31 Kerr Street, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8DG

31 Kerr Street is a mid-Victorian two-bay three-storey end-terrace townhouse with attic, built in 1867 and positioned on the east side of Kerr Street overlooking Portrush harbour in the town centre. The building is one of three dwellings in the terrace originally named Abercorn Place, among the earliest surviving examples of Victorian waterfront development in Portrush.

The house is square on plan with a three-storey return to the rear (lower). The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack with five tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on a moulded eaves course. The walls are rendered smooth with a contrasting plinth. Windows throughout are uPVC replacements in moulded architraves with projecting painted sills. The left ground floor window also features a plain entablature and cornice. A canted oriel window to the first floor rests on consoles to the jambs of the window beneath, with a leaded hipped roof.

The principal elevation faces west and is three openings wide at each floor. The canted oriel window to the first floor centre has a leaded hipped roof. The ground floor doorcase to the right is accessed by two concrete steps and comprises a replacement six-panel timber door surmounted by a replacement uPVC transom light. The door is flanked by panelled pilasters and surmounted by a corniced canopy on scrolled acanthus leaf console brackets. The north gable is blank. The east (rear) elevation has a small skylight to the ridge line and a window to the second floor right, abutted at left by the three-storey return (lower). The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. A high rendered wall with concrete coping encloses the rear yard. The house is set back slightly from the street with a plinth to the front laid with modern black and white square tiles; cast-iron arrow-head railings to each corner sit on a painted render plinth wall.

The terrace was built in 1867 and 1868 as Portrush began to develop following the opening of the railway line in 1855. The three vacant unfinished properties were first valued at £25 in 1867 and were leased from James Moore, the likely developer. Miss Hill was the first recorded occupant of number 31 in 1871. Subsequent residents included Andrew Huston (1873), Patrick Mullan (1891), Mrs Whittaker (1892), Sidney Henry Coles (1895), Mrs R Whitaker (1896), and Miss Lindsay (1897). At the 1901 census, the house was let to Presbyterian minister John McConnell, who lived there with his two daughters, both born in Australia, and a domestic servant. McConnell had been minister of Brisbane from 1885 until his return to Ireland. By 1903, he had moved into the extended and refurbished manse in High Street.

In 1906, a new rear return containing two bedrooms and a bathroom was added, raising the valuation to £33. By 1911 the dwelling had become a boarding house. Valuation notes of the 1930s recorded the accommodation as three reception rooms, seven bedrooms, a kitchen, scullery, pantry, and WC. The property was listed in 1977. Repairs undertaken in the late 1970s included work to the roof, windows, and doors. However, since the first survey photograph was taken, the windows have been replaced with uPVC, which detracts from the original character. Despite these alterations, the building displays proportions and detailing typical of the mid-Victorian period and remains of interest as part of an important group; numbers 29-31 are of special interest as one of the earliest surviving examples of Victorian waterfront development in the town.