4 Coastguard Cottages, Causeway View Lane, Portrush, BT56 8DA

4 Coastguard Cottages, Causeway View Lane, Portrush

This is a two-storey mid-terraced house forming part of a former Coastguard station built in 1896. It sits within a cohesive late Victorian complex that has retained much of its original form, appearance, and a number of ancillary buildings, along with most of the detached gardens belonging to the individual dwellings. Though lacking the architectural flourishes of some earlier stations, the main terrace has an attractive, almost artisan-cottage simplicity in a loosely Georgian style. This quality is enhanced by the site's unusual arrangement, with properties wedged between two streets and facing into their respective detached gardens. The main freestanding station building nearby has a sturdy, commanding presence that adds interest to the streetscape. The whole group is considered a good example of its type and is of interest as part of the wider Coastguard estate in the Province.

The station complex as a whole consists of a detached two-storey station building and commanding officer's house (130 Main Street), six two-storey dwellings arranged in a terrace (1–6 Coastguard Cottages), original outhouses, and a later boathouse and associated store. The entire grouping is designed in a simple, loosely Georgian style and, while it may originally have been finished in brick throughout, is now almost entirely rendered. The buildings occupy an urban site to the north of Portrush town centre, on a slight rise between Main Street to the south and Causeway View Lane to the north.

Within the terrace, cottages 3 and 4 and cottages 5 and 6 are paired, each pair sharing mirrored internal layouts and identical internal accommodation. These are entered from the east side via Causeway View Lane. Nos. 1 and 2 are also paired with mirrored internal layouts, entered from the west side off Main Street, and are slightly larger than Nos. 3–6. This difference in size almost certainly reflected the occupants' status: No. 130 was occupied by the commanding officer and Nos. 1–2 by middle-ranking officers.

No. 4 is mid-terraced, sitting immediately to the north of No. 3. Its front façade faces east and is accessed via a communal yard. The roof is pitched and finished with natural slate and grey fireclay ridge tiles. The eaves are overhanging with exposed rafter tails, and rainwater goods are uPVC. There is a shared rendered chimneystack to the ridge, with corbelled bands and unmatched clay pots. The rear west façade is rendered and set on a rubble stone plinth, while the front east façade has retained its original red clay brick facing.

To the right side of the rear west façade there is a single-storey projecting lean-to porch. To the south face of this porch is a timber-sheeted door, and to the east side is a small flat-headed window opening with a top-hung timber frame. All windows are flat-headed and informally arranged across both the west and east façades; frames are 1-over-1 timber sash. To the first floor of the west façade there are two windows, the larger to the right and the smaller to the left. At ground floor level on the west façade, one original window opening was later converted to a door opening, now fitted with a part-glazed panelled door. Nos. 3, 5, and 6 have identical layouts except for the absence of this west-facing door.

The detached gardens extend to the west side of the terrace. To the east side, two communal access yards are separated by a masonry wall: the northern yard gives access to the front entrances of Nos. 3–6, while the southern yard gives access to the rear of No. 130 and Nos. 1–2. To the rear of Nos. 3–6 there is a small range of single-storey outbuildings containing a communal washhouse and, for each dwelling, two small outhouses — one an outside WC and the other a fuel store.

Historical background

The station was built in 1896, replacing an earlier station that pre-dated 1857. That earlier complex comprised a station house and four smaller dwellings, all arranged in a terrace fronting directly onto Main Street, and may not have been purpose-built. A Board of Works tender notice for the new buildings appeared in August 1892, though valuation records only refer to a "new coastguard station in progress" from 1896. The identity of the architect is not known. Valuation records suggest total building costs of approximately £2,500. It is possible, given the rear elevation of No. 4, that all the buildings were originally finished in brick, though this is not certain. The main station building originally also possessed a rocket station and a look-out hut, which may have been elevated. A Belfast truss-roofed building was subsequently constructed on part of the gardens originally belonging to Nos. 5 and 6, sometime after 1921 and possibly after 1935, as it does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map partially revised in that year; it does not appear to have had any direct relationship to the cottages.

In 1923, following the transfer of the Coastguard to the Board of Trade, staff numbers were reduced and the dwellings began to be let. By 1925, Cottages 2–6 were occupied by private tenants. No. 1 and the station building itself were retained by the Coastguard service until at least 1972.

The occupancy history of No. 4 specifically is as follows: Catherine Minihan is recorded as resident in 1926, and the property appears to have remained with her family until 1954, when Thomas Patton is recorded as tenant. Thomas Hamilton followed in around 1961 and Anna Hamilton in around 1971. The present owner purchased the house in the mid-1990s.

A brief note on the history of the Coastguard: the Coastguard in Ireland traces its origins to the Preventative Water Guard, a UK-wide body established in 1809 to combat smuggling. In 1816 the Preventative Water Guard was expanded and reorganised to take control of revenue vessels, and in 1822 this force was transferred to the Board of Customs and renamed the Coast Guard. Although in practice involved in the rescue of those in difficulties at sea, revenue protection rather than lifesaving remained the body's official function. In 1856 the Guard was transferred to the Admiralty, and its staff — henceforth mainly naval men — took on coastal defence roles and acted as a naval reserve. In 1923 the Coastguard was placed under the Board of Trade, with its role formally restricted to lifesaving, salvage from wreck, and the administration of the foreshore.