16 Mill Street And Post Office, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

16 Mill Street and Post Office, Cushendall, County Antrim

This is a mid-terraced, four-bay, three-storey rendered commercial building, built around 1891, with two shopfronts at ground floor level. It forms part of a continuous terrace of street-fronted buildings lining the southeast side of Mill Street at the centre of Cushendall village, and was constructed at the same time as the adjoining No. 18, with which it forms a distinct paired grouping. The building is rectangular on plan, facing northwest, with a garage structure to the rear yard. At the time of survey it was undergoing extensive external refurbishment works.

The pitched roof is clad in natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Two tall rendered and profiled chimneystacks rise from the roof, each fitted with black pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering is supported on a modillion eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render with rusticated render quoins and a render plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills and horizontally-glazed 2/2 sliding timber sash windows — a Regency-type glazing pattern — which survive to the upper floors and preserve the building's historic external proportions. A decorative cornice runs along the eaves.

The symmetrical four-bay front elevation carries two shopfronts at ground floor level. The shopfront to the left is the original: it consists of a fixed-pane triple-light timber-framed shop display window set on a stall riser, with a glazed timber door to the right, all framed by fluted stucco pilasters with a hood cornice over. The shopfront to the right was installed around 2006, and features a fixed-pane timber-framed shop display window with a recessed entrance to the left housing a glazed timber door, also framed by fluted pilasters. The northeast side of the building abuts No. 14, and the southwest side abuts No. 20A. The three-bay, three-storey rear elevation includes central half-landing windows. The rear yard is enclosed by a tall rendered wall, with a late 20th-century single-storey garage structure opening directly onto the public road and car park.

The building was first recorded in valuation sources in 1891, when it was initially valued at £16 and occupied by John Hamilton, a local farmer. It was constructed on land that continued to be owned by the Turnly family, who had developed Mill Street from the turn of the 19th century. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had travelled to China in 1796 where he accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase, Cushendall consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge. As described by Brett, Turnly was an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property." Growth in the number of tourists travelling through the area — chiefly on their way to the Giant's Causeway — led to the village being developed into a coastal resort, with the erection of hotels such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street, and numerous commercial properties. The majority of the two- and three-storey buildings along Mill Street were erected by the Turnly family in the first half of the 19th century. The construction of No. 16, along with the adjoining Nos. 18 and 14, closed one of the few remaining gaps along the street.

John Hamilton remained at the address until 1895, when the Reverend Patrick Convery took possession. The 1903 Ordnance Survey Town Plan shows the building in its current rectangular layout, but also records that it originally had a number of out-offices in the rear yard, all of which have since been demolished. Contemporary photographs of Mill Street confirm that the building originally possessed a single shopfront — the retail unit currently occupying the two bays nearest No. 18 is the original. Reverend Convery is recorded as remaining at No. 16 until around 1930, after which Daniel McAlister, a local auctioneer, had acquired the dwelling and shop under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), at which point the building's value was increased to £32. McAlister purchased No. 16 outright from the Turnly estate in 1967, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value stood at £50.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society publication for the Glens of Antrim described No. 16 as part of "a fine tall terrace of about 1850 [sic], of stucco, with quoins, regency glazing, and ornamental modillions at the eaves." The buildings along Mill Street were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area in the province to have been designated at that time, described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village." In the same year, Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 16 Mill Street was listed in 1976. A renovation carried out in 1988 included the reslating of the roof in natural slate. The second shopfront was installed during a further refurbishment around 2006. At the time of the second survey, the building was in use as business premises for a local estate agents and a hairdressing salon. Despite considerable alteration to the interior, the building retains its historic external character, and contributes positively to the historic village centre setting alongside its paired neighbour No. 18.