4 Bridge St., Cushendall, Co.Antrim

4 Bridge Street is a mid-terraced former house of three bays and two storeys with an attic, finished in painted render, and constructed before 1859 — possibly around 1830. It sits on the south-west side of Bridge Street in Cushendall village centre, set below the level of the road and accessed from a sunken footpath behind a rendered retaining wall and replacement steel railings. It was built as a pair with the adjoining No. 2 Bridge Street to its south-east, and together the two buildings share group value as an intrinsic part of the historic character of Cushendall village centre. No. 6 Bridge Street abuts to the north-west.

The building is rectangular in plan. Its pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and two rendered chimneystacks, one of which is embedded in the adjoining No. 6. Cast-iron guttering runs along a moulded eaves course and a cast-iron downpipe serves the front elevation. The external walling is finished in painted ruled-and-lined render throughout, except on the rear extension which is plain cement rendered.

The three-bay two-storey front elevation is the building's most characterful face. At ground floor level, the right-hand portion is given over to a stucco shopfront comprising a hardwood shop display window with an entrance door to its right side; a further square-headed door opening sits to the left of the window and is centrally placed on the front elevation. Both of these door openings are framed within fluted pilasters with a string course and hood moulding over. The central door has a replacement hardwood panelled door set within an original frame with an original fanlight, and opens onto a terrazzo step. A square-headed door opening to the far left of the ground floor has a replacement hardwood panelled door. At first floor level, three window openings align with the door openings below; all are 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sliding sash windows. All window openings across the building have painted masonry sills and replacement hardwood horizontally-glazed sliding sash windows.

A large two-storey-with-attic rendered rear extension was built around 2000, set at 45 degrees to the main block and occupying the full width of the property. It obscures the original rear elevation. The extension has a gable end containing a pair of doors at ground floor level, four windows at first floor level, and a single window at the apex of the gable. A small concrete-paved yard lies to the rear.

The building's history is well documented. It may be among the structures referenced in the 1834 Townland Valuations, though the loss of the accompanying Town Plan for Cushendall makes individual identification impossible. The first certain record is Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which records No. 4 Bridge Street as valued at £8 and leased by the Turnly family to a Mr Daniel Rice. Rice remained in occupation until around 1868, when the property passed to Mr John McBride, a local merchant and restaurateur. The valuation was increased to £9 and 15 shillings around 1896, following the construction of the adjoining No. 6. By the time of the 1911 Census, McBride's widow Margaret McBride was resident and operating a restaurant from the premises; the census building return described No. 4 as a second-class dwelling of five rooms, with a piggery and fowl house as its only outbuildings. The 1903 Ordnance Survey Town Plan shows the building in its current layout, though it records that the building originally had a small rear return, since replaced by the modern extension.

Around 1913 the house was occupied by Daniel McCollum, a local building contractor, whose family remained at the property until the 1960s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the value was increased to £17. Following Daniel McCollum's death in 1951 the property passed to Patrick McCollum, who remained until 1969. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the value had risen further to £27, at which point the occupant was recorded as a Mr Desmond Patrick.

In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described Nos. 2–6 Bridge Street as "a continuous terrace of two and three-storey houses, with most glazing-bars complete, of no especial interest, but pleasant and coherent; the dip in the pavement level lends unusual interest to what might otherwise be a little dull." The buildings were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to be designated in the province — and that same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 4 Bridge Street was listed in 1976.

In 1980 the building was converted from a private dwelling into an amusement arcade. An extensive renovation followed around 1983, including reslating in Bangor Blue slates, installation of new sliding sash window frames, and the fitting of cast-iron rainwater goods. From the mid-1980s the building was used as office premises. A second renovation was carried out between approximately 2004 and 2007, converting the building into commercial premises at ground floor level with self-contained apartments on the upper floors; it was at this time that the modern rear extension was constructed.