Premiere People, 5-7 Bridge Street, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 1XZ

Premiere People, 5-7 Bridge Street, Lisburn, is a four-bay two-storey-with-attic terraced building comprising offices and a flat, originally two separate buildings, constructed around 1780 and located north of Bridge Street in Lisburn city centre. The building predates 1750 according to detailed architectural assessment. It is rectangular on plan with a single-storey return to the rear.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with brick chimneystacks and cast-iron half-round rainwater goods. The walling is smooth rendered with raised quoins, a chamfered plinth, and a plat-band under the eaves. Windows are replacement two-over-two timber-framed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars to the first floor; one-over-one to the attic; all with moulded sills. The ground floor has shopfront fenestration, with replacement windows to the rear.

The principal elevation faces south and is four openings wide across the upper floors, comprising what were originally two distinct buildings. Number 5 features, from ground floor left, a four-panelled timber door with fluted pilasters and transom light, and a large tripartite window, both set under a corbelled canopy. To the right is another four-panelled timber door with fluted pilasters and transom light. Number 7 comprises a four-panelled timber door with fluted pilasters and transom light, and a large plate glass window with vertical glazing bars, also set under a corbelled canopy. The west and east elevations are abutted by adjoining buildings. The south (rear) elevation has two small skylights to the roof, diminutive window openings to the attic at the far left and right, and replacement windows to the left and right of centre at first floor level.

As part of the most important trading street in Lisburn during the 17th and 18th centuries, numbers 5-7 retain some early character. The site lies at the west end of Bridge Street near Market Square, backing onto the cemetery of Lisburn Cathedral. The original roof structure and chimneys have been replaced, but some original fenestration to the principal elevation remains. Bridge Street was included in a regeneration and development scheme under the Lisburn Historic Quarter Initiative (2001). Whilst architecturally interesting, the building has been significantly altered over the years, resulting in the loss of much of its internal historic character.

The town of Lisnagarvey, as it was known until the 1660s, was first established in the early 17th century when James I granted Sir Fulke Conway the south Antrim manor of Killultagh. Sir Fulke established the headquarters of his Killultagh estates at Lisburn, and one of his first building projects was a timber bridge formerly standing at the foot of Bridge Street. An early map of Lisburn dating from 1640 shows Bridge Street stretching down 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—brick replacing wood and slates and tiles replacing shingles. Oak beams from 34 Bridge Street have been dated by the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen's University Belfast to an estimated felling date of around 1710, suggesting that buildings in Bridge Street were among the earliest constructed following the fire.

Little is known of the current building's early history. A building on the site is shown on Thomas Pattison's map of 1833. By 1901 the premises were known to have been in use as a grocer's shop run by Samuel Greene. In 1901 Greene lived above the shop with his wife and their young daughter Emily. By 1911 Emily had died, along with two other children born to the couple, though they had three children still living—two daughters and a son. The 1911 census records the building as having seven rooms and five windows to the front façade. In the mid-1930s the building was the home of Mr and Mrs Ferris and their daughter Clare, who ran a laundry shop on the premises. Today the shop is in use as an employment agency.

The building is located within a conservation area but does not meet the criteria for listing.