Coastguard Station, 130 Main Street, Portrush, BT56 8DA

Coastguard Station and Commanding Officer's Dwelling, 130 Main Street, Portrush

This is a substantial, two-storey detached house built in 1896 as a Coastguard station and commanding officer's dwelling, now in private residential use. It forms part of a wider late Victorian Coastguard estate that retains much of its original form and appearance, including some ancillary buildings and most of the gardens associated with the individual dwellings.

Overview and Setting

The station complex as a whole comprises this building, a terrace of six two-storey dwellings (1–6 Coastguard Cottages), original outhouses, and a later boathouse with associated store. The entire grouping is designed in a simple, loosely Georgian style and, although 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, set on a slight rise between Main Street to the south and Causeway View Lane to the north. The detached gardens belonging to each of the terrace dwellings are positioned to the west. The terrace runs north to south, with No. 130 at the south end of the site, its south flank facing directly onto the Main Street pavement. Although originally fully detached, No. 130 is now connected to the adjoining terrace by a later single-storey garage.

No. 130 is by far the largest building in the complex, having originally housed both the coastguard station itself and the commanding officer's residence. The main entrance façade faces west, with the side elevation fronting directly onto Main Street to the south. To the rear, abutting the north side of the garage, there is a single-storey flat-roofed kitchen extension, and abutting the north side of that is a later single-storey flat-roofed outbuilding.

Exterior

The roof is hipped and finished with artificial slate and grey fireclay ridge tiles, with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails. Rainwater goods are uPVC. There are two rendered chimneystacks: one set to the right side of the ridge has corbelled bands; the other is a plain replacement positioned to the rear. Clay chimney pots are mixed in style.

The walls are rendered in a light roughcast finish. On the south and west sides there is a rubble-stone plinth; on the north side the plinth is painted. At both ground and first floor levels there was originally a continuous moulded stringcourse linking the impost levels of the window openings, though the ground-floor section of this stringcourse on the west front is now missing.

Replacement window frames are mainly six-over-six with faux-astragals set within double-glazed uPVC units. Windows on the west front and the south street elevation are segmental-arched with cut stone sills. Window openings on the north and east façades are flat-headed and informally arranged.

The west front façade is symmetrical, centred on a semi-circular-headed door opening. The replacement timber panelled door is surmounted by a radial uPVC fanlight. There is a single window opening to either side of the main entrance at ground floor and three windows at first floor. A uPVC soil stack is positioned to the left of the main front door.

The south elevation is also symmetrical, with three openings at first floor and two at ground floor. On the east elevation, the left-hand side breaks forward and is abutted by the single-storey flat-roofed extension with a single window above; the right-hand side has a small single window at ground floor and two windows at first floor. On the north elevation there is a secondary flat-headed entrance flanked by a window to either side.

Boundary Walls, Gateway and Steps

The south wall of the house merges with a stone boundary wall that has been raised from approximately 1.2 metres to approximately 2.3 metres in height. The original lower section is built in squared rubble basalt with a chamfered coping; the upper section is rendered masonry built directly off this coping, and is without its own coping except at the tops of the gateposts. Adjacent to the house there is a wide gateway flanked by square dressed stone gateposts, fitted with replacement paired timber gates and opening onto a short flight of steps.

History

This station replaced an earlier one that predated 1857, which comprised a station house and four smaller dwellings arranged in a terrace fronting directly onto Main Street, and which may not have been purpose-built. A Board of Works tender notice for the construction of the new buildings appeared in August 1892, though it is not until 1896 that valuation records refer to a new coastguard station in progress. The architect is not known, but valuation records suggest the building costs amounted to approximately £2,500. The main station building originally also possessed a rocket station and a look-out hut, the latter possibly elevated, though this is not certain.

In 1923, following the transfer of the Coastguard to the Board of Trade — an event that restricted its role to life-saving, salvage from wreck, and the administration of the foreshore — staffing levels were reduced and the dwellings began to be let to private tenants. By 1925, Cottages 2 through 6 were occupied by private tenants, while Cottage No. 1 and the station building itself were retained by the Coastguard service until at least 1972. The station building was acquired by its present owner in 1975 and has been renovated on a number of occasions, with works including the upgrading and annexing of an outhouse to the ground floor, the addition of two bathrooms directly above at first floor, and the replacement of windows in uPVC.

The Belfast Truss-roofed building constructed on part of the gardens originally belonging to Cottages No. 5 and No. 6 was built at some point after 1921, and possibly even 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 themselves.

Background: 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 organisation 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 its official function. In 1856 the Guard was transferred to the Admiralty, and its staff — henceforth mainly naval men — became involved in coastal defence roles as well as serving as a naval reserve. In 1923 the Coastguard was placed under the Board of Trade, with its role restricted to life-saving, salvage from wreck, and the administration of the foreshore.