14-18 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AP

14–18 Toberwine Street is a plain two-storey terraced block at the northern end of the east side of Toberwine Street, Glenarm. Originally three separate dwellings, the block dates mainly from the latter half of the 19th century, though it was completely modernised around 1977 and now contains a single dwelling and a shop. It is not listed, though it falls within a conservation area.

The front elevation faces roughly west and is asymmetrical. To the left of the ground floor is a symmetrical shop front, with a plain glazed door in the centre and a plain shop window to either side, and a plain painted signboard above. To the right of this are two large picture windows with modern frames, separated by a recent glazed door. At first-floor level there are five roughly evenly spaced windows with modern frames, all appearing to have been enlarged as part of the circa 1977 renovation. The front façade is finished in painted roughcast. On the first floor of the north gable there is a small window with a modern frame; the gable is finished to match the front.

To the rear east elevation there is a full-width flat-roofed single-storey extension. At the left end of this extension is a recent glazed door, with a modern timber window to each side and a further window beyond, then another recent glazed door and a plain sheeted door to the far right. All ground-floor openings here have smooth cement render surrounds. At first-floor level, to the far left is a modern window, then a recent French window, with two wide modern windows to its right, all again with smooth cement render surrounds. The gabled roof is covered with concrete pan tiles. There are two rendered chimneystacks at the north end of the ridge, and PVC rainwater goods throughout.

The street itself — Toberwine Street, whose name derives from the Irish for "street of the sweet well" — is thought to represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm. Its narrowness suggests 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 courthouse. 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 the later 17th century and therefore at least partially repaired, but Richard Dobbs makes no reference to it in his 1683 description of the village. The first mention of "Toberwine" in the Antrim Papers appears in a lease of November 1672, referring to a house in the area, with "Toberwine Street" itself named in a lease of August 1709. John O'Hara's 1779 map of Glenarm — the earliest surviving plan of the village — shows the street fully developed on both sides, with the market and courthouse at its south-west end. No verifiable remains of the old castle are identifiable on that map, though the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1835 note "the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago", suggesting that ruins of some kind may have survived into the early 19th century. Evidence from the 1833 valuation indicates that most buildings on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date and were probably of 18th-century origin. The east side saw much greater development after 1833: nos. 4–12 date from around 1840, and nos. 14, 20–34 and 62 are post-circa 1860, some replacing modest single-storey dwellings. The large three-storey former Antrim Arms Hotel — and possibly its neighbour no. 56 — may have been standing in the early 1830s, though this is not certain.

For this specific block, the 1859 valuation notebook records two dwellings and an "office" on the site, each property two storeys but with differing roof heights. The dwelling to the north was vacant at the time and described as being in a "wretched state of repair", while the two to the south, though occupied, were noted as being "in bad repair". The accompanying valuation map shows that at some point after 1859 — perhaps in the later 1860s — the northern property was completely demolished and a new house built in its place, while the two to the south were gutted and completely renovated. The three effectively new dwellings that emerged from this rebuilding and renovation appear to have remained largely intact until around 1977, when a further major renovation transformed the block into its present form as a single dwelling and a shop.