Spiritus Beauty, 35 Railway Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 1XP

End-of-terrace three-storey redbrick building, built around 1880, forming part of a row of three brick buildings lining the west side of Railway Street in Lisburn, currently in use as a beauty salon. The building is rectangular on plan, facing east, with a flat-roofed extension to the rear. It sits within a conservation area.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. A pair of large rendered chimneystacks, one at each end — the southern one shared with the adjoining building — is fitted with clay pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering is carried on decoratively moulded paired eaves brackets, with a cast-iron downpipe below. The walling is redbrick laid in Flemish bond above a rendered plinth course, replaced at ground floor level with modern redbrick.

The front elevation is symmetrical and three windows wide. Square-headed window openings have painted masonry sills and 2/2 timber sash windows with margin lights. At the centre of the facade is a three-sided canted oriel window projecting from the first floor. It has a lead-lined roof, single-pane timber sash windows framed by slender colonettes, a dentilated frieze, and rests on a continuous sill with diagonally-sheeted panels below. The base of the oriel is formed by a heavy moulded cornice sitting directly on top of the doorcase below.

The doorcase is decorative and original, comprising a four-panelled timber door with raised and fielded panels — arched to the upper panels — with a rectangular overlight. This is flanked by a pair of decoratively panelled pilasters and elaborate scrolled console brackets, with a stepped geometric lintel cornice forming the base of the oriel window above. The modern shopfront beside it has a replacement timber surround with pilasters designed to imitate those of the doorcase, a fixed-pane display window, and a fascia over. The integrated carriage arch is detailed to match the shopfront.

The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building at No. 33. The rear elevation is cement rendered and is abutted by a gabled-ended two-storey return and a flat-roofed single-storey extension, both with square-headed window openings fitted with stone sills and uPVC windows. At the centre of the rear elevation, at the second-floor half-landing level, there is a lunette opening containing a fixed-pane light with Georgian interlacing tracery — a feature suggesting that the Victorian facade may represent a remodelling of an earlier Georgian townhouse rather than a complete rebuild. The north gable has pebbledash rendered walling with a pair of modern square-headed window openings at second-floor level.

Internally, the building has been largely remodelled, with only the staircase and some window linings surviving from the historic fabric.

Railway Street was previously known as Jackson's Lane before the arrival of the railway in 1839 and was gradually developed during the course of the 19th century. A building is shown on the site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The property is recorded in Griffith's Valuation as a house, workshop and yard, valued at £23, with the valuation note observing that the rent of £32 plus taxes seemed very low for such a fine private house. The occupier at that time was James McKay, followed by James Maze, with McKay subsequently becoming the lessor. A later advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter records that a 99-year lease on the property ran from 1857, which is considered a likely construction date for the dwelling house as it then stood. By the 1860s, the valuation had been raised to £26, reflecting some improvements.

By 1874 the house had been divided into two lots, with the stabling and yard to the rear rented separately by James Rice Junior and valued at £13. At around this time, the main house became the residence of the Reverend David John Clarke, minister of Railway Street Presbyterian Church, and served as a manse. According to the church history, Reverend Clarke had been installed in 1861 as the first minister of Second Lisburn Presbyterian Church, at that time meeting temporarily in a store or hayloft on Castle Street. He oversaw the building of the new church in Railway Street, opened in 1864, and in 1869 built a manse at what is now 31 Railway Street together with a small adjoining house, now No. 33 — the two buildings immediately to the south of the present property, built at a combined cost of £917. Although he lived in the smaller house for a time, the intended manse was never formally used as such and was let to tenants. Reverend Clarke was resident in the present building until his death on 24th November 1878, after which his widow continued to occupy it.

In January 1894, the Belfast Newsletter reported the sale at auction of the dwelling house and premises. The property had been held by Mrs Clarke on the 99-year lease from November 1857. Three bids were received but judged insufficient, and the house was withdrawn from sale before subsequently being sold to Mr John Butler for £425. Valuation records of 1896 list Butler as the owner, and in the same year the stabling and yard to the rear were brought back into the valuation, raising the total to £29. The current external appearance of the facade suggests it may have been remodelled at around this time.

John Butler described himself in the 1901 census as a retired draper, aged 72, living with his wife, an unmarried daughter, and a young servant girl of 17. He died in 1907, and by the time of the 1911 census his widow, Ellen Butler, was living in the house with a nurse, while her now-married daughter was visiting with two young grandsons. The house was recorded at that time as a first-class dwelling of eight rooms with a stable to the rear.

By 1913 the house was occupied by William Drake, and the same year the valuation was reduced to £26. Valuation records show no further changes up to 1924, and the building appears to have remained a private residence throughout this period, indicating that the shopfront was a later addition.

Although the building retains points of interest, it has lost a significant amount of its historic character as a result of alterations and does not meet the criteria for statutory listing.