23 - 25 Main Street, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8BL

23–25 Main Street, Portrush is a two-bay, three-storey, mid-terrace commercial premises with a traditional shop-front, built around 1910 to designs by Albert John Hamilton Clarke, town surveyor of Portrush from 1907 to 1940. It sits on the west side of Main Street in Portrush town centre and is one of only a few surviving Edwardian shop-fronts in the town, reflecting both the architectural ambition and commercial prosperity of the period.

The building has a rectangular plan with bow windows to the front elevation and full-height returns to the rear. The roof is pitched and clad in natural slate, with a rendered chimney stack to the gable. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting bracketed eaves, which overhang deeply and follow the curve of the bow windows — one of the building's most distinctive architectural features. The walling is stretcher and header-bonded polychrome brick laid in a diamond pattern, with a decorative geometric raised brick and sandstone cornice below the eaves. Upper-floor windows are replacement timber casements with leaded and stained glass panels to the upper lights. The ground floor has plate glass windows to three shop-fronts, each differently detailed.

The principal elevation faces east. At ground-floor level there are three shop-fronts. The bow bay windows to the upper floors have painted rendered aprons between the floors, and a motif in plaster relief incorporating the letter B appears at the top of each bay beneath the eaves.

The centrepiece of the ground floor is the only surviving traditional shop-front, currently occupied by The Spinnaker Restaurant. It is enclosed by channelled pilaster jambs and comprises a plate glass window set on a polished granite stall riser, with a carved timber frame and transoms, a triglyph frieze, and a recessed doorway to the left. The porch has painted timber panels to the left side and is fully glazed to the right; the floor is laid in coloured mosaic tiles, and the ceiling is timber-panelled with ornate lattice brackets. The original segmental-headed glazed timber door retains a low letter box and is surmounted by a segmental-headed transom light. The plain fascia has a moulded cornice and applied brass lettering reading "THE SPINNAKER RESTAURANT", with a raised and decorated carved stop end to the left side. The shop-fronts to the left and right are modern replacements of no architectural interest.

The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The west, rear elevation is partially concealed by a full-height rendered parapet return, further abutted by a two-storey gable rendered return with a chimney stack to the gable, and at the left by a single-storey ground-floor rendered infill extension. The north gable is almost entirely abutted by the adjoining building to the north, and carries painted lettering reading "CECIL / CAFE / EST 1860." The building is street-fronted to the west side of Main Street, with a boundary wall and timber gate enclosing a yard to the rear.

The site has a long history. Buildings appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1831–32. At the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) there was a small two-storey house on the site with a single-storey return and an outbuilding. The occupier was Captain James Massy, who leased the house, office, yard and small garden — valued at £12 — from John Williamson. John Bamford took over the premises in the 1870s, and a modest improvement led to a small rise in valuation in 1871. Portrush had begun to flourish following the opening of a railway station in 1855, and Bamford's business grew accordingly, offering drapery, confectionery, stationery, groceries and baked goods, as well as tea rooms. In 1894 rebuilding took place and the valuation rose to £24, with the premises listed from that date as two shops. Bamford also leased the neighbouring premises at number 27 from 1883, where he ran his drapery business. At the time of the 1901 census Bamford described himself as a "Tobacco Merchant etc" and lived at the premises with his wife, three adult children and four employees — two shop assistants, a clerk, and a general domestic. His shop comprised fourteen rooms, five outbuildings, and was designated first class.

Thomas Bamford took over the business in 1907, and in 1911 the whole building was remodelled to designs by Albert Clarke, with the valuation rising sharply to £90. Valuer's notes from this period include a plan suggesting only the front block was rebuilt; the valuer observed that the upper part of the premises consisted of large tea rooms used only during the three-month summer season. By the 1930s Thomas Bamford had purchased the premises outright for £8,000. Number 23 comprised a shop, offices, stores and bakehouse with a dwelling on the upper floors, while number 25 was sublet to William Thompson at £250 per year and contained a shop and café on the ground floor, with WCs and a pantry to the rear, a café, kitchen and scullery on the first floor, and a lounge and billiard room on the second floor. In 1939 numbers 23 and 25 were amalgamated, and from this date the building appears to have ceased to contain a dwelling house. By 1948 the café occupied the whole of the first floor, accessed through the ground-floor shop. In the 1950s a portion of number 23 was partitioned off as an office for Messrs J R Watt and Son Ltd, with a narrow street frontage thought to have originally been the entrance to the private house; this portion is currently in use as a separate clothing shop. The premises remained in the Bamford family until at least the 1950s.

By the time of W D Girvan's survey of historic buildings in the early 1970s, the café at number 23 was known as the Stairway Restaurant. Girvan noted the "delicate Art Nouveau shop-front on the ground floor, Beardsleyesque in the detail of its iron-work; especially notable is the charming brass-handled door." A photograph from the Girvan survey shows that the doorway has since been altered by the removal of the door handle and a decorative panel above the door, and that a striped awning which formerly folded away into a frame above the shop window has also been lost. The building was listed in 1977. In the 1990s part of the first floor of number 23 was converted into a flat, and the second floor of number 25 to the rear — which had been demolished some years previously — was reconstructed for use as an artist's studio. In 2012 the owners repainted the faded "Cecil Café" sign on the north gable, which had originally been painted there around 1900.

Although the interior has been modified over time in response to changing uses, some elements of a typical Edwardian interior survive. The building retains much of its original character and architectural detailing despite some alterations to the main elevation, and continues to make a significant contribution to the historic interest and character of Portrush town centre.