62 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AP

62 Toberwine Street, Glenarm

A large three-storey rendered terraced house dating from around the 1870s, possibly once used as a bank and later serving as the manager's residence for the neighbouring Belfast Bank (subsequently Northern Bank) premises, which were built in 1935. The building sits within a conservation area on the east side of Toberwine Street.

The front (west) elevation is asymmetrical. To the left of centre at ground floor level is a four-panelled front door with a plain segmental-headed fanlight and sidelights with panelled aprons. The door and its screen are recessed within a segmental arch-headed opening framed by plain pilasters and a moulded archivolt. To the left of this is a slightly larger segmental-headed carriage arch with matching dressings, fitted with large double timber-sheeted doors and a wicket gate. To the right of the entrance are two evenly spaced plain sash windows. At first and second floor levels, four plain sash windows with moulded dressings are almost evenly spaced across the façade. The ground floor windows are the tallest, those at first floor are slightly shorter, and those at second floor shorter again. There is a small projecting eaves course and a slightly projecting chamfered base course. The ground floor to the right side is finished in painted rusticated render, while the remainder of the elevation is in plain painted render. The building has in-and-out quoins and a projecting traditional street lamp of the 'police station' type at first floor level.

The building rises above its two-storey neighbours on either side, and the exposed upper portions of the north and south gabled elevations are blank, each with a rendered chimney stack at the apex. To the left of centre of the rear elevation is a substantial gabled two-storey return. At ground floor level on the east face of the return is a centred French window with large sidelights. At first floor level is a French window with a semicircular arch-headed fanlight and a modern wrought iron balcony. The north face of the return has two plain sash windows to the right side of the ground floor and one similar window to the right side of the first floor. The south face of the return has a plain sash window at each of the ground and first floor levels, to the left side. To the right side of the return, on the rear elevation of the main building, is a semicircular coach arch with a timber-sheeted tympanum containing a plain central window. At first floor level are two plain sash windows positioned either side of the return roof. At second floor level there are four almost evenly spaced plain sash windows of slightly differing sizes. To the south side of the return is a small flat-roofed single-storey extension, which is in fact accommodation belonging to the former bank to the south, now used as a jewellery workshop. To the far left, the rear façade of the main building is recessed, and the ground and first floor portions of this recessed section are obscured by extensions added to the former bank premises. The whole of the rear elevation is finished in plain unpainted render. The gabled roof is slated and the rainwater goods are cast iron.

Historical context

Toberwine Street — whose name translates as 'street of the sweet well' — is believed to represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness suggesting considerable 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 court house. The castle was deliberately destroyed by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and apparently not repaired; 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 some repaired form during the later 17th century, though Richard Dobbs makes no reference to it in his 1683 description of the village. The name 'Toberwine' first appears in the Antrim Papers in a lease of November 1672, referring to a house in the area, with 'Toberwine Street' mentioned explicitly in a lease of August 1709. On John O'Hara's 1779 map of Glenarm — the earliest surviving plan of the village — the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market and court house at the south-west end. There is no verifiable indication of any castle remains on the map, but a remark in the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs noting 'the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago' suggests some ruins may have survived into the early 19th century.

Evidence from the 1833 valuation indicates that most buildings now visible on the west side of the street were present in some form at that date and were probably of 18th-century origin. The east side saw considerably more development after 1833, with nos. 4–12 dating from around 1840, and nos. 20–34 and 62 post-dating around 1860, some replacing modest single-storey dwellings.

Annotations to the valuation plan of 1859 confirm that no. 62 was constructed after that date, with its design suggesting a date of around the 1870s. The Belfast Banking Company established a branch in Glenarm in early 1918, and it is considered feasible that the company may have operated in some capacity from this building. The property subsequently served as the manager's residence for the neighbouring Belfast Bank (later Northern Bank) premises built in 1935, a function it appears to have ceased sometime before around 1980. The building was left vacant for much of the following decade and fell into disrepair before being acquired by its present owner in 1992.