11-15 Bridge Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1DR

11–15 Bridge Street is a multi-bay, three-storey-with-attic, mid-terraced commercial premises built around 1820, situated on the north side of Bridge Street in Coleraine town centre. Originally three separate houses and shops, the building incorporates a carriage-arch entrance and is a rare surviving example of Georgian architecture in the town. It represents the commercial development of Coleraine in the first part of the 19th century, before the large-scale development of the Victorian era, and forms part of a Georgian group together with numbers 17 and 21 Bridge Street.

The building is rectangular on plan, with a single-storey modern flat-roof extension to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded ridge tiles and four rendered chimneystacks, some retaining clay pots only. Rainwater goods are plastic, fixed to projecting eaves. The walling is smooth cement render, painted to the facade, with painted brick and a contrasting plinth to the east elevation under the carriage arch.

The windows are a variety of timber sash with horns, generally six-over-six panes, some retaining original glass, all set in moulded architraves with projecting painted sills. Window openings to the rear elevation have been infilled with concrete blocks.

The principal elevation faces south. The upper floors present seven evenly spaced window openings. At ground floor, a modern shopfront with an over-sized timber fascia extends almost the full width of the building; this is considered unsympathetic in style and compromises the original front elevation. To the ground floor right is an elliptical-headed carriage arch entrance fitted with a modern steel fascia and entrance gates. The west gable is abutted at first-floor level by the adjoining building; the upper gable is blank. The north, rear elevation is partially concealed, with infilled window openings to the upper floors and the single-storey rendered extension abutting at ground floor. To the left and far right of the rear elevation is a round-headed former stairwell window, now infilled. The far left bay has brick-corbelled eaves and a single former window opening to the second floor, positioned above an elliptical-headed carriage arch entrance. The east elevation is abutted at the upper floors by the adjoining building. At ground floor, beneath the carriage arch, a modern steel door in a plain smooth rendered painted surround is accessed by a single step, with a concrete floor laid through the arch leading to an enclosed yard at the rear.

Despite the unsympathetic modern shopfront, the building otherwise retains its historic appearance and much of its original Georgian detailing and fabric, including the fenestration to the upper floors.

The building predates the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records the site as three houses and a gateway, and fieldbook dimensions suggest that the structures present in the 1830s have remained largely unaltered to the present day. Earlier two-storey structures on the site appear in the Georgian 'Book of Coleraine', thought to date from around 1816. The Townland Valuation records buildings identical in height and depth with slightly varying frontage widths, each with a cellar kitchen and a store or stable to the rear. Number 11 was listed as 'to let' and later occupied by John Young, yarn store keeper, valued at £9 15s 3d. Number 13 was occupied by Charles Daly, nursery and seedsman, valued at £9 4s 1d. Number 15 was also 'to let' and later occupied by Dr Alexander Kennedy, valued at £8 12s 8d.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, all three men remained in occupation. The buildings were leased from Mrs Rebecca Rice of Portrush and were by then described as three storeys with two-storey rear returns. John Young's house and shop was valued at £21; the other two at £18 each. In the 1860s and 1870s, Charles Daly and Son took over number 15. Charles Daly had come to Coleraine around 1821, descended from a Galway family, and had established his seed merchant's business in 1825. He developed nurseries at the corner of Lodge Road and Nursery Avenue — which took its name from his business — extending to 48 acres, and a further 42½ acres at Spruce Bank, Waterside. The glasshouses at Lodge Road were devoted to flowering, ornamental and herbaceous plants, with the nurseries noted for roses, hyacinths, narcissi and tulips. The Spruce Bank nurseries specialised in ornamental and forest trees. Charles Daly senior died in 1871 and was succeeded by his son, Charles Daly junior, who had lived in America for some years before settling in Coleraine and becoming a Town Commissioner.

Number 11 was taken over by James Cochrane in 1882, then by Connolly Lecky Smith in 1892, and by Samuel T. Alexander, draper, in 1893. All three buildings were acquired by draper John Henry in 1897 and remained in the Henry family for some years. The 1901 census records widow and draper Martha Henry living in ten rooms above the shop with her five children and a niece. The two older children assisted in the shop; the niece worked as a mother's help. The family employed a live-in domestic servant and two further young women, one a milliner and another a draper's assistant. In 1907, number 11 was improved by the addition of a new projecting shopfront, raising the valuation to £30. All three holdings passed to Martha's son James Edward Henry in the early 1930s, with part of the structure sublet as living accommodation to John Ferris. James E. Henry's portion comprised a shop at ground floor, four reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery, bathroom, WC and three bedrooms on the first floor, and two bedrooms on the second floor. In the early 1960s the shop became known as the Midland Household Store Ltd. It is currently in use as a café and gift shop at ground floor, with the upper floors vacant as office and storage accommodation.

The building is prominently situated on Bridge Street, which runs from the Town Hall at the east end to the Bann Bridge at the west, in the most westerly pedestrianised area of Coleraine town centre. It forms part of a Georgian terrace of two- and three-storey commercial units, contributing to the historic streetscape of this part of the town.