22 Dunluce Street, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 1JG

22 Dunluce Street, Larne

This is a two-storey terraced building with a shop to the ground floor, dating from the early Victorian period in overall appearance but with a shop front of early 1900s date. It stands on the south side of a street within the built-up area of Larne, flanked by a taller three-storey stuccoed building to the left and a similar two-storey building to the right. The street outside is finished with modern brick paving.

The entrance, facing north, has two windows to the first floor. The roof is laid with asbestos slates in regular courses. The first floor wall is painted smooth cement render, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins to the extremities. A projecting eaves course, platband above the windows, and string course at cill level provide the principal decorative features. The windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung with 1 over 1 lights and horns, set in moulded surrounds painted green. A cluster of electrical cables runs across the front above the first floor windows.

The ground floor comprises a full-width shop front between rusticated quoins. It features a large plate glass window below two large panes in brown painted framing, with a return at angle to the right-hand side to a recessed porch area. The upper pane of the angled side to the porch contains a poor-quality depiction of a bull's head in floral surround, which is not original.

The porch retains much of its original tiled decoration. Below the wooden cill across the front and angled side are glazed tiles depicting bull's heads in floral surrounds within rectangular panels, all original. The right-hand wall within the porch is tiled, with a colourful Art Nouveau dado panel at the bottom, above which is a white diagonally tiled panel with a bull's head in floral surround at its centre. Above this is a frieze of coloured tiles depicting a garland with swags, ribbons and shamrocks. The porch floor is tiled in a geometric pattern in black, white and blue with a black tiled step. The front doorway is rectangular with double doors, panelled and glazed; the right-hand leaf has wired glass and the left clear glass, both later replacements following damage in a nearby terrorist bomb explosion around 1980. An original rectangular fanlight in the form of an open cast iron grille of scrolling pattern is set over the doors. The porch ceiling is timber panelled with chamfering to the frames.

Above the shop front glazing is a wooden frieze bearing the shop and owner's name painted on it, with fluted brackets to the extremities and a moulded cornice above. Iron brackets for a shop awning are mounted to each side of the frieze. To the right-hand extremity of the roof is a red brick chimney in poor condition.

The rear elevation has a cement rendered wall with a rectangular window to the first floor containing a later rectangular timber fixed light with top-hung vent. A rectangular window opening to the ground floor is now blocked up with concrete blocks. A cast iron gutter and PVC downpipe drain the rear. The side wall of the return has similar cement rendered finish and a replacement window. The roof of the rear return is corrugated asbestos, and the walls are cement rendered. The roof of a refrigerated room is corrugated iron.

The building first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. The present shop front and interior, stylistically characteristic of the early 1900s, was damaged by a nearby terrorist bomb explosion around 1980, when the framing, glazing and frieze of ornamental iron grilles were destroyed. Photographs taken in 1955 in the possession of the owner show the original form of the shop front.

The shop is notable for its original tiling, both inside and outside, consisting of a geometric pattern to the floor and decorative features to the walls, comprising a frieze of garlands, swags, ribbons and shamrocks, medallions depicting heads of cattle, and a dado of Art Nouveau floral ornamentation. Despite the loss of some elements, it retains much of its original features and stands as a rare example of a largely unaltered original butcher's shop.