Cycle Zone, 8 Railway Street, Lisburn, Co Antrim BT28 1XG

Cycle Zone, 8 Railway Street, Lisburn, is a mid-terrace, single-bay three-storey rendered former house built around 1830, with an aluminium shopfront inserted to the ground floor and a single-storey redbrick return added around 1900. Despite the inappropriate modern shopfront, the remainder of the building retains most of its original fabric both internally and externally. The later redbrick return adds further architectural interest to this relatively intact late Georgian terrace. It has group value with numbers 4-6, 10, and 12 Railway Street and is one of the earliest buildings constructed on the street.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a rebuilt redbrick chimneystack to the north. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and a plastic downpipe are present. The walls are painted with ruled and lined render to the front and upper storeys, with rubblestone construction visible to the rear. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills. The front elevation is two windows wide, featuring a modern aluminium shopfront to the ground floor, 6/3 timber sash windows with original cylinder glass to the second floor, and 6/6 sash windows to the first floor. Original timber sash windows with cylinder glass are retained throughout. The north side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building No. 10. The rear elevation displays rubblestone walling with redbrick linings to window openings and retains original timber sash windows. A single-storey redbrick return to the rear has a pitched timber-clad lantern on a natural slate roof. A further flat-roofed projection was attached to the gable end of the return around 1990. The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building No. 4-6.

The building forms part of a terrace of four similar former houses lining the east side of Railway Street, with the former rear plot now converted to a car park.

This street was formerly known as Jackson's Lane but was renamed Railway Street around 1840 with the arrival of the first railway line between Lisburn and Belfast. A detailed map of the town centre by Thomas Pattison dated around 1830 indicates that numbers 4 to 12 were the earliest of the current terrace to be constructed along this street leading to the railway line. Field research suggests the building was constructed around 1830, as indicated by its Georgian design. No. 8 Railway Street has been utilised as a cycle shop for over a century. The 1901 census found the house vacant, but the 1910 Ulster Towns Directory records that a Mr Joseph Fletcher, a cycle agent, occupied No. 8 Railway Street at that time. Fletcher, born around 1874 and working as a cycle mechanic, lived at the address with his wife Anna Watson Fletcher, whom he had married around 1908, and their infant child. The 1911 census building return described the property as a second-class shop containing five inhabited rooms and roofed with slate. Historical accounts from 1977 indicate that Fletcher still occupied the house in 1914 and that he and his family continued to run the business for over fifty years; the premises remain in use as a cycle shop today. In 1969, Brett described No. 8 Railway Street as part of a terrace of "good three-storey Georgian brick or stucco houses with glazing bars intact... the backs of [which] are of stone". Field research has confirmed that the Georgian glazing of No. 8 has survived, and has established that the redbrick rear return was added around 1900, subsequently extended with a later single-storey workshop around 1990. The upper floors of the building, originally providing a dwelling for the shop owner, have in recent years been used as storage space for the cycle shop below. The building is located within a conservation area.