27-29 Altmore Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AR

27–29 Altmore Street, Glenarm

This is a terrace block of partly two-storey, partly one-and-a-half-storey gabled and rendered construction, comprising two formerly separate houses and offices built at various dates between 1737–39 and around 1780, with minor 19th-century alterations. It sits at the southern end of the west side of Altmore Street, immediately next to the Town Gate entrance to the Glenarm Castle estate. The block retains its 18th-century character both inside and out, is well maintained, and represents a rare largely intact Georgian building in the area.

The composition is long and varied in height, reflecting its piecemeal construction. To the north end stands a substantial symmetrical two-storey dwelling house, probably of around the 1780s, with a central full-height gabled bay and a recessed elliptical arched entrance that may date from around 1810. A long gabled return extends to the rear. At the centre of the block is a much lower one-and-a-half-storey section with two small gabled dormers. To the south end is a long, slightly taller but low-proportioned two-storey block that formerly served as the Antrim estate office and associated outbuilding. This southern section is probably the oldest part of the whole block, with a date stone and internal evidence pointing to construction as a dwelling house in 1737–39; it may originally have faced in the opposite direction, towards the river, and its two large carriage arches may be later insertions. The decorative door surround to the former estate office portion is undoubtedly early to mid 19th century. To the rear, several recent changes have been made, most of them minor, though a large gabled open porch surround has been added to the back end of the larger carriage arch.

No. 27 — The Dwelling House (North Section)

The front east elevation of the dwelling house is symmetrical, centred on a projecting full-height gabled bay. At ground floor level, the main entrance sits within a relatively large elliptical arched recess with a moulded dripstone and label stops. The door itself is a four-panelled timber door with glazed side panels incorporating margin panes and an elliptical fanlight with spiderweb-pattern tracery. At first-floor level within the bay is a 2/2 sash window resting on a projecting cill course. At second-floor level, within the gable, is a small plain casement window. The bay gable has copestones that return slightly at eaves level to suggest a broken pediment, surmounted at the apex by a small moulded Greek urn. In-and-out moulded quoins rise to the underside of the pediment. The north and south faces of the first floor of the bay each contain a very narrow plain sash window. To the left and right of the bay, at both ground and first floors, is a 2/2 sash window. In-and-out quoins continue at the corners, rising to the projecting eaves course.

The south gable is largely obscured by the adjoining section of the block to the south. It has two small plain windows, probably fixed lights, at attic level. The north gable has two Georgian-paned sash windows (6/6) to the right side of the ground floor. To the right of the first floor is a 2/2 sash window matching those on the front, while to the right of the second-floor attic is a Georgian-paned sash window (8/8). The north gable merges to the right (west) with the west façade of a long two-storey hipped-roof rear return. This return stands on ground that slopes westward and appears to have been extended further to the west at some point, resulting in irregular floor levels. To the left, at semi-basement level, are three small boarded-up openings. To the far right, where the ground level is considerably lower, there is a timber-sheeted ground-floor doorway with a four-pane fanlight, with a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6) to its right. To the left at ground-floor level are three further sash windows of the same type, all set at slightly differing heights. At first-floor level to the left is a squat six-pane window set very close to the eaves; to the far right, where the first floor is significantly taller, is another matching sash window.

The rear (west) elevation of the dwelling house section is dominated to the left by the large hipped-roof return, which is mainly two-storey but partly sits over a semi-basement. The west face of this return is partly obscured by a single-storey rubble-built gabled outbuilding; the exposed upper portion is blank. On the south face of the return, to the left, is a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6), with a timber-sheeted door to its right; further right, where the ground floor sits at a higher level, is another matching sash window. At first-floor level to the left are two further identical windows.

Abutting the right-hand edge of the south face of the return, and the rear of the main house, is a small two-storey gabled return. The west face of its ground floor has a squat six-pane window with upper opener; the first floor has a six-pane fixed-light window. The south face has a nine-pane fixed-light window. To the right of these returns is the exposed portion of the main rear elevation. To the left of the ridge of the smaller return is a six-pane fixed-light window that clearly lights the stairwell. To the right of this, at first-floor level, is a tripartite sash window (1/1, 2/2, 1/1). At ground-floor level below is a French window.

The dwelling house is finished in painted render throughout. The whole roof is covered in natural slate, with two rendered chimneystacks to the gables of the main section and two to the return. There is a small skylight to the south side of the return roof and another to the north. Cast-iron rainwater goods are in use throughout.

No. 29 — The Former Estate Office (Lower Central Section)

Attached to the south of the dwelling house, the former estate office block is, as described, a long building of varying heights: one-and-a-half storeys to the north. The front (east) façade of this northern portion has a double sash window to the left (Georgian panes, 6/6 and 6/6), with two further single sash windows to the right; the left of these matches the double unit, while the right-hand one is 2/2. To either side of the first floor at the front is a small gabled dormer, each containing a fixed six-pane window with asphalt cheeks and roofs. To the right of centre is a cast-iron skylight. The front façade is finished in painted render.

The rear façade has a recently inserted French window to the left, a timber-sheeted door with four-pane fanlight to its right, and a projecting wall further to the right. On the right-hand side of the rear roof is a large gabled dormer with a double sash window (both 6/6, but with mid-19th-century rather than Georgian panes). Much of the render has fallen from the rear façade to reveal rubble construction beneath. Roughly at the centre of this façade there is an outline in brick of a large segmental arch, indicating that this section once contained a large carriage entrance. The gabled roof is covered in natural slate, with some of the ridge tiles reportedly carved from solid stone. The ridge line has a marked dip towards the south side. There is a rendered chimneystack to the south.

No. 29 — The Former Estate Office (Two-Storey South Section)

To the left of centre on the ground floor of this section is a timber-sheeted door with a rectangular fanlight on which the words "Antrim estate office" are painted in mid-19th-century lettering, probably dating from around the 1850s. The door case has thick pilasters, each with a cluster of colonettes, supporting a moulded cornice and blocking stone. To the right of the doorway are two relatively small Georgian-paned sash windows (6/6), with a similar window above at first-floor level. To the left of the doorway is a very large segmental arched carriage arch with timber-sheeted double doors. Until relatively recently, probably around the 1980s, this arch was considerably lower and had a flat arch head; above it there was formerly a small window. To the left of the arch is a high-level loft opening with a sheeted door. The whole of the front façade of this section is finished in painted render, except for a short stretch at the far south where the block meets the Town Gate, which is faced in basalt rubble matching the gate itself. This short southern portion contains a Tudor-arched carriage entrance, somewhat smaller than the main arch. The south gable has one high-level roundel window and is largely rendered. Before around 1840 this end of the building connected to a further terrace block, which was demolished when the Town Gate was erected.

On the rear elevation, to the left, are two small ground-floor windows: the left-hand one has external security bars, while the right-hand one has late Victorian tracery incorporating a semicircular arch motif with margin panes. Above at first-floor level are two plain sash windows. To the right of these is a recently added large projecting gabled bay enclosing the larger carriage arch; it has a single large square-headed opening and no door. On the rear wall of the main building, within this projection, is the date stone which reads: "This Howes Was Builded by Abraham Powes 1739." The north and south faces of the projecting bay are blank. Further to the right are two ground-floor window openings with modern frames, and above them at first-floor level a boarded-over loft opening. To the far right is the second, Tudor-arched carriage opening. The rear elevation is finished in unpainted render. The gabled roof of this section is slated, with two rendered chimneystacks to the north, the northernmost one shared with the lower central section. In the rear garden to the northwest are the remains of a greenhouse — only portions of the brick base and rear wall survive. To the south end of the garden are the remains of further former outbuildings.

Historical Background

Altmore Street takes its name from the Altmore River, a narrow brook flowing from high ground to the southeast into the Glenarm River to the west. The earliest known reference to building plots in its vicinity appears in a lease of August 1673 mentioning a "housestead, garden of tenement… extending back to Altmore Brook," with further references to "tenements" on the "south side of Altmore" in December 1678. Many of the earliest houses may have been built on the western side, as prior to the walling in of the Glenarm Castle estate grounds in the 1750s the village fronted on both sides of the Glenarm River. Some buildings on this side of the street may originally have faced the river: the present No. 15, for instance, appears to have had an almost symmetrical rear elevation facing the river and a markedly asymmetrical front elevation facing the street, while No. 29 has its 1739 date stone on its river-facing side rather than its street-facing front. The earliest surviving map of Glenarm, drawn up by John O'Hara in 1779, shows the street fully developed on both sides, with the western terrace extending further south than today, beyond the line of the present Town Gate to the estate.

The construction of the Town Gate, sometime between 1832 and 1857, appears to have brought radical changes to the street layout, pushing much of the terrace on the eastern side further eastward to allow a broader and slightly grander approach to the estate. No record of this widening has been found in any published account of Glenarm, but the discrepancy between the alignment of the eastern terrace on the 1832 and 1857 Ordnance Survey maps strongly suggests it took place. An 1830 illustration of the town shows the two sections of the eastern terrace out of alignment with each other, and many of the buildings recorded in the 1833 valuation for the eastern side of the street appear to bear no relation to those in the 1859 valuation, as though all had been demolished in the interval. The age and condition grading in the 1859 valuation indicates that most of the rebuilt properties were about twenty years old or slightly more at that date, placing much of the redevelopment in the mid to later 1830s. This is consistent with a remark in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835 that "some two storey houses of a tolerable description have been recently built in Glenarm… intended for the accommodation of lodgers during the bathing season." The western side of the street may have remained largely untouched by the changes of the mid-19th century, with some of the buildings visible today possibly predating the 1830s, though some properties at the southern end were cleared away with the construction of the Town Gate and the land absorbed into the estate.

The southern section of No. 27–29 is probably the oldest part of the entire block. A deed in the Antrim Papers shows that an Abraham Powes (or Powis) was granted the land on which it stands in November 1737. The deed records that a "waste house and garden" then occupied the plot and that Powes was required to build a "good and sufficient house of stone and lime, or brick and lime, with two upright gavels [gables]… in front thirty-two feet, and in depth eighteen feet, one storey high, eight foot in the side wall, fully sashed and slated or thatched." However, an inscription dated 1739 uncovered recently on plaster within a first-floor room in this section demonstrates that the house as actually built contained two storeys rather than the one specified in the deed. Given the position of the date stone on the river-facing side of the building, the house probably originally faced the river.

The sequence in which the rest of the block was assembled is difficult to establish with certainty. The 1737 deed records that the plot leased to Powes was bounded by "Widow Miller's tenement on the south side" and "Hugh Montgomerie's tenement on the north end." The Widow Miller may be Margaret Miller, who received a twenty-one-year lease of a tenement in Altmore Street in 1742, and Hugh Montgomery was probably a descendant or relation of the Widow Montgomery who received a lease "on the south side of Altmore Street and west side of the street" in 1678. It appears therefore that in 1737 there were dwellings to both the north and south of Powes's plot, and that much of this part of the street had been developed by the early 18th century at least. John O'Hara's 1779 map shows the entire site occupied by a row of buildings which, judging by the plot divisions running down to the river, may have comprised three or possibly four separate properties. The accompanying list of tenants names the leaseholders at that date as, from south to north: Charles Reason, Robert Montgomery (almost certainly a descendant or relative of the 1737 Montgomery), Alexander Kergher, and a fourth person whose name appears to be recorded simply as "Andrew." By the time of the 1832 Ordnance Survey map, all the formerly separate plots shown on O'Hara's map had been amalgamated, and the 1833 valuation records buildings on the site of the same dimensions as today, including the large dwelling house to the north. An 1830 illustration shows the house as it now appears, and the 1833 valuation states that the building was at least twenty years old at that point. Significantly, the dwelling house always appears to have faced away from the river, suggesting it was probably constructed sometime after around 1756, when the clearance of much of the housing on the opposite side of the river may have prompted a reorientation of buildings on the west side of Altmore Street. The elliptical arched front doorway and the classical urn to the bay look distinctly late Georgian in character, suggesting a date in the late 18th or early 19th century, though both features could conceivably be later alterations.

By 1833 the whole block was in the hands of a Thomas Davison, who served as agent for the Antrim estate from around 1821 to around 1842. From at least this period until the mid-20th century the block served as the estate office and agent's residence. It is possible that its establishment in this role was connected with the widening of Altmore Street and the construction of the adjoining Town Gate, which appears to have taken place sometime between around 1835 and the early 1840s. Davison was succeeded as occupant and agent by James Hannah, recorded in the 1859 valuation, which also lists Hannah as the leaseholder of five other properties in Altmore Street, including the present Nos. 28–32, which he was probably responsible for building. Hannah may also have been responsible for building work to No. 27–29 itself: the rear return was enlarged at some point between 1833 and 1859, and much of the detailing — including the pilasters to the estate office entrance and the internal decoration to the house — appears to date from this period. The last agent to occupy the building was J. J. Wall, during the 1920s. The whole block was acquired by the present owner in 1969–70. The vehicle doorway to the left (south) of the estate office entrance was enlarged sometime after 1977, and further alterations have been made recently to the rear.