15 Altmore Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AR

15 Altmore Street, Glenarm

This is a substantial but relatively plain two-storey end-of-terrace house on the west side of Altmore Street, of probable pre-1832 construction, though for the purposes of the heritage record it is now considered a new structure in a period idiom and cannot be regarded as of special architectural or historic interest. It was delisted in October 2005 but sits within a conservation area.

The property is set at the north end of a short stretch of terrace. Its front elevation faces east and is asymmetrical. Slightly to the left of centre is a recent panelled timber door with a plain fanlight. To the left of this is a single double-glazed sash window with glazing bars sandwiched between two panes to give the effect of Georgian panes. To the right of the doorway are two similar windows, with five more unevenly spaced windows at first-floor level. The front façade is rendered with in-and-out bevelled quoins, and all the openings have smooth cement surrounds. Prior to alterations carried out around 2000, the arrangement was different: there was a window at stair-landing level to the right of the door, four windows to the first floor rather than five, and two windows to the ground floor rather than three.

The north gable is blank and finished in the same manner as the front. The rear elevation, which faces west, has a noticeably more regular and formal appearance than the front. At ground-floor level there is a right-of-centre doorway with a recent panelled and glazed door and a plain rectangular fanlight. To the left of this door are two timber sash windows, and to the right is a single window with a PVC frame. At first-floor level there are four evenly spaced windows, matching the type of the ground-floor right window. This elevation is finished in unpainted roughcast. The doorway at the rear now leads onto a raised paved area beneath which a garage has been constructed, the sloping ground having been excavated to accommodate it. This entire paved area and garage are of recent construction, dating from the 2000–01 renovations.

The gabled roof is slated and has rendered parapets and two rendered chimneystacks. There is a small skylight to the east. Rainwater goods are a mix of cast iron and PVC.

One notable aspect of the building's layout is the relationship between its two elevations. The rear (west-facing) elevation is considerably more formal and its windows are larger than those to the front, which has led to the suggestion that the house may originally have faced in the opposite direction — towards the Glenarm River — rather than towards the street. This would potentially place its origins before around 1760, when the walling in of the Glenarm Castle estate grounds caused the village to reorient away from the river. The property was also originally slightly longer, incorporating what is now the separate small dwelling immediately to the south, now known as No. 17. Annotations to the 1859 valuation town plan suggest this subdivision took place shortly before that date.

Altmore Street and its History

Altmore Street takes its name from the Altmore River, a narrow brook flowing from high ground to the south-east down to the Glenarm River to the west. The earliest documentary reference to building plots in the vicinity appears in a lease of August 1673 mentioning a "housestead, garden of tenement extending back to Altmore Brook," with further leases of December 1678 referring to tenements on the "south side of Altmore" and to the presence of a "street." Many of the earliest houses may have been built on the western side of the street, since prior to the enclosure of the Glenarm Castle estate grounds in the 1750s the village fronted onto both sides of the Glenarm River. Some buildings on this side may even have originally faced the river: No. 15 appears to have originally had an almost symmetrical rear elevation facing the river and a markedly asymmetrical front elevation, while No. 29 has a 1739 date stone on its river-facing side rather than its street-facing front.

The earliest surviving map of Glenarm, drawn by John O'Hara in 1779, shows the street fully developed on both sides, with the terrace to the west stretching further south than it does today, beyond the line of the present Town Gate to the Glenarm Castle estate. The construction of the Town Gate sometime between 1832 and 1857 appears to have led to significant changes in the layout of the street: much of the terrace on the eastern side was pushed further eastward, allowing for a broader and slightly grander approach to the estate. No mention of this street-widening has been found in any published account of Glenarm's development, but the discrepancy between the alignment of the eastern terrace on the 1832 and 1857 Ordnance Survey maps strongly suggests it took place. This is further supported by an 1830 illustration of the town by T. M. Baynes (published in Ireland Illustrated, London, 1831), which shows the two sections of the eastern terrace out of alignment, and by the fact that many buildings recorded in the 1833 valuation of the eastern side of the street appear to bear no relation to those recorded in the 1859 valuation, as though all had been demolished and rebuilt. The condition grading used in the 1859 valuation indicates that most of these rebuilt dwellings were at least twenty years old by that date, pointing to 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 Altmore Street may have remained largely untouched by these mid-19th-century changes, with some of the buildings seen today possibly pre-dating the 1830s, though properties at the very southern end were cleared when the Town Gate was constructed and the land absorbed into the estate.

No. 15 in the Historical Record

No. 15 may be among the oldest properties in the street. The arrangement of its east and west façades, together with the original position of its stairwell, suggests it may once have faced in the opposite direction, which — as discussed above — could indicate construction before around 1760. Its site appears to have been occupied from at least 1779, John O'Hara's map of that year showing a building on this plot then in the hands of a Roger Gribben. A large two-storey building in this vicinity also appears in a painting of Glenarm dating from sometime between 1769 and 1812, now in the possession of Lord Dunluce.

The present house is almost certainly the same building recorded in the 1859 valuation: a dwelling described as at least twenty years old (graded B/B-), with four rooms to the ground floor, four to the first floor, and a garret. At that date the property was held by a Stewart Dunne and occupied by a Miss Elizabeth Dunne. Local historian Jimmie Irvine has noted that an Andrew Dunn (1744–1809) owned a distillery "situated near the river, south of the bridge" — that is, to the rear of the terrace on the west side of Altmore Street. The 1832 Ordnance Survey map shows a complex of outbuildings close to the riverbank directly behind this house, including a round structure. It is tempting to suggest that this Dunn was an ancestor or relation of the 1859 Dunnes, and that the outbuildings on the 1832 map formed his distillery, with the round structure possibly a vat. It is equally tempting to connect the construction of the house with the distillery, but no clear documentary evidence supports any of this, and the most that can be said with confidence is that the house was probably standing by the early 1830s.

In 2000–01 the house underwent major renovations: the front façade was given a greater degree of formality, and a large garage was constructed at basement level to the rear. The building is now considered to be effectively a new structure in a period idiom and was removed from the statutory list in October 2005.

Primary sources consulted in the original record include: PRONI D.2977/3A/4/1/24 (lease from Alexander MacDonnell to John White, 1673, and related late 17th-century leases); PRONI D.2977/4/65/33 (lease from the Earl of Antrim to John Richy, 1736, and related 18th-century leases); PRONI D.2977/36/3/1A (John O'Hara's map of Glenarm, 1779, with tenant list); Ulster Museum painting of Glenarm Castle (c.1768–1812); a painting of Glenarm c.1769–c.1812 in the possession of Lord Dunluce; T. M. Baynes, "The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim" (1830), in Ireland Illustrated (London, 1831); Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, vol. 13 (c.1830–35); PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 (OS map, Co. Antrim sheet 29, 1832–33); PRONI VAL/1B/149 (first valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833); Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, vol. 1 (London, 1837); William Makepeace Thackeray, Irish Sketchbook (1843); Mr and Mrs S. C. Hall, Ireland: Its Scenery, Character &c., vol. III (London, 1843); PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 (valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859, with later annotations); PRONI VAL/2B/1/41B (second valuation notebook, village of Glenarm, 1859); PRONI OS/8/103/1 (OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903); PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 (valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907–1935); PRONI VAL/3G/20/1 (valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1936–57). Secondary sources include: C. E. B. Brett, Historic Buildings in the Glens of Antrim (Belfast, 1971); Eileen Black, "A view of Glenarm Castle," The Glynns, vol. 7 (1979); Jimmie Irvine, "A map of Glenarm — 1779," The Glynns, vol. 9 (1981); Hon. Hector McDonnell, "The building of the parish church at Glenarm," The Glynns, vol. 10 (1982); Felix McKillop, Glenarm — A Local History (Glenarm, 1987). It is noted that McKillop's detailed local history, along with all other publications consulted, appears to make no reference to the widening of Altmore Street.