Lynns Shop, 2 Coast Road, Cushendall, Co. Antrim, BT44 0RU

Lynns Shop, 2 Coast Road, Cushendall

This is a detached, three-bay, two-storey commercial building over a concealed basement, built in around 1909 and situated on the north side of Coast Road in Cushendall, County Antrim. It was delisted in May 2017 on the grounds that extensive internal renovation has removed most historic fabric and detailing, and that large modern extensions to the rear significantly detract from its original character. It sits within the Cushendall Conservation Area.

Historical Background

The building stands in the townland of Kilnadore and was originally constructed as a dwelling and garage for Daniel Lynn, a Roman Catholic cycle merchant, on land administered by Dixon Estates Ltd., a Belfast-based shipping and property company operated by Sir Thomas Dixon (1868–1950), a merchant and politician who served as High Sheriff of Antrim in 1912. The Annual Revisions of the period set the total rateable value of the property at £10, and contemporary Annual Revisions Town Plans (1906 to around 1935) depict it as a simple square-shaped structure.

The 1911 Census of Ireland records Daniel Lynn as living at No. 2 Coast Road with his wife Sarah and his brother William, who worked as an apprentice cycle trader. The census return classified the building as a first-class dwelling of eight rooms, with associated farm buildings including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, and a fowl house. Lynn's trade as a cycling merchant placed him well to benefit from what the Cushendall Conservation Area Guide (1993) describes as an explosion in the popularity of cycling during the early decades of the 20th century, the formation of cycle touring clubs, and the birth of the Youth Hostel movement — developments that, for the first time, brought the recreational possibilities of the Glens within reach of almost everyone.

In 1926, Lynn opened a general store and tearooms at the premises, serving both local residents and tourists passing through the village. The rateable value of the property was subsequently increased to £80 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland. Daniel Lynn remained at No. 2 Coast Road until his death in 1955, after which the building passed to his son Joseph Lynn. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), Joseph Lynn still occupied the premises and the rateable value had risen to £94.

The building is one of a number of structures in Cushendall that were erected as a result of the village's development in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a popular seaside resort and stopping-off point for tourists travelling along the Coastal Road. No. 2 Coast Road was included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to have been designated in the province at that time, a distinction described as testimony in itself to the special qualities of the village. That same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during European Architectural Heritage Year. The building was listed in 1976.

Exterior

The building is rectangular on plan, faces southwest, and is rendered throughout. It has pitched natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles, and rendered profiled chimneystacks with clay pots rising from either gable end. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering runs to a moulded eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The external walling is painted render with painted rusticated render quoins.

Window openings are square-headed with concrete sills and single-pane sliding timber sash windows fitted with slender ogee horns. The three-bay, two-storey front elevation carries hood mouldings to the first-floor windows. At first-floor level there are three 1/1 timber sliding sash windows. The ground floor is taken up by a full-span shopfront featuring a central glazed door flanked by fixed-pane uPVC display windows, each framed by fluted rendered pilasters, with a projecting plaster box fascia extending across a single-storey wing to the left. Contemporary photographs indicate that the facade has remained relatively unaltered since the early 20th century, retaining its original quoins and drip mouldings to the windows, although the pilastered double shopfront has undergone some alteration. NIEA Historic Building Records note that the current shopfront was installed in around 1994.

To the northwest, the side elevation is abutted by a single-storey over basement wing built in around 2001. This wing has uPVC windows and painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling, with no windows to the side elevation itself. The three-bay, two-storey gabled southeast side elevation has three window openings at first-floor level and a steel gate providing access to the rear car park.

The rear elevation is now obscured by two large extensions: a left-side extension built in around 2001 and a right-side extension built in around 2010. The rear comprises two gabled wings, each with a single large opening at basement level. The extensions have pitched artificial slate roofs, rough-cast cement rendered walling to the southeast, and smooth cement rendered walling to the rear. Both openings at basement level open onto a large bitmac-paved loading and parking area.

Interior

Much renovation has taken place internally and little historic fabric or detailing remains.

Setting

The building sits on the north side of Coast Road. To the front is a small raised cobblelock area enclosed to the footpath by steel railings. The northwest elevation overlooks the River Dall, which runs along that side of the building.