coastal resort, with the construction of hotels and numerous commercial properties. Turnly was described by Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property."

The building may date from as early as the Townland Valuations of 1834, in which a Mr John Barry, described as occupying a class 1B dwelling — a slated building of medium age, slightly decayed but still in good repair — is recorded with a valuation of £3 and 16 shillings, though it is uncertain whether this entry refers specifically to No. 23. The building is first recorded with certainty in the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which valued it at £18 and 5 shillings and recorded it as leased by the McDonnell family of Kilmore House to John Barry. Barry, described in his will as an innkeeper, continued to reside there until his death in 1866, when the property passed to his widow Margaret. Margaret Barry subsequently remarried a Mr John McAllister, who took over the operation of the inn by at least 1876. Around 1879, following his marriage to McAllister's niece Nancy, the property passed to Mr Joseph McCollum of Armoy.

Brett, in his Buildings of County Antrim (1996), provided the following biographical sketch of Nancy McCollum, known to her customers as "Nancy Joe": she was "of formidable proportions, and is reputed to have been at least 18 stone. She was respected for her ability to remove the most obstreperous customer by the scruff of the neck, yet she was also renowned as a general lady … Nancy's daughters, Mary Ann and Grace, helped their mother run a very busy boarding house and restaurant, catering for large parties of residents as well as a passing trade."

The McCollum family have continued to operate a public house and restaurant at the premises ever since. The 1911 Census described the property as a first-class public house consisting of 14 rooms, with a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, turf house and potato house among its rear outbuildings. Ownership of the building reverted to John Turnly by the turn of the 20th century and remained in the Turnly estate until the 1960s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the public house was operated by a Mr John McCollum and had been revalued at £27. The McCollum family purchased the building outright from the Turnly Estate in 1967, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value stood at £44.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's guide to the Glens of Antrim described Nos 9–23 Mill Street as "a long terrace of three-storey rendered houses with quoins, all with similar proportions and detailing," and noted specifically that McCollum's pub, incorporating "a coach-arch and some nice squiggly applique lettering," retained "Georgian glazing." The guide described Mill Street more broadly as "an outstandingly good street by Ulster standards; there is almost nothing to jar the eye," calling for "the most careful and sensitive consideration of any change of any kind." The buildings along Mill Street were included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area in the province to have been designated, described at the time as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village" — and in that year the village was also selected as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 23 Mill Street was listed in 1976. The Cushendall Conservation Area Guide identified No. 23 as possessing one of the finest traditional shopfronts in the village, noting that "the retention of these fronts, with their raised lettering or hand painted signs, does much to maintain the charm that is characteristic of the Irish town at its best."

An exterior renovation carried out in 2003–04 included the restoration of the roof, the reconstruction of one chimneystack, and the installation of a number of windows. The building continues to be operated as a public house by the McCollum family, who have run it continuously since the 1870s, and retains its original Victorian character with remarkably little modernisation to its interior.