86 Main Street, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8BN

86 Main Street, Portrush is a two-bay, three-storey-with-attic mid-terrace house with adjoining shop. Originally built around 1850 as two separate terraced dwellings, the building was substantially altered in 1916 when the two properties were combined and a double-height shopfront was added.

The building is rectangular on plan, with a single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear of the shop. The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles, a rendered chimeystack to the northeast gable, a modern timber roof-light, and two modern timber gabled dormers. Plastic rainwater goods are fitted to the projecting eaves. The walling is painted ruled-and-lined render. Replacement timber casements are installed throughout in plain reveals with projecting painted sills; canted bay windows have continuous sills. The shopfront incorporates large plate glass windows.

The principal northwest elevation presents irregularly arranged openings for both house and shop. The house section at the left comprises three-storey canted bay windows and an original doorcase at ground floor right. The entrance comprises a replacement four-panelled timber door with semi-circular glazed top panel and transom light, flanked by plain pilasters and foliate console brackets supporting a corniced canopy. Three irregularly arranged windows occupy the third floor.

The double-height traditional-style shopfront dominates the elevation, with an entrance door to the west corner accessed from Bath Street by three concrete steps. The shopfront wraps around the corner of the building and is dominated by a corner pier that supports the upper floor over a canted corner entrance. Large plate glass windows sit on painted render stall risers with slender column-style timber frames, divided at ground floor and gallery levels by painted timber fascia bearing painted lettering. The shopfront is enclosed at the northwest and southwest by highly decorative reconstituted stone pilasters with ornate console brackets to the fascia. A square pier with decoratively carved painted timber panels marks the west corner, with a fully glazed recessed corner entrance featuring modern metal entrance doors beneath a narrow transom light. The porch is laid with modern stone tiles. The plain fascia carries a moulded cornice and traditional gilded painted lettering reading "Kennedy & Wolfenden", with attached modern metal strip lighting.

The northeast elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The southeast rear elevation of the house contains two windows at upper floors—those at the left being smaller—along with a bipartite timber window and half-glazed timber door to the ground floor right. This elevation is abutted at the left by a full-height gabled return (not in the same ownership) and by the single-storey flat-roof extension, which has roughcast rendered painted walls and no window openings. The southwest elevation features two small timber-framed windows to the attic and a regular window to the second floor right.

The building is prominently sited at the corner of Bath Street and Main Street in Portrush town centre, forming part of a mid- to late-nineteenth-century terrace of residential and commercial units. A yard to the rear is enclosed to the southeast by a tall rubblestone wall.

Historically, the building was originally a semi-detached pair of boarding houses. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records Number 1 Bath Street occupied by John Coleman and Number 2 by Alexander Adamson, both leased from Samuel Perry at £14 each. In the 1870s both buildings were raised by a storey, with valuations increasing to £19 and £18 respectively. Rebecca Rogers ran Number 1 as a boarding house from the late 1880s. The 1901 census designates the seven-room dwelling at Number 1 as second class, while the eight-room house at Number 2, occupied by fish and provision merchant William McCullagh with his wife, three children, and a Scottish servant girl, Kate Gentles, is similarly designated. The 1911 census records both buildings as boarding houses, with Number 1 run by Scottish widow Sarah Kennedy and her two young children, while Number 2 was empty.

In 1916 Thomas Sinclair took over both buildings and constructed a new shop within Number 1 by removing the first floor to create a space twenty feet high at a cost of £500, with an annual rent of £100. The jeweller's shop occupied a 'very good position' according to valuer's notes, and Number 1's valuation rose to £65. Rooms over the shop were added to Number 2, revalued at £25. Thomas Johnston took over the shop in 1928, the same year the adjoining house passed to the Davey family. In 1933 Saul Bercott purchased both shop and house for £2,500, using the shop as a summer auction room. A store was added to the rear in 1938. At that time dwelling accommodation comprised two receptions, six bedrooms, five attics, a kitchen, pantry, bathroom, and WC, with a stable to the rear. W J Mason and Sons took over shop and house in the 1950s. The building continues in use as commercial premises with adjoining bed and breakfast accommodation.

The shopfront, with its elaborate square corner column and similarly detailed pillasters, is a rare example of early twentieth-century shopfront design and is of particular architectural interest. The addition illustrates the commercial development of Portrush during the first part of the twentieth century. As one of the most significant commercial buildings in Portrush, it is of considerable local interest.