66 James Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8LT

66 James Street, Cookstown, County Tyrone

This is an attached three-storey rendered former terraced house, built around 1878, now in use as a hair and beauty premises. Although somewhat altered both internally and externally, it remains a well-proportioned example of a mid-Victorian terrace. Larger in scale than any of the modest surrounding two-storey houses, it has a prominent appearance on James Street. It forms part of a group of three matching terraced buildings, and shares a group value with its immediate neighbours. The survival of a stone outbuilding to the rear adds further interest.

The building is rectangular in plan. To the rear there is a three-storey lean-to return, with a further single-storey flat-roofed extension to the south (left) of the main return. An additional single-storey flat-roofed extension stretches eastward from the rear of the main return and extends to the back of the site, where it abuts a two-storey snecked rubble stone outhouse building, built around 1880.

The front (west) elevation is set back from the street behind a tarmac parking area open to the pavement. It is well detailed, with a doorway to the right and a canted bay window to the left. The doorway has a segmental-arched head and contains a timber panelled door with an overlight above. Panelled pilasters flank the doorway and are surmounted by carved scrolled timber console brackets with acanthus leaf stops, which in turn support a projecting carved timber cornice and pediment. The canted bay contains 1-over-1 timber sash windows, is surmounted by a projecting stone dentilled cornice, and has a hipped roof with a decorative carved timber fascia. Modern signage in the form of a projecting box-like rectangular sign has been attached above the ground floor canted bay.

To the right of the canted bay, the upper-floor windows are segmental-headed 1-over-1 timber sash windows with carved stone surrounds and a central diamond keystone. The first-floor window has a continuous projecting stone course at sill level. The second-floor window sits on a cut-stone sill with decorative carved stone console brackets beneath. The windows to the canted bay are square-headed 1-over-1 timber sash with stone surrounds matching those described above.

The rear (east) elevation has two timber casement windows. The roof is covered in artificial slate and there is a polychromatic brick chimney with a profiled capping to the north; the chimneystack appears to have been raised in height. The north elevation rises above the adjoining building, leaving the upper part of the gable blank.

The main return has an irregular arrangement of timber casement windows on concrete sills. The first single-storey flat-roofed extension has a large timber casement window on a concrete sill. The second single-storey flat-roofed extension has no visible openings on its south elevation; the north elevation was not accessible for inspection. The derelict outhouse buildings directly abut this second extension. The outhouse has an arrangement of timber sash windows to its east elevation with brick dressings to the window surrounds. Its west elevation has elliptical-headed archways at ground floor level, which have been blocked up, as well as intact square-headed window openings at upper level with brick dressings matching those on the east side.

The building sits within a mixed terrace on the eastern side of James Street, toward the southern edge of Cookstown's commercial centre. The surrounding terrace comprises mainly two-storey Victorian buildings ranging in age from early to late 19th century.

Historical background

The site has a documented history stretching back well before the present building was erected. On a valuation plan of around 1838, the plot was partly occupied by an L-shaped dwelling with a short frontage to Loy Street — probably the core of the present number 64 — which had a semicircular south-facing end. It was this semicircular portion that appears to have occupied at least part of the present plot. In the January 1835 valuation, the property is recorded as a relatively old dwelling (quality letter 1B), occupied by a Mrs Logan, with a rateable value of £7-8-3. The recorded dimensions are: a house of 19 feet by 20 by 9, a circular section of 12 by 15 by 14½, a return of 28 by 19 by 16½, and two thatched offices measuring 9½ by 19 by 8½ and 17 by 15½ by 7 respectively. By the around-1838 modification, the rateable value had risen to £10.

The present terrace of three matching buildings — originally all dwellings — was built in 1878, probably by a Richard Cluff, who lived in the large two-storey house two doors to the north (present number 62) and whose family had held the lease of this plot since at least 1859. The first recorded occupant of number 66 was a Mary Charles, with an original rateable value of £24-15-0. She was succeeded by a William Simrick Martin in 1881, followed by a Robert Browne in 1884, who shared the building with Armstrong Browne after 1893. In 1901 Helen Nunnencamp became the sole occupant, followed by Ella Whiteside in 1912, Francis A. Cluff in 1916, and Ellen Henderson in 1917. In 1920 John Todd became the tenant and acquired the lease in 1922. By 1948 a Mrs M. Cameron is recorded as the immediate lessor, with James T. Crawford as tenant. Crawford was still in residence in 1972, with an M. Doris recorded as lessor from 1964.