5 The Square, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

Two former two-storey three-bay white painted Edwardian Cornish style houses, now interconnected and occupied as a single dwelling. The building has a rectangular plan-form with a single staircase leading to first floor rooms within a mansard roof. It forms part of a square of seven two-storey cottage-style houses set around three sides of an enclosed green, adjoined to neighbouring property No. 4 The Square. Each block is linked at the corners by rendered arches containing painted timber gates.

The buildings were constructed in 1912 to designs by Clough Williams-Ellis, a London-based architect. Nos. 5 and 6 are situated on the north-west side of the pillared entrance which contains a pair of iron gates, accessed from Main Street.

The principal elevation faces north-east onto the enclosed green square and is accessed via a paved footpath from the main front entrance pillars. The facade features white painted rendered walling with rendered quoins on the right side, all set on a plinth painted in contrasting colour. Small-pane Georgian casement windows express a cottage style within the design; one window has timber shutters painted in contrasting colour with the left side shutter missing. The steeply pitching slated mansard roof has its lower slope punctured by dormer windows at a steeper angle than the upper slope. A concrete ridge runs along the top. Two tall painted rendered chimney stacks at mid-ridge have black painted clay pots and stepped cornices; the right-side chimney stack has been rebuilt. Deep overhanging eaves feature exposed painted rafter tails that overhang the face of the wall. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to circular section cast-iron downpipes.

The ground floor consists of six bays with two doorways divided by square headed casement windows. These ground floor bays are not aligned with the slated dormers on the first floor above. A paved stone pathway from the main entrance gates leads to a painted panelled timber door on the side of the elevation, which has painted metal door furniture; the left-side front door is disused. The door is set within a plain painted timber architrave surround.

The south-east elevation is adjoined to neighbouring property No. 4 The Square. The south-west elevation to the rear consists of a small casement window on the left side and two double casement windows flanking a triple casement window on the right side. Slated dormers on the first floor level are aligned with ground floor bays below. This elevation overlooks a small garden to the rear, accessed from the rendered arched gateway at the west corner of the building; a high timber boarded fence divides this from neighbouring property No. 4.

The north-west side elevation overlooks the rear yard of adjacent property No. 7 The Square. It consists of a small casement window on the left side and a single doorway to the right side with a painted panelled timber door, aligned with a single slated dormer window to the first floor above.

The Square is a planned composition of seven white painted rendered two-storey houses set around a bounding green behind a white painted rendered and stone wall. Nos. 5 and 6 form part of the nine-bay block to the right side of the green on the north-west side of The Square. Two additional two-storey blocks at either end of the square, positioned to the north-west and south-east, are situated perpendicular to the nine-bay block and were built as large dwellings with cottage elements. The nine-bay building between them comprises five smaller dwellings (Nos. 2–6). Access to The Square is via a pair of circular painted rendered pillars with iron gates just off Main Street. The entire development lies within a Conservation Area in the village of Cushendun, in close proximity to the River Dun and within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Materials include natural slate roofing, cast-iron painted rainwater goods, white rendered walling, and timber small-pane Georgian-style windows.