18 Mill Street, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

18 Mill Street, Cushendall, is a terraced three-storey five-bay rendered building constructed around 1891, located on the south-east side of Mill Street in the historic village centre. It currently operates as a shop with accommodation above, and forms a closely matched pair with the adjoining No. 16 next door, both buildings having been constructed at the same time to create a distinct paired grouping.

The building is rectangular in plan, facing north-west. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there are rendered profiled chimneystacks to either end fitted with clay pots. Rainwater drainage to the front is handled by moulded cast-iron guttering supported on a corbelled eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes; the rear has half-round cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets with a cast-iron downpipe. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render, with a projecting render plinth course and rusticated render quoins.

The five-bay three-storey front elevation has square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills. Most windows have been replaced with uPVC units, but the ground floor retains original horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns. The central opening at ground level contains an original deeply recessed flat-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings, brass furniture, and a two-pane fanlight, accessed by a single masonry step. To the right of centre is a traditional shopfront comprising a quatrepartite fixed-pane display window and a double-leaf timber door with stop-chamfered panels and a bipartite overlight. The shopfront is framed by scored timber pilasters and surmounted by a painted timber fascia bearing the lettering 'THE VILLAGE TEA ROOMS', topped by a hood cornice with a moulded gutter. No. 16 abuts the north-east side of the building.

The three-bay three-storey rear elevation has a central square-headed door opening fitted with a replacement timber and glazed door, and replacement uPVC windows to all floors in an irregular arrangement. The south-west side is abutted by the adjoining No. 20.

The setting forms part of a terrace of buildings of varying heights lining the south-east side of Mill Street. To the rear is a bitmac-paved yard containing a pair of lean-to structures abutting the lateral boundary walls, enclosed from the rear public car park by a tall cement-rendered wall with a sheeted timber gate.

The original plan form appears largely intact, as do the historic proportions of the front façade. Despite the installation of inappropriate windows to both front and rear, No. 18 retains considerable architectural quality and contributes positively to the historic village centre setting.

HISTORY

The construction of No. 18, together with the adjoining Nos. 14–16 between 1889 and 1891, closed one of the last remaining development gaps along Mill Street. The street had been developed progressively from the early 19th century by the Turnly family, who were responsible for the majority of its two- and three-storey buildings during the first half of that century. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had travelled to China in 1796 and accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this wealth to purchase the Newtownglens estate from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase the village amounted to little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge. Turnly — described by Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property" — developed the village into a coastal resort to serve the growing number of tourists travelling through the area to the Giant's Causeway, with the erection of hotels such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street and numerous commercial properties.

Valuation records confirm that No. 18 was in existence by 1891, built on land that remained in Turnly family ownership. The building was initially valued at £17 and its first recorded occupant was Hugh Delargy, a local auctioneer, who remained at the address until 1895. The 1903 Ordnance Survey Town Plan depicts the building in its current rectangular form and records that the rear yard originally contained a number of out-offices, since demolished. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the building as occupied by Minnie Agnew, who operated a shop from the premises. The census return described it as a first-class dwelling of fourteen rooms, with outbuildings to the rear including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a potato house. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the building — described as a dwelling and shop — was revalued at £30. Minnie Agnew continued in occupation until 1944, when Mary McKay took over. Mary McKay subsequently purchased the building outright from the Turnly estate in 1967, and by the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the building's valuation stood at £32.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society publication on the Glens of Antrim described Nos. 18–29 Mill Street as "good two- and three-storey houses sharing a common roofline: 18 and 20 have mostly Regency glazing … an outstandingly good street by Ulster standards; there is almost nothing to jar the eye … this street demands, and deserves, the most careful and sensitive consideration of any change of any kind." The buildings along Mill Street were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to be designated in the province, a fact described as testimony in itself to the special qualities of the village. That same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 18 was listed in 1976. NIEA records note that the building underwent an extensive renovation in 1990, including the reslating of the roof in natural slate and the installation of new cast aluminium rainwater goods. At the time of the second survey the building was in use as a bed and breakfast, with the ground-floor shop occupied as a tea room.