9-11 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AP

This is a two-storey terraced shop with an apartment above, of possible pre-1832 origin, situated on the west side of Toberwine Street in Glenarm. The building is not listed and has been assessed as not of architectural interest, though it sits within a conservation area.

The east-facing front façade is asymmetrical. At ground floor level, a recessed shop doorway sits to the left of centre, with a large acid-etched plate glass shop window to the right and a 1930s-style domestic panelled door to the left. Both the shop front and the side door are framed by fluted pilasters with stylised chamfered capitals, between which plain painted signboards are fitted. This shopfront dates from around the 1990s and adopts a period style. At first floor level there are two windows with modern frames, and centred between them is a projecting, internally illuminated plastic sign. The first floor wall is finished in painted render with chamfered quoins. The roof carries an almost full-width flat-roofed dormer faced in vertical timber cladding, which is modern in character.

At the rear, the ground floor to the left has a single-storey gabled return. The south face of this return has a door to the left and a large modern window to the right, while the west face abuts a large outhouse used as a store. To the right side of the rear there is a two-storey flat-roofed return. At ground floor level this return has a large deep recess or opening containing a glazed door to the north and another to the east; at first floor level there is a modern window. To the left on the first floor of the main building there is a large modern window, and at second floor level a further wide flat-roofed dormer contains two modern windows. This dormer is finished in dry dash render, as are the remaining rear walls. To the far west is a part-two-storey and part-single-storey outhouse used for storage, which runs the full width of the site, meaning access to the rear garden passes through the building. The roof of the main building is largely consumed by the large dormer; the small areas not covered by it are gabled and slated. All window frames and doors throughout are modern.

Toberwine Street — whose name translates as "Street of the Sweet Well" — is considered to represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness giving some indication of its 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 was apparently not repaired thereafter, as 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, implying some form of repair, 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, which refers 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. No verifiable indication of any remains of the old castle appears on that map, though the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs note "the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago," suggesting ruins of some kind may have survived into the early 19th century. Evidence from the 1833 valuation indicates that most of the buildings now seen on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date and were probably largely 18th-century in origin. The east side of the street underwent considerably more development after 1833, with nos. 4–12 dating from around 1840 and nos. 20–34 and 62 built after 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.

With regard to this specific property (nos. 9–13), John O'Hara's 1779 map shows the site as part of a much larger plot leased to a Robert Peoples (probably "Pebbles"). Both the 1833 and 1859 valuations record a two-storey dwelling of the same dimensions as the present building, notwithstanding its recent extensions. It is probable that this is substantially the same structure visible today. The earlier valuation notes the property was at least twenty years old at that date, suggesting construction in the early 19th century or possibly the late 18th century. In 1833 the building was in the hands of James Wilson. By 1859 it was occupied by Samuel Dick, who rented or leased it from Alexander Galbraith; it was recorded as containing six small rooms and a kitchen. The style of the house doorway suggests the property has incorporated a shop since at least the 1950s.