63-65 Bridge Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT29 1XZ

A three-bay three-storey end-terrace commercial unit built around 1850, located north of Bridge Street in Lisburn. Rectangular on plan with a single-storey return to the rear. The building is situated within a conservation area at the southern end of Bridge Street at the Linenhall Road roundabout.

The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles and replacement red-brick chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The walling is painted with ruled and lined render. Windows to the upper floors are two-over-two timber-framed sliding sashes with horizontal glazing bars and horns set in segmental-headed surrounds with projecting sills. Modern plate-glass windows have been inserted at the shop-fronts.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is five windows wide to the upper floors. The ground floor comprises three modern shop-fronts, with the central one being narrower and set back. Each shop-front is surmounted by a corniced signage board with painted lettering. To the left and right are four-panelled timber doors set back into porches, with access to the right shop through a modern glazed timber door. The northwest elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The northeast (rear) elevation has five asymmetrically arranged windows to the upper floors; the ground floor is fully abutted by a modern return of no architectural interest. The southeast gable contains windows at first and second floor level.

To the rear is a car-wash yard enclosed to the south by an early rubble stone wall.

The land on which the building stands was formerly the property of the Marquess of Hertford and was planted in 1835 with a fine row of chestnut trees with an old lawn running up to Castle Gardens. This lawn was called Heron's Folly. Houses in this part of Bridge Street were constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century and are first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1900. Numbers 63 and 65 were originally two separate premises. In 1901, number 63 was the home and workplace of John McCoubrey, a baker, who lived with his wife and two daughters, one of whom was an assistant in the shop. By 1911 the family had an elderly lodger. In 1901, number 65 was a private dwelling occupied by William Boyd, a retired grocer, and his wife Mary, both from Londonderry. William Boyd died in 1904 and his widow continued to live in the house with her widowed sister and niece. The building is depicted in a photograph from the early 1900s showing number 63 fitted with a shopfront bearing the words "J McCoubrey, Bridge Street Bakery", with an entrance door to the left and a carriage arch in the centre. Number 65 appears as a dwelling house with a door to the left and two small windows to the right.

A photograph from 1983 shows that the building underwent remodelling around the middle of the twentieth century, including squaring off window openings and installation of casement windows. The carriage arch remains visible. Today the building functions as a single shop with shopfronts inserted in the former carriage arch and former dwelling at number 65. The remaining window openings have been restored to their Victorian appearance. The interior has been fully refurbished with alteration to the internal floor-plan.

Although numbers 63-65 contribute to the overall historic character of Bridge Street, the most important thoroughfare in the city during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they are not considered to be of sufficient architectural quality to merit listing.