83-89 Main Street, Garvagh, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5AB

83–89 Main Street, Garvagh — Terrace of Shops and Houses, built c.1860

This is a plainly detailed, symmetrical three-storey terrace of five bays and thirteen window openings, built in stone and brick around 1860 by Robert Robertson, a local grocer, bookseller, stationer, ironmonger, hardware merchant and sub-distributor of stamps. It stands on the eastern side of Main Street, Garvagh, and represents a good example of a formal urban terrace combining commercial premises at ground floor level with living accommodation above and to each side. Its scale is notably large for the town, and together with the adjoining terrace at No. 91 to the south, it forms an important architectural group within Garvagh.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular in plan and comprises four terraced sections, each three openings wide, with individual shops or offices at ground floor level and amalgamated, reconfigured office and meeting space on the upper floors. The roof is a pitched slate construction with blue-black angled ridge-tiles and four rendered chimneys fitted with terracotta pots. Ogee-profile cast-iron rainwater goods — with some metal replacements — are fixed to projecting eaves mounted on a plain timber fascia.

The walling is roughly coursed, rock-faced black stone rubble with red brick dressings. The rear has a roughcast finish over a smooth rendered base. Window openings are square-headed with brick flat-arches, stepped architraves and projecting stone sills. Windows are generally six-over-six replacement timber sashes. Door openings have similar surrounds and are fitted with replacement timber panelled and glazed doors with plain glass transoms above; timber sheeted replacement doors serve the rear.

The northern and southern sections of the terrace have 20th century replacement traditional-style timber shopfronts at ground floor level. These consist of a single door flanked by two large glazed openings, eight small panels across the upper portion of the front, and a timber fascia for signage supported on profiled brackets and piers, with concrete sills to each opening.

Principal (West) Elevation

The principal elevation faces west onto Main Street and presents thirteen window openings on each upper floor, with three-over-six sashes at second floor level. At the centre of the ground floor is a passage leading through to the rear, finished in smooth render with a modern timber-boarded ceiling and a large modern metal gate fixed at its north-west corner. The north and south bays contain the shopfronts described above. The bays either side of the central passage each have two windows and a door at ground floor level.

North Elevation

The north elevation is blank and abutted by an adjoining terrace.

Rear (East) Elevation

The rear elevation presents four windows above and to the left of the central passage, with a three-over-three window and a door to the left side; the remainder of this elevation is blank. All window and door openings on the rear have smooth rendered reveals and architraves with concrete sills. The far left side is abutted by a three-storey gabled return containing two three-over-four windows over a double-leaf door to the right cheek; other elevations of this return appear blank. A single-storey extension abuts to the east and connects to a range of modernised outbuildings.

To the right of centre, a similar gabled return abuts the terrace: the left cheek contains a three-over-six window to each floor and a pair of two-over-four windows above a recessed double-leaf door; the right cheek is blank. On the east elevation of this return there is a single two-over-two window, with a further similar return abutting at the lower floors, containing two two-over-four windows at each level and one on the left cheek. The far right bay is abutted by a matching two-storey return with two six-over-six windows over a door to the left, and a monopitched shed in the re-entrant angle between the return and the boundary wall. The south elevation is abutted by the neighbouring terrace at No. 91.

Interior

The upper floors have been extensively reconfigured to contain a number of meeting rooms of varying sizes. Despite changes to layout and internal fabric, the character of the terrace has largely been retained, particularly across the upper floors.

Setting

The building fronts directly onto the eastern side of Main Street. Several other historic structures are located nearby, including the War Memorial, the abutting terrace to the south at No. 91, and the two-storey house at No. 93. To the rear is a bitumen car park with a garden to the far east containing a small rubble-stone and slated outbuilding, bounded by fencing, mature trees and a roughcast wall to the north. An extensive range of monopitched returns abutting the rear of No. 89 and extending eastward have been reconstructed and largely comprise modern materials and finishes, with some squared rubble-stone elements. A community garden was opened in the rear courtyard in April 2009.

Historical Notes

Earlier buildings were present on the site as shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, but Townland Valuation records from 1828–40 indicate these were low-value structures of probable vernacular character. They had largely been cleared by the time of the second Ordnance Survey map of 1849–53. The present buildings were entered into valuation records around 1860, when the thirteen-bay block now 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 1904–05.

No. 83/85 was a house and shop occupied by Robert Robertson himself, initially valued at £17 10s and raised to £23 10s in 1862 when new double-height outbuildings were added to the rear. The 1911 census records Robert Robertson, grocer and hardware merchant, resident with his three adult children — one of whom worked as a shop assistant — and two servants, one assisting in the shop and one a domestic. 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 WC. The shop had electric light and water laid on, with sewage discharging into the river. An associated plan shows the shop with stores, a tool house and a glasshouse to the rear. The valuer described the house as being in absolutely first-class condition, with an entrance for lorries through the archway.

No. 87 was a shop with dwelling above, valued at £9, and was occupied from 1863 by William James Rentoul, then by Archibald Gibson from 1868, followed by James Wilson (from 1881), a draper (noted in the 1892 street directory), and Samuel Roxborough (from 1887). The valuation was raised to £10 15s 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 record that the shop had a kitchen and five rooms. Both Nos. 87 and 89 were lit by electricity and had a dry closet to the rear; water had to be carried from the town pump.

No. 89, another shop and dwelling, was valued at £8 10s and raised to £10 when new outbuildings were added in 1862. It was occupied from 1863 by Miss Robertson — perhaps a relative of the developer — then by William Robertson from 1896, who is listed in the 1901 census as a general merchant. Valuer's notes from the 1930s give the accommodation as a grocery shop, kitchen, scullery and five rooms used as a dwelling.

An early survey photograph shows that in the early 1970s the ground floor of Nos. 83–85 was rendered, while the ground floor of Nos. 87 and 89 presented a continuous shopfront displaying Clyde's drapery and footwear. The building was listed in 1977. Renovations carried out in the 1970s included the installation of a kitchen and bathroom, with further works in the 1980s. The building was subsequently purchased by Garvagh Development Trust and renovated for community use, officially reopening in 2001. Appropriate shopfronts were restored to Nos. 83 and 89 at that time, while the fenestration of No. 87 was altered to give a more domestic appearance.