83-85 Main Street, (S Mc Kinney), Bushmills, Co.Antrim

Two-storey, three-bay, painted rendered end-of-terrace house with a traditional-style shopfront, built prior to 1834 as part of the extensive rebuilding of Bushmills in the early 19th century. Located on the west side of Main Street on the south side of the village centre, with views northward to the Market Square and the Bush River running parallel to the west. The building has been in continuous use as a shop with accommodation above since at least 1835, and retains that character today despite later alterations.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Bushmills was already a significant settlement before the end of the 18th century, but from the 1820s the village was extensively rebuilt by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. Nos 83–85 Main Street first appears on the Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834, depicted as a terraced structure with a single outbuilding to the rear. The Townland Valuations of 1835 valued the property at £5 3s and recorded it as occupied by a Mr James Adams. The valuer classified it as a 1A class dwelling and shop — meaning a new or nearly new building — measuring 25ft by 23ft and standing 16ft 6in in height.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, the property had risen in value to £6 and was leased to a Mr Michael McCallion from the MacNaghten estate. McCallion continued to reside there until around 1901, when a Mr Samuel Hatty, a local cycle manufacturer, took occupation. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded a Mr John Rainey as occupant. At that time the building was described as a second-class shop consisting of four rooms with a workshop as its sole outbuilding, and was still operating as a cycle shop. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 continued to show the building as a simple rectangular structure with a single outbuilding.

An early 20th-century photograph of the façade shows that the building originally had a ground-floor shopfront occupying the two northernmost bays, with an entrance door in the remaining bay leading to the upper rooms. During the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the property was occupied by Mr David Weir, a local mechanic; the valuation — which by then included a garage to the rear — stood at £30 10s. The Weir family vacated the site around 1958 when the property was purchased outright by Mr Samuel McKinney. The McKinney family maintained the garage and continued to reside at the site at least until the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), at which point the total rateable value stood at £36 10s.

The building was listed in 1980 and subsequently included within the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that contains the highest concentration of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described Main Street, Bushmills in general terms as: "A well-scaled street. Many good doorways and shopfronts remain, although there is the usual profusion of signs. While no building apart from the former Courthouse is worthy of individual mention, the unity of the street frontages must be maintained."

DESCRIPTION

The building is of rectangular plan form with a large two-storey rear return that steps down to a single-storey extension at the rear. The roof is a natural slate pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles and a painted rendered chimney stack to the north-west side. Painted half-round cast-iron guttering to the front elevation discharges to a cast-iron circular downpipe on the north-west side elevation; cast-iron rainwater goods are also present on the rear elevations.

The principal elevation faces north-east onto the Main Street footpath. At ground-floor level there is a traditional-style painted rendered shopfront, with a large glazed timber-framed window to either side of a single entrance doorway containing a timber-and-glazed panelled door; signage occupies a frieze above, spanning the full width of the shopfront. The three first-floor bays have 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns and exposed sash boxes. The walling is of painted rendered finish with painted stepped corner quoins to the right side of the front elevation.

The south-east elevation is adjoined to the neighbouring property at No. 87 Main Street. The south-west rear elevation is abutted by a painted rendered two-storey rear return with a pitched natural slate roof, which in turn steps down to a single-storey pitched roof extension finished in fibre cement. The two-storey rear return gable-end has a single doorway at first-floor level accessed via an external metal staircase, and is topped by a large painted rendered chimney stack with two terracotta clay pots. The single-storey gable-end is blank. The north-west side elevation (gable) faces onto an access road leading to a car park at the rear. It presents two storeys stepping down to the single-storey extension, with an irregular fenestration pattern comprising two shopfront-style windows at ground-floor level, together with timber sliding sash and timber casement windows at first-floor level. A single door opening to the right side of the single-storey extension contains a flush painted timber door set within a plain painted architrave surround.

ALTERATIONS

In 1989 the upper floor was converted into a self-contained apartment; the roof was reslated in natural slate, cast-iron rainwater goods were added, and new sliding sash window frames were installed throughout. Around 2004 the current rear return and a new shopfront were added. More recent alterations include the installation of a modern metal staircase to the rear and a first-floor PVC door. Although the shopfront and windows are replacements, they are considered appropriate to the building and its setting. The metal staircase and PVC door are considered to detract from the building's character.