22 Railway Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 1XG

A mid-terrace three-storey redbrick former townhouse built around 1850. The building is the last in a group of four similar houses forming part of a historic terrace lining the east side of Railway Street in Lisburn town centre. It retains some original late Georgian and early Victorian character, though extensive alterations to the ground floor and shopfront—which extend into the adjoining building at No. 20—have compromised its integrity and the group value of the terrace.

The building is rectangular on plan with a rear return. It has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of shared brick chimneystacks with clay pots. The eaves are dentiled brick with plastic guttering on steel brackets. The walling is redbrick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing; the ground floor is rendered, and the rear elevation has rubblestone walling.

The front elevation is two windows wide. Square-headed window openings have painted masonry sills throughout. A late twentieth-century shopfront extends across the ground floor of both No. 22 and the adjoining No. 20, with an original square-headed door opening to the left bay containing a replacement timber panelled door and rectangular overlight opening onto three concrete steps. The first-floor windows are timber sashes, possibly original, while the second floor has uPVC windows. The first-floor sash windows retain their Georgian-style glazing bars.

The north gable rises above the adjoining house at No. 24. The gable is surmounted by a replacement brick chimneystack with rubblestone walling to the rear half and redbrick to the front half, with a single uPVC window. The south elevation is abutted by No. 20.

The rear elevation has rubblestone walling and redbrick linings to all openings. A gable-ended two-storey rendered return abuts this elevation. The second-floor wall is partly rebuilt in redbrick with square-headed window openings having concrete lintels and replacement timber or uPVC windows. A tall rendered wall encloses a small rear yard.

The building first appears on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, though it does not feature on Thomas Pattison's detailed map of the town centre circa 1830, suggesting construction around 1850. The 1911 census describes it as a first-class dwelling with ten rooms and a slated roof.

The house was originally a private residence. By 1901, it was occupied by Mrs. Jane Charley, a widow engaged in money-lending. Before 1910, Mr. Arthur Mussen, a former wool draper turned insurance agent, took possession. In 1911, Mussen lived there with his wife Gertrude Jane Mussen, a district nurse, and their son William Arthur Mussen, a book binder. The 1901 out-office return noted a shed and turf house among its outbuildings; these were no longer recorded by 1911.

In recent decades, the upper floors have been converted into apartments, and the ground floor has been converted into a hairdresser's salon. Architectural historian C.E.B. Brett described the terrace in 1969 as comprising "good three-storey Georgian brick or stucco houses with glazing bars intact," noting that "the backs of [which] are of stone."