21 Shore Street, Cushendall, Co. Antrim, BT44

No. 21 Shore Street is a detached, gable-fronted single-storey rendered former store built c.1947, situated within the Cushendall Conservation Area on the east side of Shore Street at the end of a terrace of houses.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing west. It has a pitched corrugated asbestos sheeted roof with synthetic ridge tiles, and cement fibre and steel half-round guttering discharging to uPVC downpipes. The walling is smooth cement rendered with a render plinth course.

The front gable elevation features stepped quoins with rendered verge framing. Painted raised cement lettering on the gable reads: "Estd. / 1800 / ARTHUR McALISTER / TIMBER, CEMENT, SEEDS & FERTILISERS." A single square-headed vehicular opening with steel-sheeted sliding doors provides access. Square-headed window openings with flush sills contain bipartite fixed-pane timber windows.

The north and south side elevations each contain four bays with high-level windows. The gabled rear elevation is obscured by the adjacent dwelling but includes a high-level window within the gable with an exposed steel head.

The building was constructed on the site of an earlier coal store erected c.1912. The coal shed had been leased by the Turnly estate to Arthur McAlister, a local merchant who established his business c.1800 with premises at No. 8 Shore Street. The original coal shed was depicted as a minor outbuilding on the First Revaluation Town Plan (1934–56) and stood until c.1947, when it was replaced by the present structure. The new building, much larger than its predecessor, was valued at £20 in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57). The McAlister family purchased the store outright from the Turnly estate c.1967 and continued to occupy it through the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), when its value remained at £20.

The buildings along Shore Street were included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975, making it only the second conservation area designated in the province at that time. In the same year, the village was selected as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year.