11-13 Main Street, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 1JQ

11-13 Main Street, Larne, is a two-storey terrace building of early 19th century appearance, dating from around 1820-1839. It is notable as retaining the only remaining original shop front of any merit in the town.

The building is five windows wide across the first floor and faces north onto the main street. The roof is laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, ending flush with the gable to the left and continuous with the roof over the adjacent numbers 7-9 to the right; it features one flush rooflight. A smooth cement rendered chimney projects from the left-hand gable with a projecting string course and five short earthenware pots; a large television aerial is attached.

The wall is smooth rendered and painted throughout. A projecting moulded and bracketed eaves course runs around the building with a concealed gutter behind; a circular section cast iron downpipe drains the roof. Moulded surrounds frame the first floor windows, with a projecting string course at cill level and two plain string courses at each end and between windows at intermediate levels. The first floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung with 1 over 1 panes and horns, set in recessed frames. Electric cabling is attached across the first floor, running between the eaves cornice and window heads.

The ground floor comprises the original shop front of traditional design. Two large shop windows, each vertically divided into two panes, flank a central entrance door. At each extremity of the frontage are additional doorways. The entire composition is divided by six panelled pilasters separating the five main elements. A painted timber fascia with moulded cornice and architrave crowns the windows and doors; all woodwork is painted blue, with the shop sign painted in dull gold. The central door is a timber six-panel door with bolection mouldings and a rectangular fanlight above; it is no longer in use and its fanlight is blocked with plywood. The door to the right is similar, with a functioning rectangular fanlight. The door to the left is a single glazed panel set below a rectangular fanlight, now blocked, positioned in a recess between pilasters, with a later glazed panel built out above flush with the door frame. The shop window frames are timber with deep wooden cills on moulded stone plinths, all painted blue.

The rear elevation is not visible due to a single-storey rear extension running almost to the rear boundary. This extension has a modern roof of pre-formed metal sheeting, which also covers a later stairway connecting the ground floor shop to the first floor.

The building originally formed part of a uniform composition with its neighbouring buildings. To the right stands a two-storey stuccoed building four windows wide to the first floor with similar detailing but a modern shop front; to the left is a slightly lower two-storey public house with a modernised facade of pseudo-18th century appearance.

The building appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and may be dated to the early 19th century. A plaque on the adjoining premises (numbers 7-9 Main Street), which are clearly contemporary with this building, records that John Wesley preached there on 4 July 1771, likely referring to a previous building on the site. A photograph in the Lawrence Collection in the National Library of Ireland shows the building in its 19th century condition, reproduced in D Corcoran's A Tour of East Antrim (Belfast, 1990).