27 Castle Street, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT27 4SP

27 Castle Street, Lisburn

This three-storey mid-terrace redbrick building was constructed around 1885, forming part of an estate office built by Sir Richard Wallace on the site of a former courthouse. The building stands on Castle Street with important historical connections to Lisburn, having been erected on land previously occupied by a French Huguenot church.

The south-facing front elevation is organised in three bays across three storeys. The building is constructed in redbrick laid in Flemish bond with a rusticated render wall below the ground floor sill course and a moulded plinth course. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there is a deep cornice and parapet wall with a replacement gutter. A pair of profiled render and redbrick chimneystacks sit behind the parapet.

The second floor has three steel-frame windows with 6/6 glazing and pivoted upper sashes, each with a moulded architrave surround and painted masonry sill. The first floor features a central tripartite timber sash window with 6/6 lights flanked by 2/2 sashes, with a pair of 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows to either side. The ground floor contains a pair of slender window openings with 6/1 timber sash windows on a continuous moulded sill course. To the right bay is a round-headed door opening with a moulded surround containing a flat-panelled timber door with six panels having bolection mouldings. The door is flanked by a pair of Doric columns on plinth blocks resting on nosed stone steps, supporting a lintel architrave and plain semi-circular fanlight. To the left bay is a square-headed carriage arch, currently undergoing renovations.

The west side elevation is abutted by a new college development. The rear elevation comprises a three-storey redbrick return with a hipped natural slate roof and cast-iron rainwater goods, featuring 6/6 timber sash windows. At the east rear corner is a quadrant bay with curved 6/6 timber sash windows to the first and second floors, fitted with cylinder glass, and a square-headed door opening at ground level. The east side is abutted by the adjoining building at No. 31.

The building displays considerable architectural character with a great variety of fenestration types and an interesting corner bow to the rear. It retains its original facade composition and exterior mouldings, continuing the under-sill rustication seen at neighbouring buildings. As part of Sir Richard Wallace's estate development, it has strong group value with Wallace House.

Historically, the building was erected on the site of a courthouse dating from around 1830, which had itself replaced a French Huguenot church. The original courthouse, documented in records of 1863 as being valued at £18 and leased from the Marquess of Hertford, was demolished. Sir Richard Wallace subsequently built a replacement courthouse in Railway Street. The building at 27 Castle Street is recorded as "unfinished" in 1883 as a house and yard owned by Wallace in fee, and was completed and valued at £33 by 1884. Following Wallace's initial use, Robert Bannister occupied the property after 1890 and served on the council in 1913. From 1902, the Independent Order of Good Templars, a temperance organisation based on freemasonry structure, occupied the premises, with the valuation reducing to £30. By 1912, the building and three adjoining neighbours to the west became part of the Lisburn Co-operative Society's holdings, substantially redeveloped to create a complex valued at £450 in total by 1922, comprising outbuildings, shops, stores, sheds and a yard.

The building contributes significantly to the rich architectural history of Castle Street and is situated within a conservation area.