'The Bridge End Tavern' public house, 1 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antirm, BT44 0AP

The Bridge End Tavern is a relatively large, three-storey, end-of-terrace public house on the west side of Toberwine Street, Glenarm. A building has occupied this site since at least 1779, when it appears on John O'Hara's earliest surviving map of the village, and the structure visible today is thought to date from somewhere between 1840 and 1859. The property may have pre-1832 origins — a dwelling of similar dimensions is recorded here in the first valuation of 1833, with a Jane Moorehead in residence — but the present building appears to have been split into two properties during the mid to later 19th century. By 1859 the occupant was a John McKay, and the building contained a shop and kitchen on the ground floor with four rooms above and a garret storey. Valuation plans suggest the bar took over the entire ground floor at some point between 1907 and 1935, and a forge that formerly stood to the rear survived until sometime after 1935. Local historian Felix McKillop records that a cholera epidemic which spread through Glenarm in 1854 is said to have begun with the death of a woman lodging here, the building's use as an inn at that time — the "shop" mentioned in 1859 — being a factor in the spread of the disease.

The front elevation faces east and is symmetrical. At ground-floor level there is a panelled door set within a shallow recess with a boarded-over fanlight. To its left is a large picture window with a recent multi-pane frame; to its right is a similar window. A painted timber signboard runs above the door and windows. On the first floor are three evenly spaced windows of regular Georgian proportion, also with recent frames. The second floor has three noticeably squatter windows, again with recent frames. The front façade is finished in rusticated render at ground-floor level, with plain render above. There are in-and-out bevelled quoins throughout, and the entire façade is painted. A recent projecting plastic pub sign is fixed at first-floor level.

The north gable is treated in the same manner as the front elevation and carries two windows at first-floor level, positioned to the centre and left. At attic level there is a smaller, centrally placed window with a recent frame, and a recent pub sign is fixed above first-floor level, matching that on the front.

The rear façade is finished in plain render. At the far right of the ground floor is a plain sheeted door with a small, fixed single-pane light to its left. To the left of this a tall rendered yard wall projects. Further left, set at a high level, is a squat window with a recent frame. At first-floor level on the left there is a window matching those on the first-floor front, and to its right a taller window — originally a stair-landing window — with a recent fixed-light frame. At the far right is a window of similar size to the one at the far left, though part of its recent frame is now boarded up.

The gabled roof is covered in pan tiles. There is a small Velux window to the front slope and a larger one to the rear. A small brick chimneystack stands to the north and a larger rendered stack to the south. The rainwater goods appear to be mainly cast iron. Throughout the building, all window frames are modern replacements.

The building has no architectural interest and is not listed, though it sits within a conservation area. It retains its former and current use as a public house.

Toberwine Street — whose name translates as "Street of the Sweet Well" — is considered to represent the original area of settlement within Glenarm, its narrowness hinting at its antiquity. The original 13th-century castle of Glenarm, around which the village developed, is believed to have stood at the south-west corner of the street, on the site now occupied by the former courthouse. The castle was deliberately destroyed by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and apparently not repaired thereafter; his descendant Sir Randal McDonnell built a new residence on the other side of the river. Some historians suggest the old castle was occupied by tenants in the later 17th century, though Richard Dobbs makes no mention of it in his 1683 description of the village. The first reference to "Toberwine" in the Antrim Papers appears in a lease of November 1672; "Toberwine Street" itself is named in a lease of August 1709. On O'Hara's 1779 map the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market and courthouse at the south-west end. The 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs refer to "the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago," suggesting some remains of the old castle may have lingered into the early 19th century. Valuation evidence from 1833 indicates that most of the buildings on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date and were probably largely 18th century in origin.