'The Coast Road Inn' public house, 3 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antirm, BT44 0AP

The Coast Road Inn is a large, two-and-a-half-storey terraced public house on the west side of Toberwine Street in Glenarm, County Antrim. The building has a complex history: the site may originally have been occupied by two separate dwellings before 1832, which were consolidated into a single property sometime before 1859. The gabled half-dormers were added around 1900, the large rear return dates from the 1950s or later, and the upper floors have more recently been converted into a modern apartment.

FRONT ELEVATION

The front facade faces east and is asymmetrical. At ground floor level the finish is rusticated render, with lined render to the upper floors; all of it is painted. Slightly to the right of centre is a doorway with a panelled timber door and rectangular fanlight, flanked by simple pilasters. To the right of this doorway is a large fixed-light picture window — the traditional pub window type — framed with matching pilasters. Both the doorway and the picture window are united beneath a timber signboard carried on decorative end brackets. To the left of the doorway is a smaller window with a plain sash frame and simple plain rendered surround. At the far left is a large segmental-headed vehicle entrance fitted with timber-sheeted double doors incorporating a wicket gate.

At first-floor level there are four sash windows, similar in character to the smaller ground-floor window on the left. The window at the far left is set slightly higher than the others. Modern projecting pub signage and flagpoles are fixed between the windows. At the half-storey above, two gabled half-dormers are positioned towards the centre and right. Each has a semicircular-headed window with a plain sash frame. The half-dormers feature overhanging eaves with plain barge boards and finials.

REAR ELEVATION AND OUTBUILDINGS

The rear of the building is difficult to observe in full. It is dominated by a very large two-storey gabled return, which appears to be largely of mid-to-late 20th-century construction. The south face of this return has two plain sash windows at first-floor level, a partly glazed door at ground-floor level, and is finished in painted render. The north face has a boarded-up window on the left at first-floor level, though little else of this side could be seen. The exposed portion of the main building's rear facade to the right of the return contains the rear of the vehicle entrance at ground level, with a squat window with a modern frame above; this section is finished in unpainted lined render. The exposed portion to the left of the return is finished in similar fashion and has a window with a modern frame at first-floor level; the ground-floor level could not be examined due to the proximity of a neighbouring wall.

To the west, the return is abutted by a substantial group of two-storey outbuildings, mostly built in limestone rubble, arranged around a yard. These buildings are largely disused and in poor condition, with window frames missing and partial roof loss. They represent the original warehouse buildings that backed directly onto the quayside to the west, where the river is tidal, and were connected with maritime traffic from the late 18th century. Their survival is of considerable historical significance.

ROOF AND RAINWATER GOODS

The main roof is slated, as is the roof over the return. There are two Velux windows on the west side of the main roof. Three unevenly spaced rendered chimneystacks rise from the main roof ridge. Rainwater goods are mainly cast iron.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Toberwine Street — whose name translates as "Street of the Sweet Well" — is believed to represent the original area of settlement within Glenarm, its narrowness suggesting considerable antiquity. The original 13th-century castle of Glenarm, around which the village developed, is thought to have stood at the south-west corner of the street on the site now occupied by the former courthouse. The castle was deliberately demolished 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 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, with "Toberwine Street" 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-west end. No verifiable trace of the old castle appears on the map, though the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs refer to "the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago," indicating that some ruins may have survived into the early 19th century.

Evidence from the 1833 valuation suggests that most buildings now visible on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date, and many are likely to be 18th-century in origin. The east side of the street saw much greater development after 1833: nos. 4–12 date from around 1840, and nos. 20–34 and 62 are post-1860, some replacing modest single-storey dwellings.

HISTORY OF THIS PROPERTY

A building or buildings are shown on this site on O'Hara's 1779 map and on all subsequent maps. The first valuation of 1833 records two old dwellings here — possibly of mid-to-late 18th-century origin — whose combined dimensions match those of the main section of the present building. The southern dwelling was occupied by a William McCloy and the northern by a James Craig. By 1859 these two formerly separate dwellings had been superseded by a single property used as a dwelling and a licensed shop (that is, a spirit grocers), belonging to William McCloy but occupied by an Alexander Galbraith. The 1859 valuation records that the building contained two-and-a-half floors, with a shop and three other small rooms at ground-floor level, six rooms at first-floor level, and two garrets. The vehicle entrance was present by this date, along with much of the outbuilding complex to the rear, although at that time there was only a small single-storey return positioned slightly to the north of the present one. It is possible that the two 1833 dwellings were largely demolished to make way for the single consolidated property, but the 1859 valuation describes the building as "old" (grade C+), suggesting that much of the earlier fabric remained. The gabled half-dormers to the front are typically late Victorian or Edwardian in character and were probably added around 1900. The present rear return appears to be wholly of mid-to-late 20th-century construction.