10-12 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AP

10–12 Toberwine Street is a plain two-storey rendered terrace house and shop dating from around the 1840s, with a large rear return. It sits at the southern end of a short terrace, at the north-eastern end of Toberwine Street in Glenarm, and is currently in residential use.

THE FRONT (WEST) ELEVATION

The front façade faces roughly west and is asymmetrical. Slightly left of centre is a four-panel timber front door serving the house, topped by a rectangular fanlight with 'brick' tracery. To its left is a tall sash window with Georgian panes (six over six). Slightly right of centre is a four-panel timber front door serving the shop, with a plain rectangular fanlight above it. To the far right, within the original shop window opening, is a modern wide domestic-style timber window. Spanning the shop window, shop door and house door at ground-floor level is a painted shop signboard with a simple cornice. At first-floor level there are four almost evenly spaced windows, matching those below. A wall projects from the right-hand edge of the elevation. The front façade is finished in painted render with V-jointed quoins to the south.

THE SOUTH ELEVATION

The south-facing elevation, which comprises the main gable and the south face of the rear return, is blank and finished in unpainted roughcast.

THE REAR AND EAST ELEVATIONS

To the south side of the east elevation there is a large two-storey gabled return. On the north face of this return, to the right, are two windows smaller than but similar to those at the front; above them, two further windows at first-floor level. To the left, the return projects forward and has a timber door slightly right of centre, with a two-over-two sash window to its left and a slightly larger Georgian-paned window to its right. At first-floor level there is a timber-sheeted loft doorway to the right and a smaller timber-sheeted opening to the left. The south face of the return is blank.

The upper section of the east face of the return is heavily covered by rampant climbing plants. To the lower half there is a small single-storey gabled shed with a door on the right side of its north face and a corrugated iron roof.

At the centre of the east rear elevation of the main building there is a shallow mid-20th-century two-storey timber lean-to projection. On the ground floor of its east face, left of centre, is a panelled and glazed door with a four-pane fixed light to the left and five narrow vertical fixed lights to the right. At first-floor level, five joined windows create a ribbon-glazing effect. The south face has six narrow vertical fixed lights at ground-floor level. The projection is finished with timber cladding and its lean-to roof appears to be covered with natural slate.

To the right of the ground floor of the main east rear elevation is a window with a modern frame. To the right side of the first floor is a plain sash window, while to the left the upper portion of a Georgian-paned sash window is visible above the roof of the lean-to projection. There are three small Velux windows in the east face of the main roof.

The rear elevation, including the return, is finished in painted roughcast or harling.

ROOFS, CHIMNEYS AND RAINWATER GOODS

The roofs are covered with natural slate, though the rear slope of the main roof appears to be covered in asbestos slates. There are cast-iron rainwater goods to the front and PVC goods elsewhere. To either side of the ridge of the main roof is a wide rendered chimney stack, each carrying five decorative matching chimney pots. To the east side of the ridge of the return roof is a rendered chimney stack without pots.

SHOP FRONT

The shop front may be late 19th century in origin but now has a modern domestic-style window inserted into the original opening.

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-western 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 record that 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' is named 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 courthouse at the south-western end. No verifiable remains of the old castle are shown on the map, but the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1830–35 note 'the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago', suggesting that some ruins lingered into the early 19th century.

Evidence from the valuation of 1833 suggests that most buildings on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date and that many were probably 18th century. The east side of the street saw much greater development after 1833: nos. 4–12 are all around 1840, and nos. 20–34 and 62 post-date around 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.

On the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, buildings are shown further to the east of this site. The present terrace appears on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and in greater detail on the second valuation map of 1859. Judging from its overall design and detailing, the terrace was probably built closer to 1832 than 1859, perhaps in the early 1840s. The notebook accompanying the second valuation records that by 1859 the block contained three dwellings belonging to John, James and William McMullan, with William occupying no. 10–12. The valuation gives no indication of a shop within no. 10–12 at that point; given the simplicity of the shop front prior to the recent window alteration, it is possible that the shop use appeared in the later 19th century. The shop appears to have remained in business until the late 1970s.

Substantial original character survives. The building is located within a conservation area.