91 Main Street, Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5AB

An asymmetrical three-storey-with-attic three-bay end-terrace former townhouse built around 1860, located on the east side of Main Street in Garvagh town centre. The building forms part of an important terrace of group value with the adjacent property HB03/02/009B, representing a significant surviving example of Garvagh's late nineteenth-century development.

The building is rectangular on plan with a pitched natural slate roof featuring blue and black angled ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks with moulded caps rise to the gables, with two clay pots to the stack at the south gable. Aluminium rainwater goods are fitted to projecting eaves. The walling is part-coursed squared blackstone with modern red brick dressings; the south gable has ruled-and-lined render. Windows are timber sash with horns in modern red brick surrounds with projecting concrete sills, comprising 3/6 lights to the second floor, 6/6 lights to the first floor, and 1/1 light to the ground floor.

The principal elevation faces west and is three windows wide at the upper floors. The ground floor has an off-centre entrance door flanked by a window to the right and two windows to the left. The door is a replacement bolection-moulded four-panel timber door surmounted by a plain transom light, set within a modern red brick blocked surround. The north gable is abutted by the adjoining building. The south gable has two modern windows to the attic, with a 3/6 window at the second floor right and a 6/6 window at the first floor right.

The building occupies a long rectangular plot with a modern timber gate to the south gable providing access to an enclosed concrete yard to the rear, containing a linear range of outbuildings. These outbuildings are generally two-storey or single-storey and have been substantially modified, with corrugated tin lean-to roofs. To the south stands a more formal two-storey rendered building with pitched natural slate roof, formerly used as a doctor's surgery. A lawned and shrubbed garden adjoins to the east.

The terrace was built around 1860 by Robert Robertson, a local grocer, bookseller, stationer, ironmonger, hardware merchant and sub-distributor of stamps. Buildings had previously occupied the site, shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, but the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 indicates these were vernacular structures of low valuation that were largely cleared by the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849-53. The present buildings entered valuation records around 1860 when the thirteen-bay block numbered 83-89 was divided into three separate holdings, all built by Robert Robertson and leased from Lady Garvagh. The terrace first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904-5.

Number 83-85, a house and shop, was occupied by Robert Robertson himself and initially valued at £17.10 shillings, raised to £23.10 shillings in 1862 when new double-height outbuildings were added to the rear. The 1911 census lists Robert Robertson as a grocer and hardware merchant resident with three adult children, one working as a shop assistant, and two servants. Valuer's notes from the 1930s describe the accommodation as comprising a grocery and hardware shop, stores, three reception rooms, seven bedrooms, a kitchen, scullery, bathroom and water closet, with electric light and mains water. Sewage discharged into the river, and a contemporary plan shows the shop with stores, tool house and glass house to the rear. The valuer noted the house was in "absolutely first class condition" with an entrance for lorries through an archway.

Number 87, a shop with dwelling above, was valued at £9 and occupied by William James Rentoul from 1863, taken over by Archibald Gibson in 1868. Subsequent occupiers included James Wilson (listed as a draper in the 1892 street directory) and Samuel Roxborough from 1887. The valuation was raised to £10.15 shillings at an unknown date, most likely due to improved outbuildings. The 1911 census lists Samuel Roxborough as a grocer living with his two older sisters, one of whom assisted in the shop. Valuer's notes from the 1930s state the shop had a kitchen and five rooms. The building had electric lighting and a dry closet to the rear, though water had to be carried from the town pump.

Number 89, another shop and dwelling, was valued at £8.10 shillings, then raised to £10 when new outbuildings were added in 1862. It was occupied from 1863 by Miss Robertson, possibly a relative of the developer, and later by William Robertson from 1896, listed in the 1901 census as a general merchant. Valuer's notes from the 1930s describe the accommodation as a grocery shop, kitchen, scullery and five rooms used as a dwelling. The building had electric lighting and a dry closet to the rear, with water carried from the town pump.

An early 1970s survey photograph shows that the ground floor of numbers 83-85 was rendered at that time. The ground floor of numbers 87 and 89 originally displayed a continuous shopfront, occupied by Clyde's drapery and footwear store.

The building was listed in 1977. Renovations carried out in the 1970s included installation of a kitchen and bathroom. Further renovations took place in the 1980s. The building was subsequently purchased by Garvagh Development Trust and renovated for community use, officially opening in 2001. Appropriate shopfronts were restored to numbers 83 and 89, while the fenestration of number 87 was altered to provide a more domestic appearance. A community garden was opened in the rear courtyard in April 2009.

Despite various alterations, the building makes an important contribution to the architectural quality and character of Garvagh as a prominently sited component of this significant surviving terrace from the town's late nineteenth-century development.