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

29 Kerr Street is a mid-Victorian two-bay three-storey terraced townhouse with attic, built in 1867. It stands on the east side of Kerr Street in Portrush town centre, overlooking the harbour. The building is square on plan with a two-storey extension to the rear.

The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles. A rendered chimneystack to the south gable carries six tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on a moulded eaves course. The walling is pebbledash over a smooth rendered projecting plinth. Windows throughout are replacement uPVC set in moulded architraves with projecting painted sills. The left ground floor window features a plain entablature and cornice. A canted oriel window to the first floor rests on consoles to the jambs of the window beneath, topped with a leaded hipped roof.

The principal elevation faces west and is three openings wide at each floor. The ground floor doorcase to the right is accessed by a step laid with modern tiles and comprises a replacement panelled-and-glazed timber door with transom light inscribed "29", flanked by panelled pilasters and surmounted by a corniced canopy on scrolled acanthus leaf console brackets. The north gable is abutted by the adjoining building. The east (rear) elevation has a skylight to the centre of the ridge line and three irregularly arranged windows at third floor; it is abutted at lower floors by the two-storey return. The south gable is abutted by the adjoining building.

The building is set back slightly from the street with a tiled plinth laid with modern black slate tiles and ornate cast-iron railings to each corner on a painted render plinth wall. A high rubblestone wall with concrete coping encloses the rear yard.

The building retains original proportions and some typical mid-Victorian detailing, though recent refurbishment has included replacement fenestration throughout, which detracts from its original character. As one of a terrace of three, numbers 29-31 remain of special interest as one of the earliest surviving examples of Victorian waterfront development in the town.

The current sea-front house was formerly a hotel. The terrace was built in 1867-68 as Portrush began to develop following the opening of the railway line in 1855. Named Abercorn Place, it first appears on the 1896 town plan of Portrush facing onto the harbour. All three properties were valued at £25 when they first entered valuation records in 1867 as vacant unfinished properties. The houses were leased from James Moore, the likely developer. The first occupier of number 29 was Mrs Adam Hill in 1868. Subsequent tenants included John A Watt (1873) and Robert K Knox (1875). By 1882 the valuation had increased to £30 and the house was noted to have been improved "some years ago", possibly referring to the addition of a two-storey extension to the south gable, which has been substantially altered and rebuilt since the first survey.

Later occupants included M Given (1885), Mrs Orr (1887), and Matilda Bryan (1888). In 1889 the house was converted into a YWCA institute and boarding-house for young women. The "commodious" premises were neatly furnished and prominent people including Lady Hayes and Lady Lenox-Conyngham attended the opening as reported in the Belfast Newsletter. However, the venture was short-lived and by 1898 William Ballentine occupied the premises. The 1901 census records it as a Temperance Hotel known as Swanbank, run by Mary Lloyd, a widow born in England of Baptist denomination, and her adult daughter. A 19-year-old boot boy was employed and there was a single boarder, an ironmonger from County Monaghan, when the census was taken in March. The 1911 census records Annie Lloyd still running the hotel with her brother, a merchant tailor, and a resident servant girl aged 21. The hotel passed through several proprietors: John Lamont (1915), Hannah Hargin (1919), and Charles Doherty (1925). Doherty owned the hotel for over 20 years and made numerous improvements, leading to valuation rises in 1945 and 1947. The hotel comprised three receptions, ten bedrooms, a kitchen, scullery and pantry, and was described as a "good class boarding house".

In 1944 the ground floor of the rear return, formerly kitchen and scullery, was knocked through to create a large kitchen. The old ranges were replaced by a modern two-oven Esse patent cooker and the kitchen floor and walls were tiled. In 1946 rear offices were improved by roughcasting, two new windows were added to the upper floor, and a new staircase was installed. In 1953 Joseph E Browne took over the hotel and advertised Swanbank in the Irish Times during the 1950s, promoting its "delightful sunny situation facing sea, convenient bathing, excellent cuisine personally supervised, spacious dining room, separate tables, own certified spring water, all bedrooms with hot and cold water with bed lights and Vi springs. Now refurnished and decorated."

In the early 1970s the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society surveyed the buildings and noted the "upper-storey oriel windows, typical of Portrush and Portstewart". The property was listed in 1977. Since the first survey photograph, windows to the main building have been replaced (circa 1985) and the two-storey extension to the side has been substantially altered and rebuilt (circa 1990). The hotel, formerly painted white, is now pebble-dashed.