Hanover House, 24 Hanover Square, Coagh, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 0EF

Hanover House is a substantial late Georgian town house built around 1810, now in use as a restaurant and shop, occupying a prominent position facing Hanover Square in the village of Coagh. The exterior is substantially in its original condition; renovations and extensions have been carried out sensitively, and the complex as a whole retains its character and integrity. Although little of historic interest survives internally, the exterior and particularly the front elevation are intact, making this a fine example of rubble stonework and classical proportions in a Georgian town house.

The main building is two storeys with an attic, five bays wide, and rectangular in plan, built of coursed rubble with brick detailing and a pitched fibre cement slate roof. It faces northeast. A complex of returns, extensions and outbuildings extends to the rear, and the listing covers the house together with its gate and railings.

The front northeast elevation is coursed rubble with a central semi-circular headed door opening framed by a painted moulded timber surround. Within this opening sits a square-headed timber panelled door with a fanlight above. The door surround consists of a pair of pilasters rising to a cornice at door-head height, from which the moulded arch over the fanlight springs. Above this arch is a stringcourse of red brick voussoirs. A modern period-style electric lamp has been mounted to each side of the door. The windows are six-over-six timber sash with painted cut-stone sills and red brick surrounds. There are two windows to each side of the doorway at ground floor level, with five more to the first floor directly above. Ivy growth, extensive but controlled, covers much of this elevation.

The side northwest gable elevation is unpainted render at attic level and coursed rubble below, and is extensively covered with ivy. Two small one-over-one timber sash windows with brick surrounds and unpainted cut-stone sills light the attic. There is one six-over-six timber sash window at ground floor level and one at first floor level; these have no surrounds, and a metal grille protects the lower window.

A two-storey return stands in line with and slightly behind the northwest gable elevation. It is coursed rubble and has a square-headed door opening with a tongue-and-grooved timber sheeted door, a square-headed window opening at ground floor level, and two further openings above. The upper windows are six-over-six timber sash as on the main elevation; the lower has a casement with a grille. An ivy-covered stone wall extends to the right of this return, connecting with the gable of a parallel building to the rear, and there is a door opening in this wall similar to that of the return.

The parallel block to the rear of the main house appears to retain original stonework to its gable. Its front southwest elevation has been extensively rebuilt in stone and fitted with new semi-circular headed door openings and modern uPVC windows. At the southwest corner of the complex, to the rear of this block, is a single-storey garage-type stone outbuilding with coursed rubble walls, a pitched slate roof, and a segmental-headed opening with brick surrounds to its northeast gable. A two-storey modern brick return extends to the rear of the parallel block and connects with a further stone building behind.

Number 22, which is part of the same building complex, extends to the southeast in line with the main house. It is a single-storey, five-bay, coursed rubble structure with a pitched slate roof and a blank stone gable that has been partially rebuilt. Its front northeast elevation has a central semi-circular headed door opening flanked by two square-headed window openings to each side. The windows are replacement timber with painted cut-stone sills and replacement brick surrounds. The door is a replacement double timber panelled door with a fanlight over, and is approached by three cut-stone steps. Number 22 sits slightly higher than the main house, and a stone wall with two steps within the front garden marks the change in level.

The roof of the main house and two-storey return is fibre cement slate and pitched; artificial slate is also used on some of the extended and renovated areas. There are three brick chimneystacks to the main roof — one to the apex of each gable and one to the centre of the ridge — and another on the gable of the main return. Each chimney carries a pair of ornate clay pots. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and plastic.

The building faces Hanover Square and is set back in line with the other buildings on the southwest side of the square, with a garden in front. Neighbours are mostly two-storey houses. A low stone wall with cut-stone coping and iron railings above encloses the front garden. An ornamental cast-iron pedestrian gate opens onto a stone path leading to the front door. To the rear is the complex of returns, extensions and outbuildings, with a yard accessed by a lane to the northwest side of the complex.

The site is shown as developed on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34 and on all subsequent maps. What is now a single complex was originally two separate properties. The first valuation of around 1833 describes the larger, taller building as relatively newly built at that time — that is, dating from within the previous twenty-five years or so — placing its construction at around 1800 to 1810. The smaller building to the southeast was considered considerably older, possibly 18th century. It is possible, particularly given the larger building's asymmetrical appearance, that it incorporates the fabric of an earlier structure, but to all intents and purposes it presents as a late Georgian building of around 1800 or slightly later.

In the first valuation the larger building is recorded as occupied by a Mrs Newton, with its main block measured at 58½ feet by 26½ feet by 19½ feet high, with returns of 26½ by 20 by 21 feet and 30 by 10½ by 7 feet. Outbuildings described as 'offices' measured 30½ by 21½ by 14½ feet (two of these), sheds of 23½ by 13½ by 6 feet and 37 by 19 by 11 feet, an old thatched cart house of 13½ by 13 by 6½ feet, a slated cart house of 19 by 13½ by 7 feet, and a piggery measuring 19 by 7 by 4 feet. The rateable value was a very respectable £29 5s 0d, although this was reduced to £18 in the 1838 revision. The smaller building, described as a 'bad house' which also contained a shop, measured 48½ by 25½ by 16 feet, with a return of 16 by 17½ by 6 feet and thatched outbuildings of 41½ by 17½ by 6 feet and 14½ by 14½ by 5 feet. At that time the lease of the smaller property was held by a James Ekin (also recorded as Aiken) from the Conyngham (Springhill) estate, but the building itself was unoccupied, with a rateable value of £6 7s 5d, rising to £8 in the 1838 revision.

The Newton family retained the larger building until 1904, when it passed to or was purchased by a Robert Burgess. The smaller neighbouring property was divided into two concerns at some point before 1859, with the northern section listed as unoccupied and dilapidated in that year and rated at £4, while a Margaret McDaid occupied the southern portion, rated at £2. By 1862 it had been reunited as a single property in the hands of a Samuel Aiken. The following year the lease passed to Robert Newton, who was also leaseholder of the larger house next door, and the building remained with the Newtons until 1923, when a Fred Burnett is recorded as occupant. In 1926 the freehold was acquired by the Duff Brothers, local mill owners. Sometime between 1929 and 1935 the Duff Brothers also acquired the lease of the larger house, with a Mary G. Duff succeeding Mrs M. G. Burgess as occupant in 1956 and remaining there until at least 1972. Around 1977–78 the building was sold or passed to a Mr T. B. Gibson, who converted the amalgamated property into a restaurant and guest house. The current owner purchased it in 2000.

The smaller building appears to have ceased to function as a dwelling when it and its larger neighbour came under the same ownership around 1930. Its present arrangement of window openings is recent, replacing some squat, high-level openings that appear to have been inserted in the later 1970s.