Albert Place, 10 -18 Bridge Street, Kilrea, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5RS

Albert Place is a freestanding, three-storey symmetrical building in the Georgian style, constructed in the mid 19th century on the north side of Bridge Street, Kilrea. It was originally built as two adjoining houses with shops on the ground floor and has been substantially remodelled and refurbished in recent decades. Despite extensive alterations, much of the character of the restrained principal elevation survives, largely through the retention of the timber sash windows and stonework. The building continues to dominate the Bridge Street streetscape and represents the ambitious and coherent programme of development in Kilrea instigated by the Mercers' Company during the mid 19th century.

The building is rectangular on plan with a remodelled and enlarged central return to the rear. Single-storey porches abut both side elevations as later additions, and a substantial outbuilding sits directly to the north. The hipped slate roof has angled ridge tiles; chimney stacks have been removed. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with decorative hoppers are in place. The main elevation is faced in ashlar sandstone; the sides and porches are ruled-and-lined rendered; the rear and abutting return are roughcast. Raised quoins appear on the main building and on the porches.

Windows are a combination of 6-over-6 and 3-over-6 timber sashes with stone sills (some replacement) and plain surrounds, except for moulded architraves to the blind openings at ground floor level.

The principal elevation faces south and is six openings wide on each floor. The second floor has 3-over-6 sash windows; the first floor has 6-over-6 sash windows. At ground floor level, two wide openings at the centre are filled with modern glazing, with a deeply recessed door to the left, surmounted by modern signage and metal roller shutters. The central openings are flanked on either side by door openings that have been infilled and rendered. The outer windows are also infilled, retaining stone sills and projecting moulded architraves. Vestiges of a former painted sign reading "Albert Place" remain on the left side above ground floor level.

The west elevation has a central window to the second floor and a sixteen-pane window below, the upper portion of which is partially covered over with the sill removed. A gabled single-storey porch sits to the right, with metal-frame casement windows to the main elevation and the left cheek, and a six-panelled replacement timber door to the right cheek.

The rear (north) elevation has a metal-frame window to the right side at ground floor level; the remaining windows have been infilled. A two-storey, hipped-roof roughcast extension abuts the rear and encompasses most of the elevation. The return is otherwise blank, except for a central steel door to the north elevation and a similar door to the centre of the right cheek.

The east elevation has a twelve-pane window to the second floor, while the first-floor window is blocked up. At ground floor level there is a single-storey, hipped-roof porch to the left, with a central round-headed timber window having moulded surrounds. Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods are present here alongside some square uPVC downpipes. The right cheek of this porch is blank; the left cheek has a central hardwood replacement door with moulded surrounds, surmounted by a modern portico supported on columns.

The building sits in an urban, street-fronted setting with a car park to the eastern side. A coursed rubble wall and laneway separate it from the neighbouring building to the west. Cast-iron railings and a gate to the west side of the main elevation give access to the porch. To the rear, modernised roughcast outbuildings of no architectural interest sit in close proximity, forming the northern boundary and abutting a coursed rubble wall to the west and a roughcast wall to the east. Expansive metal-sheeted gates abutted to the north-east corner of the main building serve as a service entry, separating the rear of the building from the car park.

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, at which point it comprised two adjoining properties, both owned by the Mercers' Company. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 records that the eastern half was occupied by William Dripps, valued at £22, and comprised a house, office, yard and a new drapery shop. The western portion was occupied by Joseph Irwin and consisted of a house, a grocery and hardware shop, out-offices and a yard, valued slightly higher at £23 on account of its offices being of greater quality.

The building's origins lie within a broader story of estate management and urban improvement. During the Plantation of Ulster, the Worshipful Company of Mercers, a principal Livery Company of the City of London, was granted direct control over an estate of 33.5 square miles in County Londonderry, centred on the district of Kilrea and Movanagher. By the mid 17th century the estate had been let to nominated individuals, many of whom were absentee landlords, and it fell into severe decline. Following the death of the final tenant, Alexander Stewart, in 1831, the Mercers' Company took repossession and direct control. Kilrea became the capital of the estate, and in the decades that followed the Company initiated an ambitious programme of improvements aimed at raising productivity, general welfare and the overall appearance of the estate, with particular focus on Kilrea town. The Company appointed an architect, William Barnes, who produced a cohesive design plan carefully regulating the style and proportion of all new buildings, including these two houses.

The Annual Revisions record that the western side was occupied by David Tomb from 1877 and the eastern side by James Dripps from 1881. The 1901 Census shows Tomb operating a grocer's shop on the ground floor while residing in the property with his two children and one other individual. James Dripps, noted as postmaster in the 1901 Directory of Ulster Towns, operated the eastern property as a draper's, haberdasher's and newsagent's, and also distributed fishing licences. By 1905 David Tomb's daughter, Margaret Graham, had taken over the grocer's shop. James Dripps was succeeded by Richardson Long, a postmaster who ran the premises as a stationer's, newsagent's, embroiderer's and emigration agent's.

By this period both properties had passed out of the Mercers' estate through the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903, which gradually dissolved the estate and transferred ownership to the occupying tenants. In 1935 both buildings were owned by John Lyttle, who operated a shop from the western property while the eastern shop and house lay vacant. By 1956 both houses, shops and outbuildings were owned by a William McCool. In recent decades the ground floor has been merged into a single shop, a large extension has been erected to the rear, and the outer windows and doors have been blocked up.