14 Shore St., Cushendall, Co.Antrim

14 Shore Street, Cushendall, County Antrim

This is a terraced, four-bay, two-storey rendered house, built in the early 19th century (probably around 1830, and certainly prior to 1859), situated on the northwest side of Shore Street close to the village centre of Cushendall. It forms part of a continuous terrace of similarly scaled houses and has group value with its immediate neighbour, No. 16 Shore Street.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular on plan, faces southeast, and has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and four cement-rendered chimneystacks. Rainwater goods consist of replacement steel and uPVC guttering on brackets to the eaves course, with steel downpipes. The external walls are finished in painted rough-cast render.

The window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills. The majority retain their original 8/8 sliding timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and no horns; one window at first-floor level on the right-hand side has been replaced with a 6/6 timber sliding sash window with angled horns. The four-bay, two-storey front elevation has an off-centre square-headed door opening fitted with a recessed replacement timber panelled and glazed door, opening onto a tiled step. The left-hand bay contains a square-headed garage door opening — formerly a coach arch — fitted with a replacement timber panelled and glazed vehicular door. The southwest side abuts No. 12 Shore Street, and the northeast side abuts No. 16 Shore Street. The rear elevation was not inspected.

Historical Background

The building was almost certainly erected in the first half of the 19th century as part of a programme of development carried out by Francis Turnly, the proprietor of Cushendall. Turnly had travelled to China in 1796, where he accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this wealth to purchase the local estate of Newtownglens 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 collection of insignificant cabins, a mill, and a bridge. Turnly — described by the architectural historian Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property" — developed it into a coastal resort, partly in response to growing tourist traffic passing through on the way to the Giant's Causeway. This development included the construction of hotels such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street, along with numerous commercial properties.

A row of buildings along the northern half of Shore Street is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, and No. 14 is likely among them. The buildings may also have appeared in the Townland Valuations of 1834, though the loss of the associated town plan makes it impossible to identify individual properties in that source with certainty. No. 14 Shore Street is first recorded with certainty in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which assessed the total rateable value of the building at £15 15 shillings. At that time it was leased by the Turnly estate to a Mr William Houghton. Around 1865, the property passed to James Robinson, Cushendall's physician and surgeon, whose family continued to reside there until around 1893.

In approximately 1893, the building was subdivided into two separate dwellings, valued at £6 and £9 respectively. It remained in this divided state until around 1913, when it was reconverted into a single premises for a Ms Mary McIleavy and revalued at £10. Ownership passed to Patrick O'Mooney around 1918. By the 1930s, as recorded in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the building had once again been subdivided into two dwellings with a combined value of £17. The O'Mooney family continued to occupy one of the dwellings until 1962, when both properties were acquired by Mr James Harold Workman, who purchased the site outright from the Turnly estate in 1967. The building was returned to its current form as a single two-storey, four-bay dwelling in 1962, and by the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) its total rateable value stood at £27.

In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's publication on the Glens of Antrim described the north side of Shore Street as "a miscellany of two and three-storey houses, stuccoed, rendered and pebble dashed", singling out Nos. 14–16 as "exceptionally well-painted white roughcast and blue, with all glazing complete." The buildings along Shore Street were included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to be designated in the province, described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village." In the same year, Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 14 Shore Street was listed in 1976.

Alterations and Condition

Around 1992 the building underwent extensive renovation, including reslating and the installation of new rainwater goods. In 1999 the original windows were replaced with the current sliding sash window frames. Throughout these changes, the building retains its simple proportions and the overall character of its historic external fabric and detailing.