11 Kingsgate Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1LB

A painted brick two-bay three-storey mid-terrace building, now commercial premises, located on the south side of Kingsgate Street in Coleraine town centre. Dating from the period pre-dating 1830, though documentary evidence suggests the current structure was raised or rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century, the building was refurbished as a modern commercial unit in the late twentieth century with considerable loss of historic fabric and detailing.

Architectural Description

The building is square on plan with Flemish-bonded brick walling to the upper floors, painted white. The roof is pitched with artificial slate and formerly supported a chimneystack, now removed. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are mounted on brackets.

The principal elevation faces north, presenting three openings wide at upper floors above a full modern shopfront. Windows are replacement 1/1 timber sash with horns and projecting masonry sills. The east elevation is abutted by a taller adjoining building that projects forward. The west elevation is similarly abutted by an adjoining building. The south (rear) elevation was not viewed during survey. An enclosed yard lies to the rear.

Historical Development

The site has a significant documented history. By the mid-eighteenth century, a school stood here. Kingsgate Street marks the former position of a gateway to the fortified town of Coleraine, with earthen ramparts surrounded by a ditch constructed during the plantation in 1611. By 1622, the East Gate of the town was fitted with a small gate and drawbridge, 12 feet wide, with a timber room above, slated. By 1710, the town gates had been dismantled, though ramparts remained in the Kingsgate area for some years.

In 1738, a holding of 17 perches in the Kingsgate area was appropriated by the Irish Society for a school. According to documentary sources, the school had fallen into ruins by 1814, and it remains unclear whether any fabric was retained in buildings currently on the site.

By the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, no rampart was evident on the south side of Kingsgate Street, the former line having been built over by numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records numbers 9 to 11 as an auction house occupied by Michael Doherty, auctioneer, valued at £16. The building's dimensions in the 1830s—40 feet by 24.5 feet and 17.5 feet high—suggest it was lower than its neighbours. It featured a double-height porch projection to the front, with a rear yard containing a kitchen and pantry, privy and piggery, and a single-storey schoolroom with return. This may represent the Irish Society school built c.1738.

By Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the house had been divided into two units and was three storeys high, indicating it had been raised or rebuilt since the 1830s valuation. Number eleven had become a private house occupied by Jane Haddock, valued at £20, comprising a basement, main building, and three-storey addition with coach house to the rear.

In 1911, widow Ellen Irwin, a merchant, occupied the premises with her three adult children, two of whom were teachers. Subsequent occupiers included Teresa Donnelly (1917), Alexander Thompson (1919), and Robert Blair (1923). In 1923, the valuation rose to £28 following the addition of a new mahogany and plate glass shopfront, which advanced the front of the building two feet and included a tessellated floor to the entrance. A new kitchen and WC in the yard were also added. By the 1920s, accommodation comprised a shop, kitchen and scullery on the ground floor, a drawing room, bedroom, bathroom and WC on the first floor, and three bedrooms on the second floor.

During the 1930s, part of the building operated as a hairdressing salon and part as a bootshop with fitting room. In the 1950s, it became a fish shop, with walls and floor tiled and the former fitting room converted to a filleting room. The shop was listed in 1977, and a new shopfront and signage were fitted in the late 1990s.

Group Value

The building's group value has been significantly eroded by the demolition of 1–3 Kingsgate Street and the diminution of historic character to 5–9 Kingsgate Street.