12/14 High Street, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7PD

This building is an interesting example of a mid-Victorian terrace house built in a Georgian style. It was constructed around the mid-1860s by the Drapers’ Company as part of an effort to improve the quality and character of Moneymore High Street following the famine. Unfortunately, later alterations have diminished its original character and much of the detail has been lost.

The building is three bays wide and three stories high, with a basement and a gabled, slated roof. The front elevation, facing High Street, features a modern shopfront with an aluminum-framed glazed shop door and fanlight, along with a display window. A separate entrance door to the upper floor is a four-panelled, framed, and moulded door with a plain fanlight. Simulated marble building board with a plinth finishes the walls on either side of the shopfront and the house entrance door. A colored plastic name fascia extends over the shopfront. At the first floor are three two-pane double-hung sliding sash windows, and at the second floor are two two-pane double-hung sliding sash windows. The window sills are painted, and the wall texture is a rendered finish in colour. A half-round metal gutter runs along the top of the building, with a 75mm downpipe draining a box gutter above the shopfront. The natural slated roof is punctuated by rendered chimney stacks with capping. A gable rises above the roofline of the adjacent buildings at numbers 18 and 20. The building is a mid-terrace house and follows the general building line.

The terrace, of which numbers 14 and 16 are part, was rebuilt around 1864 based on designs by William John Booth, though he was no longer the company architect and had prepared the designs earlier. This terrace replaced an earlier design by Jesse Gibson. The houses were likely built by Daniel Magee. It is believed the property was sold by the Company around 1891 under Lord Ashbourne’s Act. The building was listed in 1975 when it was owned by W.J. Ritchie. Repairs were carried out in 1983, and the present shopfront was fitted subsequently.