61 Main Street, Bushmills, Co.Antrim

61 Main Street, Bushmills, County Antrim

This is a two-and-a-half storey, three-bay, smooth-rendered end-of-terrace former house, now a shop with residential accommodation above, built in 1835. The architect is unknown. It stands on the west side of Main Street on a corner site at Market Square, with its gable end facing onto Dunluce Road, at the northern end of Bushmills village centre, with the Bush River to the west. The building is attached to the neighbouring No. 57 Main Street on its north-west side.

The building was constructed as part of the extensive rebuilding of Bushmills carried out from the 1820s onwards by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. At the time of construction the building actually comprised two separate dwellings: the northernmost single bay formed one property, and the southern two bays formed another. Both were recorded as under construction during the Townland Valuation survey of 1835 and were noted as the property of a Mr. Archibald McKinley.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, the two properties were recorded in detail. The single-bay dwelling was valued at £8 and leased by the MacNaghten estate to a Mr. James McKeown. The adjoining two-bay dwelling was valued at £14 and occupied by Douglas McMullen, a local haberdasher, who leased it from Messrs Brown, Reid & Co., a wholesale textile manufacturer based in Belfast. Annual Revisions noted that Douglas McMullen came to occupy both properties from the 1880s, though by the turn of the 20th century they were again in separate occupation. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the single-bay dwelling as inhabited by Daniel McLaughlin, a local saddler, and the two-bay property by William McConnell, a photographer and chemist. The census building return described the northernmost dwelling as a second-class saddler's shop of six rooms, and the southern two bays as a second-class chemist's shop and dwelling of nine rooms. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 depicted the building as two distinct dwellings, each with a large outbuilding to the rear, both of which have since been demolished.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the MacNaghten estate leased the single-bay northern dwelling to a Mrs. Mary McMullen and the southernmost two-bay dwelling to Samuel Kennedy, a local merchant, with the combined rateable value set at £39 and 10 shillings. Between 1959 and 1961, the three buildings comprising Nos. 57–61 Main Street were each purchased outright by a Mr. Albert Henderson, who resided at No. 57 and operated shops from the adjoining properties. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value of No. 61 had risen to £57 and 10 shillings. The building was listed as a single three-bay property in 1980, and was subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. Around 1994, the upper floors of Nos. 57–61 Main Street were converted into a number of self-contained flats, while the ground floors of each building continued to be used as retail units.

The building has a rectangular plan with a large two-storey return to the south-west side. The walls are of smooth-rendered painted finish throughout, set on a painted rendered plinth, with painted quoins to the principal elevation. The roof is a replacement natural slate pitched roof with chimney stacks to the south-east and north-west sides. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to cast-iron circular downpipes. All windows throughout the building are timber sliding sash with horns.

The principal elevation faces north-east and is accessed directly off the paved footpath on Market Square. At ground floor level a shopfront spans the full width of the elevation. The left side of the ground floor contains an entrance doorway with a pair of timber and glazed doors, flanked by two large single-paned timber-framed windows on painted sills, all set within a painted timber-framed surround. The right side of the ground floor consists of a smaller opening flanked by painted timber pilasters, containing two large-paned windows. There are painted rendered stall-risers and painted signage to a dentilled fascia above, with a traditional-style awning. The first floor has three equally spaced window openings on painted sills. The attic level has dormers to the right and left sides, aligned with the bays below. Rising from the south-east side of the roof is a stone chimney stack carrying four decorative octagonal-shaped buff-coloured clay pots.

The south-east gable elevation faces onto Dunluce Road leading into Market Square. The walling is of painted rendered finish, topped by a basalt stone chimney stack at the apex of the gable, with squared stones and strap pointing. At ground floor level there is a large fixed-pane double timber-framed window to the right side. The first floor has two window bays at the extreme right and left, which are not aligned with the two window bays at attic level above. The two-storey rear return on this elevation is three bays wide, with a modern timber entrance doorway with a plain overlight leading to the residential accommodation above, set to the right of two window bays at ground floor level. The bays on the first floor above are aligned with those on the ground floor. There are painted corner quoins to the left side only.

The south-west elevation to the rear is set within a large enclosed yard and has an irregular fenestration pattern, with all windows being timber sliding sashes. A wall-head dormer to the rear elevation has a PVC door leading to the residential accommodation, accessed via external metal steps from within the rear yard. There is a single modern rooflight to the right side of the dormer and three to the left side. The main elevation at the rear is abutted to the right by a two-storey smooth-rendered return with a slated pitched roof; its rear return gable wall is blind with painted corner quoins to either side, and a rendered chimney stack at the apex carries two octagonal-shaped buff clay pots. The north-west face of this rear return has a single window opening at first-floor level. A catslide roof covers a two-storey extension to the left side of the main return, with a single window opening on the north-west side; at ground-floor level on that same north-west side this is abutted by a timber shed structure with a pitched roof, which is in turn further abutted by another timber shed with a pitched roof. A single-storey lean-to extension also abuts the north-west face of the main rear return, with a doorway to the left of a coupled timber sliding sash window on its north-west face. There is a large metal flue between two window openings at first-floor level to the rear. Cast-iron rainwater goods serve both the rear elevation and the rear extension.

Much of the exterior and interior historic fabric has been altered over the years. The original roof was removed and an attic level added, there is a large metal fire escape stair to the rear, and historic detailing to the interior has been lost. Despite these changes, No. 61 retains its historic character and proportions within its prominent terraced village centre setting.