31 Main Street, Castlerock, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4RA

A symmetrical split-level three-and two-storey-over-basement red-brick house built around 1890, located on the north side of Main Street in Castlerock overlooking Castlerock Beach. The building is now divided into three apartments. It is rectangular on plan with projecting gabled end bays featuring two-storey canted bays, a two-storey L-shaped gabled wing to the southeast, a refurbished flat-roof conservatory to the southwest, and a modern uPVC conservatory to the northwest. Number 31 occupies the entire ground floor and basement. Access is from the southwest through a yard and to the northeast by an entrance porch.

The pitched natural slate roof is half-hipped to the central gable at the southwest, with blue and black angled ridge tiles and red-brick chimneystacks carrying some clay pots. Timber bargeboards on brackets with timber-sheeted soffits feature quatrefoil detailing. Plastic rainwater goods sit on modillioned timber eaves with timber-sheeted soffits. The walls are Flemish-bonded red brick with channel-rusticated strip render quoins to the gabled bays and a continuous sill course between floors. Painted smooth render covers the canted bays and conservatory.

Windows are predominantly uPVC, with segmental heads at ground floor in plain reveals and lugged painted render surrounds, and also to the two-storey canted bays at the northeast. First-floor windows have pointed heads, paired to the gables and set into segmental-headed reveals, with red-brick voussoirs and decorative polychrome hood moulds. Some segmental-headed 2/2 timber sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and horns remain in the basement. Replacement timber-framed windows with leaded-and-stained glass top-lights light the conservatory at the southwest.

The entrance elevation faces southwest and is symmetrically arranged with a central entrance bay flanked by slightly projecting gabled end bays, abutted by the refurbished conservatory (which provides access to numbers 27 and 29) over a red-brick basement. The gables are connected by a narrow interlinking bay with replacement leaded-and-stained glass windows at each floor. Each gabled bay has paired windows to the first floor over two windows at ground floor. The right gable has an early twentieth-century double-leaf glazed timber door with a two-paned transom light to the basement. The left gable has a 2/2 sash window to the right and is abutted by a single-storey flat-roof extension lit by 2/2 timber sash windows and fitted with a replacement glazed timber door (access to number 31) at the southeast. The central entrance bay is two windows wide at first-floor level. The conservatory has channel-rusticated corner piers rising to parapet piers with a partially intact timber balustrade and turned balusters. It is lit by timber-framed windows with a continuous sill course and moulded apron panels below, and opens to the southwest with a set of replacement glazed timber doors. The basement to the conservatory has two replacement timber-sheeted doors at the northwest and one to the southeast, with a 2/2 sash window.

The northwest elevation has a square-headed window to the first floor at centre over two at ground floor. The basement level is abutted by the modern uPVC conservatory and has a 2/2 timber sash window to the left. The northeast elevation is three-storey and symmetrically arranged. The central bay has two square-headed windows at second-floor level and two sets of paired windows at first and ground floors. The flanking gabled bays each have a window to the second floor over two-storey canted bays. The southeast elevation is abutted by the two-storey L-shaped gabled wing. The northeast gable of this wing has a pointed-headed window over a canted bay with a leaded roof and a flat-roof entrance porch (access to number 31) to the right. This porch has double-leaf bolection-moulded three-panel timber doors with a transom light and sidelights featuring margin panes and coloured glass panels. The southwest gable of the two-storey wing is abutted by a single-storey red-brick extension connecting a modern two-storey red-brick dwelling under separate ownership.

The property is situated on a rectangular plot overlooking the Irish Sea in a residential area on the north side of Main Street in Castlerock. The basement to the southwest side is enclosed with Flemish-bonded red-brick walls topped with painted coping stones and original decorative wrought-iron railings. The basement yard is laid with concrete and accessed from the northwest by a segmental-headed opening with a timber frame. The garden is laid with modern paving and gravel to the southwest and lawned to the northeast, bounded by rubblestone walls. At the southwest entrance is a set of centred square painted render piers with pointed caps supporting original iron latch-gates. A modern two-storey red-brick building stands directly to the southeast. A tarmacadamed driveway from Main Street leads to the entrance to number 31.