'The Framer's Corner' / 'The Taíse Gallery' (and apartment over), 41-41A-B Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AS

This is a broad, two-storey terrace building on the south side of Castle Street, Ballycastle, probably dating from the mid-18th century, likely built as part of Hugh Boyd's development of the town in the 1750s. It now operates as a shop (currently known as The Framer's Corner and the Taíse Gallery) with an apartment on the upper floor. The building sits within a conservation area, though its architectural character has been considerably diminished by extensive alterations carried out in the mid-to-later 20th century.

The entire ground floor of the asymmetrical front elevation is occupied by a large mid-20th-century shop front, probably dating from around the 1930s, featuring generous areas of plate glass glazing and two recessed doorways fitted with mainly glazed timber doors with margin panes. A further shop doorway to the left appears to be a later insertion, perhaps from around the 1960s, and now has a partly glazed timber door added around the 1990s. Above the shop front runs a relatively plain painted timber signboard. At first-floor level, five evenly spaced windows have simple moulded surrounds and horned timber sash frames with plate glass. The front façade is finished in plain painted render with moulded projecting-and-receding quoins. A recently added projecting street lamp is fixed to the far right of the first floor.

To the rear, much of the centre and left of the rear elevation is taken up by a large two-storey extension that appears to have been added before around 1910. On the west side this extension directly abuts the neighbouring property. On the south side it is abutted by a very large two-storey hip-roofed workshop extension added around the 1930s, leaving only a small section of the right-hand side of the earlier extension still exposed. In this exposed section there are two smallish windows at ground-floor level, both with modern timber frames and security grilles. The east face of the extension remains fully exposed and has a timber-sheeted door to the right at ground-floor level, with a small modern-framed window to the left. At first-floor level there is a large window, also with a modern timber frame.

Because of the later extension, only small portions of the rear façade of the main building remain visible — a small section to the far left of the first floor, and a larger section to the far right. The left-hand exposed portion has a small, squat window with a modern timber frame. The larger right-hand section has a large ground-floor window with a modern timber frame; at first-floor level there is a doorway with a window-like sidelight alongside it. The doorway is fitted with a modern mainly glazed timber door and the sidelight has a modern timber frame. This doorway provides access to the upper-floor apartment via a modern external timber stair. Both the exposed face of the return and the rear façade of the main building are finished in plain, mainly painted render.

The large two-storey workshop addition to the west side of the yard abuts another large outbuilding to the south, abuts the neighbouring property to the west, and to the east is joined by a large later single-storey lean-to extension — probably from around the 1960s — which covers much of the remaining formerly open yard. The large two-storey outbuilding on the south side of the yard appears to have been built or substantially renovated in the 1930s; it is now disused and in poor repair. A single-storey lean-to extension added later, possibly around the 1960s, covers much of what remains of the formerly open yard.

The gabled roof of the main building is slated, with large shared rendered chimneystacks at both the east and west ends. Three relatively large modern dormer windows project from the rear slope of the roof. The rear extension has a slated gabled roof with a smaller upper gabled section, also slated. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast-iron and uPVC.

The building's long and well-documented history is traced through valuation records and directories. A house matching the dimensions of the present main building — recorded as 35 feet by 28 feet by 17½ feet, with a cellar of 24 by 13 by 6 feet — appears in the 1835 valuation. The valuers noted at that time that the house was already of considerable age, suggesting it may indeed date from Hugh Boyd's mid-18th-century development of Ballycastle. In 1835 the building appears to have been divided between two occupants, John Brown and a John Sharpe, the latter probably the leathercutter and seller of that name listed in Pigot's Directory of 1824 as residing in Castle Street — then known as Main Street. At that date, outbuildings to the rear included an old addition measuring 14 by 11 by 7½ feet, small stores measuring 20 by 9½ by 5 feet, an office of 14 by 11½ by 5 feet, and a barn and small dwelling used as an office measuring 28 by 19 by 6¾ feet.

By the time of the second valuation in 1859, the property was being leased from the Boyd estate by a Widow Mary Henry and a Daniel Sharpe, with a valuer's annotation recording that Mary Henry owned the house and that the occupier paid no rates or taxes. By this stage the eastern half of the ground floor had become a shop, apparently sublet to a James McCullagh, though his name is subsequently struck through, suggesting he vacated shortly afterwards. In 1867 Mary Henry sublet the shop to a George Badger, with the rest of the property occupied solely by Daniel Sharpe. Daniel Sharpe was succeeded in 1870 by John Sharpe, and the following year by Jane Sharpe — presumably all members of the same family. Robert Stewart is recorded as the shop tenant in 1872, and Patrick McAleese in 1875. In 1876 a house to the rear, occupied by an Arthur McVicker, is noted in the valuation records; this may have been newly built at that time or may have been the dwelling mentioned as an office in the 1835 valuation. Either way it was evidently a very small dwelling, rated at only £1. In 1878 the lease of the whole property was acquired by a George Scarlett. By 1899 a John Scarlett — probably George's son — is recorded as occupying the shop, and by 1910 John held the whole building. A valuers' office notebook entry from 1910 notes that the shop had been improved, the front stone-finished (possibly a reference to a new shop front), and new single-storey brick-built workshops added to the rear. As John Scarlett is listed in various directories as running a boot and shoe warehouse, these workshops were most likely used for shoemaking and repair. The two-storey return is also mentioned by the valuers as having been added around this time; and notably, the valuers describe the main section of the property as very old, supporting the identification of the building as a mid-18th-century structure. The valuers also note that the two-storey return may have been added at around the same time as the workshops. The firm of John S. Scarlett and Son continued to hold the building until at least 1972, by which stage the whole of the ground floor appears to have been converted into two shop units with the rear workshops greatly extended. The valuation records give little indication of when exactly this work was done, though the style of the shop front points to the 1930s. When visited during the First Historic Building Survey of the town in October 1972, the eastern shop unit was in use as a launderette. At some point after this survey, both ground-floor units were combined, a change that resulted in the entrance to the upper-floor living quarters being moved from the front of the building to the rear.