'A Taste of China' and apartment over, 43-43A Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AS

This is a broad, two-storey terrace building on the south side of Castle Street, to the west of Ballycastle town centre. It was originally built as a house around 1740, most likely as part of Hugh Boyd's development of Ballycastle in the 1740s, and is now used as a takeaway restaurant with an apartment above. A small section over a carriage gateway was added around 1859–62, a large rear return was added in 1889 with some 20th-century extensions, and the ground floor was fitted with a large modern shopfront and substantially reordered internally, probably around the mid-1980s. Despite its considerable age, these alterations — particularly the shopfront and internal reorganisation — have removed much of the building's original architectural character.

The building is not listed but falls within a conservation area.

EXTERIOR

The ground floor of the front façade is dominated by a wide modern shopfront. This consists of a central glazed uPVC door flanked by large mullioned uPVC windows. The door surround is finished with period-style timber jambs and curved brackets, and there are moulded pilasters to the outer sides of the windows. Above the shopfront is a central signboard with raised lettering, surmounted by a full-width cornice, with a small gable feature rising above the centre. To the left of the shopfront is a separate doorway giving access to the apartment, fitted with a recent panelled timber door and a plain rectangular fanlight. To the right of the shopfront is an elliptical-arched carriage entrance with timber double doors.

At first-floor level there are six windows. The first five, reading from the left, are of uniform size, evenly spaced, and set within simple moulded surrounds. The sixth window, positioned above the carriage arch, is larger, set at a slightly lower level, and lacks a surround; this section of the first floor above the carriage arch is a later addition. The front façade is finished in plain rendered and painted render, with moulded vermiculated quoins in a recessed-and-projecting pattern running to first-floor level. The quoins to the right are set between the fifth and sixth windows. There is a projecting internally illuminated sign at first-floor level, as well as a projecting street lamp.

The right-hand (west) half of the rear elevation is largely occupied by a substantial two-storey gabled return added in 1889, probably extended further in the mid-to-late 20th century. Attached to the left and side of the west face of the return, and to the rear wall of the main building, is a small single-storey lean-to extension, which has a timber sheeted door to its south face. To the south of this lean-to, on the north face of the return, is a relatively large window with a modern timber frame. To the right of this, a two-storey lean-to extension has been added to the return. This has two windows to the ground floor and two to the first floor of its north face, all of uniform size and fitted with modern timber frames. At the far left of the first floor of the north face of the return there is a further window, also with a modern timber frame.

On the ground floor of the south-facing gable of the return, to the left, is a small boiler house lean-to extension with a timber sheeted door to its south face. To its left, on the main gable, is a window with a modern timber frame, with a doorway with a timber sheeted door to its right. At first-floor level there is a relatively large picture-like window with a modern timber frame.

At the ground floor of the rear wall of the main section of the building, to the left, is the rear opening of the carriage archway. Just to its right is a tall, curved, gate pillar-like projection. At first-floor level, directly above the archway, is a window without a frame (the building was undergoing renovation at the time of survey), with another similarly sized window to its right fitted with a modern timber frame. The rear wall of the main section is finished in painted roughcast, while the return is finished in a combination of plain painted render and painted roughcast. A large modern metal flue is attached to the wall above the carriage archway, with two satellite dishes to its right.

The gabled roof of the main section is covered in artificial slate, as are the roofs of the return and the various lean-to extensions. There is a large rendered ridge chimneystack to the west of centre, in line with the edge of the carriage archway. There are some small Velux rooflights to the rear. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and uPVC.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A valuation of January 1835 records an "old" house on this site measuring 35½ feet by 27½ feet by 18½ feet, with a cellar measuring 13 feet by 14½ feet by 5½ feet. These dimensions correspond to the present building minus the section containing the carriage archway. As later records note no major structural changes beyond the creation of the carriage archway and room above, and the addition of the rear return, the house recorded in 1835 is assumed to form the bulk of the building standing today. The valuers' description of the building as "old" in the 1830s suggests an 18th-century date of construction, and it may well form part of Hugh Boyd's development of Ballycastle in the 1740s, which produced much of Castle Street.

By 1835 the building had been divided between two occupants, Charles McGildowney and James Tweed. By the time of the second valuation in 1859, the eastern half was occupied by a Mary McCambridge, while the western half was occupied by Robert Bell, listed in Slater's 1856 Directory as a grocer, with the lease held by a John McCormick described as "a minor." The 1859 valuation noted the roof as being in very bad order, and described the eastern house as containing a shop and room below with two rooms over, and the western house as containing a shop, parlour, three rooms over, garrets spanning over the neighbouring property, and a cellar. An annotation added to the valuation sometime between late 1859 and 1862 records the addition of two rooms over the gateway.

By 1867 a single occupier, David McCaughan, is recorded for the whole building. The property was noted as vacant in 1870. The following year Hugh Archer is listed as occupying the eastern house, with Alexander Christie in the western house; Christie was succeeded by Robert Kennedy in 1872, and then David Kennedy from 1874 to 1887.

In 1888 the lease of the whole property was taken on by Joseph O'Kane, listed as a draper in Bassett's directory of that year. O'Kane immediately improved the building and added a return measuring 9 yards by 6 yards over two storeys, and a further section measuring 5 yards by 2 yards over one storey. He retained the property until 1918, when Hill Bros are noted as tenants. Michael F. Quinn followed in 1922 and appears to have acquired the lease around the same time, but had vacated the property by 1929. William J. Scally took up the lease sometime before 1935 and remained until 1968, when McFarlane and McNabb (possibly solicitors) took over the tenancy. The following year the property is recorded as "exempt," suggesting it had by then become the local public library, a use it was still fulfilling when it was surveyed as part of the First Survey of Historic Buildings in October 1972. At some point after 1972 — probably around 1985 — the ground floor was converted to a shop.

Note on sources: Although Ballycastle has a full set of valuation books dating back to 1834, the earliest surviving large-scale valuation plan of the town dates from 1898. This means that while the first and second valuations of 1834 and 1859 give detailed accounts of individual properties, it is difficult without their contemporary plans to identify precisely which buildings are being described. The historical account above has been reconstructed by reading the records in reverse — working back from mid-20th-century valuations and using the 1898 map as a reference point.