1 HIGH ST (including 2 Shore Street), CUSHENDALL, CO.ANTRIM

Corner commercial building, 1 High Street and 2 Shore Street, Cushendall, County Antrim

This is a terraced, corner-sited, multi-bay, two-storey-with-attic rendered commercial building, constructed around 1895, prominently positioned at the central crossroads of Cushendall village where High Street meets Shore Street. It stands directly opposite Turnly's Tower and is rectangular on plan, with its principal elevation facing southwest onto High Street and a secondary elevation facing southeast onto Shore Street.

The building replaced an earlier two-storey structure on the same corner site, which was demolished around 1895 to make way for the present building. It was constructed as a dwelling with a shopfront at ground floor and initially valued at £11 and 10 shillings. It has been in continuous commercial use ever since, operating as a restaurant during the early 1900s and later, from the mid-20th century, as a confectionary shop.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. Three rendered chimneystacks rise from the roof, one from the southeast gabled elevation. Two gabled dormer windows appear on both the southwest and southeast roof pitches, fitted with replacement timber bargeboards and replacement top-hung timber casement windows. Rainwater goods are moulded cast-iron guttering supported on a corbelled eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes.

The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills and replacement 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns. The southwest elevation is two bays wide over two storeys and features a large fixed-pane display window with a flush splayed sill, framed by painted stucco pilasters and surmounted by a cornice and string course that forms a shop fascia. This fascia extends across to the chamfered entrance bay and continues along the secondary southeast elevation, which is four bays wide and contains a further fixed-pane display window of the same design.

The distinctive chamfered corner entrance bay is one of the building's most notable features. It has a rendered stop chamfer — notably oversized — beneath the eaves, bearing a brass plaque inscribed "The Cyclists Touring Club." The shop entrance is square-headed and fitted with replacement double-leaf timber glazed doors with margin lights and an overlight, opening onto a single terrazzo step.

To the northwest the building abuts No. 3 High Street, and to the northeast it abuts No. 4 Shore Street.

Although little historic interior detailing survives, No. 2 Shore Street retains its historic character and proportions as it turns the corner from High Street to Shore Street.

The building has a rich social history tied to the development of Cushendall as a village. The settlement was purchased in 1801 by Francis Turnly, who had travelled to China in 1796 and accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. He bought the Newtownglens estate from the Richardson family for £24,000 and renamed the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase, Cushendall consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge. As tourist traffic through the area increased — largely visitors travelling to the Giant's Causeway — the village was developed into a coastal resort, with hotels such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street and numerous commercial properties being erected. Turnly has been described by architectural historian C. E. B. Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property."

The current building was initially leased by the Turnly estate to Hugh Delargy, a local auctioneer, who established a restaurant on the premises with his wife Mary. By the time of the 1911 Census, No. 1 High Street and No. 2 Shore Street was recorded as a first-class dwelling of eight rooms, with a stable, two cow houses, a fowl house, potato house and a workshop among its rear outbuildings. The Delargy family continued to occupy the site until around 1918, when Patrick McCambridge took possession. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the building's rateable value was raised to £20, and it was recorded as occupied by the Hamill family, who converted the ground floor into a confectionary shop. The Hamill family subsequently purchased the property outright from the Turnly estate and continued to reside there until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value stood at £21.

In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described High Street as "an outstandingly attractive street, of quite exceptional merit and character, climbing very steeply indeed from the crossing of the main street to Court McMartin, almost every building in it of individual merit apart from the value of the group as a whole; the roofs, gables, doors and windows rise in an irregular staircase up the hillside." The building was included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to have been designated in the province, described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village" — and in that same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. The building was subsequently listed in 1976.