Henry & Faulkner, 25 William Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8AX

Henry & Faulkner, 25 William Street, Cookstown, County Tyrone

This is a three-storey terraced house and shop built around 1840, forming part of a matching ten-bay terrace — arranged in a 3/2/3/2 bay pattern — on the west side of William Street in the commercial heart of Cookstown. Together with its neighbours at numbers 23 and 27 (the fourth original member of the group, number 29, having been altered beyond recognition), the building makes a significant contribution to the historic character of the town. As an intact survival — both externally and internally — of a type of commercial premises once common in county towns throughout the province, it is a rare example and merits its relatively high listing grade. It stands as a record of the changing social circumstances of its owners and occupants, and represents an important aspect of local history.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan, with a three-storey pitched return to the rear and a two-storey outhouse in the rear yard. Walls are rendered with raised plaster features. The roof is pitched and slated, with a rendered chimney finished with profiled stepped capping. Rainwater goods to the front are replacement aluminium.

The front (east) elevation faces directly onto William Street. The ground floor is occupied by a 1950s shopfront, which has a central square-headed splayed doorway fitted with a glazed and timber door and an overlight. To each side of this central door are large windows set on black granite stall risers. The shopfront is framed on either side by flat glass panels, coloured black on the reverse — most probably Pilkington's patented "Vitrolite" glass — and is surmounted by a matching fascia with incised lettering. At first-floor level there are 6/6 painted timber sash frames; at second-floor level the sashes are 3/6. All windows sit on painted cut-stone sills, with the classical proportions reducing towards the upper levels. The windows are recessed into elliptical-headed vertical bays, with projecting carved stone cornicing at the springer level of each elliptical arch.

The side elevation of the three-storey return has a square-headed door at ground-floor level, fitted with a replacement glazed and timber door and an overlight. There are 6/6 timber sash frames to the ground and first floors, and 3/6 sash frames to the second floor. The rear elevation has an assortment of timber casement windows at ground-floor level, 6/6 sash frames at first-floor level, and 1/1 sash frames at second-floor level. All windows here are also set on cut-stone sills. Rainwater goods to the rear are cast iron. A single-storey lean-to has a square-headed door to the left and a 1/1 timber sash frame to the right. The outbuilding has a square-headed timber coach door to the left, a timber door to the right, and timber casement windows at upper level.

William Street is made up largely of two- and three-storey Victorian buildings. The rear of the building is accessed via a coach arch forming part of the adjacent building to the right. A wrought-iron gate leads to the rear elevation, and there is a curved wall enclosing the rear yard.

Historical background

The site of the present numbers 23, 25, and 27 William Street appears already developed on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34. The 1835 valuation records the whole plot as occupied by a large, mainly thatched inn in the possession of a Hugh Espey. The inn was a substantial complex: the main building measured 45 feet by 22 feet by 14½ feet high, with a return (probably to the gable) of 19½ by 16½ by 15 feet, a ballroom of 56 by 26 by 14 feet, and a series of outbuildings measuring 64 by 16½ by 13 feet, 13 by 19 by 9 feet, 40½ by 18½ by 9 feet, 26½ by 15½ by 12 feet, 15½ by 35 by 11 feet, and 18 by 5½ by 10 feet. The property was rated at the respectable sum of £19 7s 4d. By 1838 the property had passed to a Mrs Espey and was rated at £34.

Sometime between 1838 and 1859 the old inn was demolished and the present block erected. The Regency style of the terrace — with its large recessed arches — suggests a date closer to 1838 than 1859, hence the estimated construction date of around 1840.

In the 1859 valuation, the property (present number 23) is recorded as occupied by Isaac Houston, a grocer, with Thomas Black as immediate lessor, the building rated at £34. In 1863, Hugh and James MacMillan — listed in the trade directories as milliners and dressmakers — took over the lease of this and the two similarly styled neighbouring properties to the north and south. By 1884, Isaac Houston was occupying the property jointly with a Thomas J. Jones. Francis P. Devlin acquired the lease in 1895, holding both this property and its neighbour to the south at number 27. Isaac H. Henry, described as a pharmaceutical chemist, is recorded as occupant in 1896, followed by George Faulkner in 1918, after which the shop served as a chemist and grocers under the name Henry & Faulkner. The tenancy remained with the Faulkner family, and the lease with the Devlin family, until at least 1972.