7 Dhu Varren Park, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8EN

7 Dhu Varren Park is a two-storey mid-terrace rendered townhouse built around 1908 on the south side of Dhu Varren Park in Portrush. The building forms part of a coherent group of six Edwardian townhouses originally named Grangemount, typical of suburban expansion in the early twentieth century. Although the houses possess some interesting features, the terrace is not considered of special architectural or historic interest.

The building is square on plan with a projecting ground floor to the front and a full-height gabled return to the rear. It has two bays and two storeys with a dormer attic. The pitched natural slate roof carries terracotta angled ridge tiles and a yellow-brick chimneystack. Timber bargeboards and terracotta finials adorn the gables, whilst cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting eaves. The walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth, with a scotia moulded string-course supporting the rainwater goods between first floor and attic; the rear return is finished in roughcast render.

Windows are original 1/1 timber sash with margin panes, multi-paned top-lights and horns, set in stop-end chamfered reveals with projecting painted sills. Grouped windows have bullnose continuous sills. The principal elevation faces north and features two wall head dormer windows to the attic over three first-floor windows, the right pair being grouped together. A monopitched red tiled roof covers the ground floor. Three windows occupy the right side, with the outer windows narrower than the central light. A replacement raised-and-fielded four-panel timber door sits at the left in a stop-end chamfered reveal, accessed by two concrete steps. The door has an original timber transom light over with margin panes and multi-paned top-lights, and is fitted with a lion-head knocker and doorknob. The east and west elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings; the south elevation features a full-height return with a uPVC window to the second floor.

The property sits on a rectangular plot in a residential area directly opposite the Coleraine-Portrush railway line and Dhu Varren halt. It has a single-storey modern garage to the rear with an up-and-over metal door. The front features a lawned garden with a concrete pathway to the entrance door, enclosed by modern timber fencing to either side and by metal railings with a latch gate supported by ornate square metal piers along the street frontage.

The terrace, originally called Grangemount, first appears on the Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1922-31) and entered valuation records in 1908 as newly-built. The end terrace, number four, follows a different design but was constructed contemporaneously with the remainder. Number 3 was built by James Lyon, manager of Ballyrashane Creamery, whilst the remainder was built by James Kennedy, who occupied number 5 by 1910 and let the other houses to tenants. Following the First World War all houses were sold separately and individually owned or let, sometimes as boarding houses for visitors to the nearby Portrush resort. The first recorded occupier at number 7 was Alexander McCormac in 1910, a retired rent collector from County Monaghan who lived there with his wife and adult daughter. He was succeeded by Albert W Todd (1916), W D Lester (1918), and James Kennedy (1929). A motor house was added to the plot around 1930, at which time valuer's notes recorded the house was still lit by gas. The building continues in use as a domestic house.