The Hat Shop, 8 Bridge Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 1XY

The Hat Shop is a three-bay, three-storey commercial property located south of Bridge Street in the centre of Lisburn, pre-dating 1730. The building is rectangular on plan with a large full-height return and single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with blue and black angled ridge tiles and early red-brick chimneys. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting eaves.

The walls are painted smooth render with a sill course. The windows throughout are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horns, set into deep reveals and diminished to the second floor, with slightly projecting painted masonry sills. The principal elevation faces north and is four windows wide to the upper floors. The ground floor features a reproduction shop-front framed by fluted pilasters with single-panelled and glazed timber door and transom light at the centre. The pilasters have carved capital heads and are surmounted by a fascia with dentilled cornice and modern applied lettering.

The east and west elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings. The rear elevation is almost entirely abutted by the full-height return and single-storey flat-roof extension. This return has two windows to the second floor, a window to the left and a modern glass door to the right at second-floor level. The modern extension abuts the ground floor of the return at this point, with blank east and west elevations. The gravelled rear area is accessed via the modern doors to the first floor of the return, with no access to the rear from ground floor.

The building stands prominently at the west end of Bridge Street near Market Square. Bridge Street was historically the most important commercial thoroughfare in Lisburn during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The town of Lisnagarvey, as it was known until the 1660s, was first established in the early seventeenth century when James I granted Sir Fulke Conway the south Antrim manor of Killultagh. Sir Fulke established his headquarters at Lisburn and constructed a timber bridge formerly standing at the foot of Bridge Street. An early map of Lisburn from 1640 shows Bridge Street stretching to this river-crossing with both sides lined with buildings.

Following a disastrous fire in 1707, the town was quickly rebuilt to its former street plan using improved materials, with brick replacing wood and slates and tiles replacing shingles. Oak beams from nearby 34 Bridge Street were dated by the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen's University Belfast with an estimated felling date of around 1710, suggesting these buildings were among the earliest constructed after the fire.

Little is known of this building's early history. A building on the site appears on Thomas Pattison's map of 1833. By 1901, the premises was in use as a grocer's shop run by Samuel Cowan. Cowan's grocery remained for some years and is recalled in local history as a substantial provision store selling butter, cheese, tea, sugar and other goods. A contemporary advertisement for Cowan Bros promoted it as the answer to "The burning question! Where to get value for money?"

The building was comprehensively restored with Heritage Lottery funding as part of the Lisburn Historic Quarter Initiative in 2001, including restoration of the fenestration, shop-front and a fully refurbished interior. It is currently in use as a hat shop and is situated within a conservation area. The building is not considered suitable for listing as it does not contain sufficient historic fabric as a result of numerous alterations over the years.